Noun

(en-plural noun)

(plurale tantum) The guardians of legal and religious tradition in Islam; clerics.

* 1850 , Archibald Alison, The Decline of Turkey'', ''Essays, Political, Historical, and Miscellaneous , Volume 2, page 458,

In process of time, the whole monopoly of the ulema centred in a certain number of families; and their constant residence at the capital, to which they return at the expiration of their term of office, has maintained their power to the present day.

* 1999 , Margaret L. Meriwether. The Kin Who Count: Family and Society in Ottoman Aleppo, 1770-1840 , page 145,

Perhaps surprisingly, ulema' families were less likely to intermarry with other ' ulema families than merchant families were to intermarry with other merchant families.

* 2000 , Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God , 2004, Harper, page 131,

For the time being, the faithful must follow their own consciences and learn to distinguish good from evil by themselves, instead of relying on the ulema .

* 2006', Madeline C. Zilfi, ''10: The Ottoman '''ulema'' , Suraiya Faroqhi (editor), ''The Cambridge History of Turkey , page 209,

The problem of sources can be offset by limiting the scope of generalisation - not all ulema , for example, but those who are retrievable or in some way representative of the sources if not of society.

* 2009 , Ron Eduard Hassner, War on Sacred Grounds , page 143,

By virtue of their influence and their historical allegiance to the royal household, the ulema form one of three power centers of the kingdom, alongside the members of the royal court and the heads of the major tribes.

Noun

A Sunni Muslim scholar and interpreter of shari’a law, who can deliver a fatwa

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=April 19 , author=Josh Halliday , title=Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised? , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Mujtahidd's online claims have prompted an aggressive backlash against social media from the Saudi religious establishment. The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, said in January that Twitter was a platform for "promoting lies" and a "dangerous practice" that should be avoided by Muslims. Commentators have described the phenomenon as symbolic of the growing political debate about use of Twitter in Saudi Arabia.}}

(uncountable, AU, British, New Zealand) Civilian dress when worn by a member of the military, or casual dress when worn by a pupil of a school who normally would wear uniform

* 1919, , Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91

He had a suit of summer mufti , and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.

* 2002 . Wilma, Dave. "First nuclear submarine visits Seattle and crew secretly buys Bar's Leak on June 3, 1958." ''HistoryLink.org: Essay 3739 , 3 April 2002.

The sailors in mufti returned with 140 quarts of Bar's Leak, half of which was poured into the condenser.