Ahmed Kuftaro

Ahmed Kuftaro or Ahmad Kaftaru (Arabic: أحمد كفتارو; December 1915 – 1 September 2004) was the Grand Mufti of Syria, the highest officially appointed Sunni Muslim representative of the Fatwa-Administration in the Syrian Ministry of Auqaf in Syria. Kaftaro was a Sunni Muslim of the Naqshbandi Sufi order.[2]

Ahmed Kuftaro
أحمد كفتارو
TitleGrand Mufti of Syria
Personal
Born1912 or 1915
Damascus, Syria, Ottoman Empire
Died1 September 2004
Damascus, Syria
ReligionIslam
NationalitySyrian
SpouseHawa Mili
Sabah al-Jabri
ParentMohammed Amin Kuftaro
DenominationSunni Islam
SchoolShafi'i
CreedAsh'ari
TariqaNaqshbandi[1]
RelationsAsma Mahmoud Kuftaro (granddaughter)
Muslim leader
Period in office4 November 1964 – 1 September 2004
PredecessorMuhammad Abu al-Yusr
SuccessorAhmad Badreddin Hassoun

Biography

The family of Kuftaro is Kurdish who have their origins in the village of Karma in Ömerli District of Mardin Province, Turkey.[3][4][5] In 1878, the Kuftaro family moved to Damascus and settled near the Abu al-Nur mosque in the Kurdish quarter. Kuftaro's father, Amin Kuftaro, received a traditional education and started working at the Sa'id Pasha mosque. His first wife was Najiya Sinjabi and he had four sons and two daughters with her: Musa, Taufiq, Ahmad, Ibrahim, Zaynab and Fatima. With his second wife, Is'af Badir, he had three children, Rabi', 'Abd al-Qadir and Rabi'a.[6]

Classic education in Damascus

Kuftaro's father insisted that he first receive a classic education in Quran, Tafsir, Hadith and Islamic jurisprudence, namely Shafi'i Madhhab with Muslim scholars in Damascus.[7]

Career in the Ifta' Administration

In 1948, Kuftaro worked as a mosque teacher in Quneitra before moving to Damascus in 1950. Two years later, he became Mufti of the Shafi'i Madhhab in Damascus and a member of the Higher Ifta Council under Colonel Adib al-Shishakli.[8] Kuftaro's political instinct aligned him with the Syrian Baath Party in 1955. He reportedly supported the Baath Party candidate in the 1955 election for an open seat in parliament.

Advocacy of interreligious dialogue

Ahmad Kaftaru advocated interreligious dialogue. He visited many countries as a representative of Syrian state Islam, including a 1985 visit with the Pope in Rome. He signed the Amman Message, a statement calling for tolerance and unity in the Muslim world that was issued on 9 November 2004 (27 Ramadan 1425 AH) by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan.[9]

See also

References
  1. Annabelle Boettcher, Syria's Sunni Islam under Hafiz al-Asad. E-book, Amazon-Kindle, 2015
  2. Annabelle Boettcher, Syria's Sunni Islam under Hafiz al-Asad. E-book, Amazon-Kindle, 2015
  3. Raphael Lefevre, Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Oxford University Press (2013), p. 155
  4. Line Khatib, Islamic Revivalism in Syria: The Rise and Fall of Ba'thist Secularism, Routledge (2012), p. 187
  5. Leon T. Goldsmith, Cycle of Fear: Syria's Alawites in War and Peace, Oxford University (2015), p. 122
  6. Muhammad Bashir al-Bani, Al-Murshid al-Mujaddid, Damascus, private edition 1979, pp. 57-69.
  7. Muhammad Bashir al-Bani, Al-Murshid al-Mujaddid, Damascus, private edition 1979, pp. 95-97
  8. Muhammad al-Habash, al-Shaikh Ahmad Kaftaru wa-manhajuhu fi al-tajdid wa-l-islah. 2nd ed. Damascus: Dar al-Shaikh Amin Kaftaru, 1996, p. 77
  9. "Jordan's 9/11: Dealing With Jihadi Islamism", Crisis Group Middle East Report N°47, 23 November 2005
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