The council Dar’ul Hikmet’il Islamiye (Abode of Islamic Wisdom) was established in 1918 under the office of the Sheikh al-Islam to provide religious responses to the rupture and turmoil World War I created in Ottoman society. Composed of a president and a minimum of nine members, diligently chosen to fulfill the high expectations of this post, the council was involved in both intellectual, theological as well as practical, and everyday aspects of religion in a post-WWI society. Its members discussed, for instance, whether Muslim women could be given license to work as prostitutes; whether women whose husbands had not returned from war could religiously be considered divorced and remarry; or how the increased rates of abortion could be prevented. It appealed to the Ministry of Interior to strengthen the surveillance on the public observance of Islam against the increasing trends of unveiling, Muslim women’s singing in coffee houses, or alcohol drinking in close proximity to mosques. The council offers a unique venue for exploring the dilemmas WWI created in Ottoman society and the ways religious authorities responded to them. This paper is written based on the archival registers of the council, the declarations it issued in contemporary periodicals, and the articles its members wrote in its journal Ceride-i Ilmiye. The paper focuses on the council’s conception of public morality. It argues that in the aftermath of WWI Muslim religious authorities began to perceive immorality (ahlaks?zl?k) as one of the greatest challenges and threats to society. Furthermore, in this conception public morality was to a great extent a gendered one that sought to regulate Muslim women’s public attire, behavior, and acts. The council Dar’ul Hikme acknowledged the socio-economic roots of immorality, and as such considered poverty and destitute among its primary causes, and paid attention to gender specific outcomes of war on women. However, it still identified public observance of morality crucial, and emphasized Muslim women’s specific roles for its maintenance.