Qādīe communicating: Legal change and the law of documentary evidence

Al-Qantara

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 437-466

  Haixaq, Wael B ^a  

^a MCGILL UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 40149092255     PISSN: 02113589     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3989/alqantara.1999.v20.i2.475     Document Type: Article

References (147)

1. On model shurūt works and their dialectical relationship to practice, see Hallaq, W. B., «Model Shurūt Works and the Dialectic of Doctrine and Practice», Islamic Law and Society, 2 (1995), 109-134
2. See, for example, Shihāb al-Dīn Ibrāhīm Ibn Abī al-Damm, Kitāb Adab al-Qadā' aw al-Durar al-Manzūmāt fi al-Aqdiya wal-Hukūmāt, ed. Muhammad Ahmad 'Ata (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1407/1987), 367-462
3. Shams al-Dīn al-Sarakhsī, al-Mabsūt, 30 vols. (Cairo: Matba'at al-Sa'āda, 1906-12), XXX, 167-209
4. 'Abd Allāh Ibn Salmūn ai-Kinānī, al-'Iqd al-Munazzam lil-Hukkām, 2 vols. (Cairo: Al-Matba'a al-'Āmira al-Sharafiyya, 1883), passim
5. al-Shaykh al-Nizām, ed., al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyya (or al-Fatāwā al-'Alamgīriyya), 6 vols, (repr., Beirut: Dār Ihyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, 1400 / 1980), VI, 160-389
6. As it is the case with other areas of the law, the positive stipulations pertaining to kitāb al-qādī ilā al-qādī are explicated in adab al-qādī works, while the formularies used by the qādis in this practice are delineated in shurūt manuals. At times, both elements are elaborated in one and the same work, as it happens to be the case with Ibn Abī al-Damm's Adab al-Qadā
7. and Muhammad b. 'Īsā Ibn al-Munāsif's Tanbīh al-Hukkām 'alā Ma'ākhidh al-Ahkām, ed. 'Abd al-Hafīz Mansūr (Tunis: Dār al-Turkī lil-Nashr, 1988)
8. There are other designations such as al-kitāb al-hukmī, al-mukātaba al-hukmiyya, nusūs al-takhātub bayna al-qudāt and al-mukātaba bayna al-qudāt
9. See Ibrāhim al-Halabī, Multaqā al-Abhur, ed. Wahbī Sulaymān al-Albānī, 2 vols. (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risāla, 1409/1989), II, 74
10. Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 343, 441, 447
11. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 174
12. However, Kitāb al-qādi ilā al-qādī is unquestionably the most common of all
13. See Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 242
14. See Abū al-Walīd Sulaymān b. Khalaf al-Bājī, Fusūl al-ahkām wa-bayān mā mada ̄'alayhi al-'amal 'inda al-fuqahā' wal-hukkām, ed. al-Bātūl b. 'AIī (Rabat: Wizārat al-Awqāf wal-Shu'ūn al-Islāmiyya, 1410/1990), 269
15. Abū al-Qāsim 'Alī b. Muhammad al-Simnānī, Rawdat al-Qudāt wa-Tarīq al-Najāl, ed. Salāh al-Dīn al-Nāhī, 4 vols. (Beirut & Amman: Mu'assasat al-Risāla, 1404/ 1984), I, 330
16. Kamāl al-Dīn Muhammad b. Wāhid Ibn al-Humām, Sharb Fatb al-Qadir, 10 vols, (repr., Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1990), VII, 285-286
17. Abū al-Hasan 'Alī b. Abī Bakr al- Marghīnā nī, al-Hidāya: Sharh Bidāyat al-Mubtadī, 4 vols. (Cairo: Matba'at Mustafā Bābī al-Halabī, 1400/1980), III, 105
18. Ahmad b. Yahyā al-Wansharīsī, al-Mi'yār al-Mu'rib wal-Jāmi' al-Mughrib 'an Fatāwā 'Ulamā' Ifrīqīya wal-Andalus wal-Maghrib, 13 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmi, 1981), X, 60 ff
19. Sarakhsī Mabsūt, XV, 95
20. Abd A-W. Al-Baghdadi, al-Ma'ūna, ed. Humaysh 'Abd al- Haqq, 3 vols. (Riyad: Maktabat Nizār al-Bāz 1415/1995), III, 1511
21. Halabī, Multaqā al-Abhur, II, 73, n. 1 (citing al-'Aynī)
22. Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muhammad 'Abd Allāh Ibn Qudāma, al-Mughnī, 12 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitab̄ al-'Arabī, 1983), XI, 458
23. Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muhammad 'Abd Allāh Ibn Qudāma, idem, al-Kāfifi Fiqh al-lmām Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1992-1994), IV, 302
