Abstract
This work deals with principles determined by an Ottoman judge who lived in the 16th century about which of the contradictory verses should be chosen. İt is known that it is only possible with a good evaluation of the evidence presented to the court in order to reach a fair decision. Because one of the most important things to pay attention is to the evidence presented to the court and the judge tries to reach a fair decision by evaluating this evidence. However, the main problem encountered at this stage is a presentation of contradictory evidence to the court by the parties of the case. In this case, reaching the right decision is only possible by choosing the method that will lead to the right decision among these conflicting methods. In this study, the preference principles that Vankulu Mehmet Efendi (D.1000/1592) discussed in his work called Tercihul’l beyyinat will be examined. As far as we can determine, this work is the first to deal with the principles of choice among evidence. Vankulu Mehmet Efendi was a scholar who lived in the XVI-century Ottoman Empire and held important positions such as muderris, mufti and kaddish in different regions of the Ottoman Empire. The author has worked in the field of fiqh and language. His work Tercîḥu'l-beyyinât is a work about which there is no work until today. In this work, it is explained which of this evidence should be chosen if there is contradictory evidence presented by the parties in a case. In addition, with this study, it will be tried to make determinations about the level reached in the judicial procedure during the period in which the author lived. Therefore, while dealing with the subject, beyond analyzing the principles determined by the author in detail, it will be tried to determine which sources the author has reached these principles by referencing. Thus, it will be tried to contribute to the understanding of the sources used by the Ottoman qadi of the period while determining the principles of judgment.