Mufti

A Mufti reading in his prayer stool, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (c. 1900)

Mufti (/ˈmʌfti/; Arabic: مفتي‎), an Islamic legal authority who gives a formal legal opinion (fatwa) in answer to an inquiry by a private individual or judge. A fatwa usually requires knowledge of the Qur'ān and Hadith (narratives concerning the Prophet’s life and sayings), as well as knowledge of exegesis and collected precedents, and might be a pronouncement on some problematic legal matter.

Other websites

• Fatwa Archived 2015-11-20 at the Wayback Machine – multi-part article from The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, via Oxford Islamic Studies
• The ethics of Muftī by Imam Ibn Khaldûn(in French)
• "Muftī" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
• "Mufti" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.