Rukıyye Hacifettahoğlu Güleçyüz

Rukıyye is a doctoral researcher at the Max-Weber-Kolleg whose interdisciplinary background spans data analytics, Islamic legal history, and sociological inquiry. She holds graduate degrees in Measurement and Data Analytics from Anadolu University (2024) and in Islamic Law from Istanbul 29 Mayıs University (2020), where she produced a critical edition and analysis of Nişāncızāde’s Nūr al-ʿAyn fī Iṣlāḥ Jāmiʿ al-Fuṣūlayn, contributing to the preservation and interpretation of Ottoman legal scholarship. She also earned undergraduate degrees in Sociology from Anadolu University (2018) and Islamic and Religious Sciences from Istanbul 29 Mayıs University (2016), graduating as Salutatorian and completing a year-long Arabic Preparatory Program. Her academic experience includes a study-abroad term at Petra University in Jordan, where she focused on Classical and Modern Arabic. In addition to her doctoral work, she is pursuing further training in Information and Document Management at Istanbul University. As part of the Decolonizing Sharia project since winter 2025, Rukıyye contributes to rethinking Islamic legal traditions through critical and decolonial perspectives.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, modernization movements rooted in positivist colonial ideologies began to challenge the centrality of Islamic law, resulting in significant shifts in its authority and application. Although the Ottoman Empire never fell under direct European colonial rule, it experienced a form of intellectual colonization. Reformers initiated concerted efforts to align Ottoman legal practice with European traditions — both to address contemporary challenges and to assert the Empire’s position on the world stage. These efforts culminated in the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

My research focuses on tracing the continuity, change, and rupture in the application of Islamic law over time, specifically in the context of two significant historical periods: the 19th-century modernization efforts of the Ottoman Empire and the 20th-century radical secularization of the Turkish Republic. By examining significant legal reforms and court cases, the study investigates the legal transformation from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey, and explores how these changes altered legal practice. It also explores how legal actors and institutions managed the tension between inherited Islamic legal traditions and imported European norms during a critical period of legal change.