Fenarizade (Fenārīzāde) was an eminent Ottoman family that took its name from the most distinguished of the line, Molla Şemseddin Mehmed b. Hamza b. Mehmed el-Fenari (Mollā Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza b. Muḥammad al-Fanārī), known as Molla Fenari (751-834/1350-1431). An Ottoman scholar and theologian, Molla Fenari is regarded as the first in the long series of chief muftis, later entitled şeyhülislam s ( shaykh al-Islām s), or grand muftis, of the Ottoman state. Although his biography has come down to us only partially