A Comparison of Majalla's Kitab al-Buyu‘ and the French Civil Code

Abstract

This article will first examine the views preferred by the Majalla Commission to the main fatwā in order for Kitab al-Buyu to be regulated with the provisions in accordance with the needs of the century. Then the sales theory of the French Civil Code will be mentioned. The concept of goods, conditions, rights of option, sales of rights, wholesales and production orders will be our focus. Then, the minutes documenting the Majalla amendments of the law-making commissions will be examined from a comparative perspective. Thus, we will come to a conclusion on whether the amended articles match up with the French Civil Code. During the enactment of Majalla, the intellectual movement defending the quotation of the French Civil Code was not successful. However, we can say that the French Civil Code's theory of sale found a suitable door to influence Majalla, even the Islamic Law of Obligations, through amendments, since the Ottoman jurists of the period largely adopted the Western conception of French civil law, especially the principle of freedom of contract and liability.