24. Shams al-Dīn Abū al-Faraj 'Abd al-Rahmān Ibn Qudāma, al-Sharh al-Kabīr 'alā Matn al-Muqnī', printed with al-Mughni, 12 vols.0 (Beirut: Dār al-Kit̄ab al-'Arabī, 1983), XI, 467
25. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbih̄ al-Hukkām, 156
26. Māwardī, Adab al-Qādi, ii, 89
27. 'Alā' al-Dīn 'All b. Khalīl al-Tarābulusī, Mu'īn al-Hukkām fi-mā yataraddad bayna al-Khasmayn min al-Ahkām (Cairo: Mustafā Bābī al-Halabī, 1393/1973 118
28. BaghdādI, Ma'ūna, III, 1511
29. See Abū 'Umar Muhammad b. Yūsuf al-Kindl, Akhbār Qudāt Misr, ed. Rhuvon Guest (repr., Cairo: al-Fārūq al-Hadītha lil-Tibā'a wal-Nashr, n.d.), 407-410
30. Muhammad b. Khalaf Wakī, Akhbār al-Qudāt, 3 vols. (Beirut: 'Ālam al-Kutub, n.d.), I, 265; II, 11, 12, 22, 49-50, 67, 119, 416, and passim
31. al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyya, III, 381
32. Abū Ja'far Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Tūsī, al-Khilāffī al-Fiqh, 2 vols. (Tehran: Matba'at Tābān, 1382/1962), II, 595
33. See, among many other sources, Ibn Qudāma, Mughnī, XI, 458
34. Ibn Qudama, idem, Kōfī, IV, 302
35. Simnān̄, Rawdat al-Qudāt I, 330
36. al-Shaykh al-Nizām, al-Fatāwā al- Hindiyya, II, 381
37. Ibn al-Humām, Sharh Fath al-Qadīr, VII, 286
38. Muhammad b. Muhammad Ibn Shihāb Ibn Bazzāz al-Kurdarī, al-Fatāwā al-Bazzazāyya (or al-Jāmi' al-Wafīz), printed with al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyya, vols. 4-6 (repr., Beirut: Dār Ihyā' al-Turath al-'Arabī, 1400/1980), V, 183
39. The justification of kitāb al-qādi on the basis of Quranic and Sunnaic evidence is rather thin, a fact providing ample proof that the kitāb became part of the law because it proved essential to legal operation. On textual evidence, see Ahmad b. 'Alī b. Hajar al-'Asqalānī, Fath al-Bārī bi-Sharh Sahīh al-Bukhārī, 13 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Ma'rifa, 1980), XIII, 140-145
40. See Fakhr al-Dīn Hasan b. Mansūr al-Ūzajandī, Fatāwā Qādikhān, printed with al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyya, vols. 1-3 (repr., Beirut: Dār Ihya'̄ al-Turāth al-'Arabī, 1400/1980), II, 487
41. Kurdarī, al-Fatāwa al-Bazzāziyya, V, 183
42. Adab al-Qadā' 353 in conjunction with pp. 174 and 365
43. Wansharīsī, al-Mi'yār, X, 60-76, especially 60, 61
44. For other references to practice, see also Bājī, Fusūl al-Ahkām, 267, 271
45. Qādī 'Iyād (and his son Muhammad), Madhāhib al-Hukkām fi Nawāzil al-Ahkām, ed. M. b. Sharīfa (Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1990), 34
46. Ibn Hajar al-Haytamī, al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā al-Fiqhiyya, 4 vols. (Cairo: 'Abd al-Hamīd Ahmad al-Hanafī, 1938), IV, 293
47. Hallaq, W. B., «The Qādī's Dīwān (Sijill) before the Ottomans», Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 61, 3 (1998), 415-436
48. For the qad̄i's practice of keeping a record of their written communications in their dīwāns, see Abū Nasr Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Samarqandī, Kitāb Rusūm al-Qudāt, ed. Muhammad al-Hadithī (Baghdad: Dār al-Hurriyya lil-Tibā'a, 1985), 46
49. Shams al-Dīn Muhammad Ibn Muflih al-Hanbalī, Kitāb al-Furū', ed. 'Abd al-Sattār Farrāsh, 6 vols. (Beirut: 'Ālam al-Kutub, 1985), VI, 504
50. See Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Qaffāl al-Shāshi, Hulyat al-'Ulamā' fi Ma'rifat Madhāhib al-Fuqahā', ed. Yāsīn Darārka, 8 vols. (Beirut: Maktabat al-Risāla, 1988), VIII, 161-162
51. Al-Kindī, Akhbār Qudāt Misr, 410
52. See also Hallaq, «The Qādi's Diwān»
53. Muwaffaq al-Dīn Ibn Qudāma, Mughnī, XI, 458
54. Shams al-īIn Ibn Qudāma, al-Sharh al-Kabīr, XI, 467
55. Nizām, al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyya, III, 381
56. Ibn al-Humām, Sharh Fatb al-Qadīr, VII, 285-286
57. See Jdābiyya court records, 5/214, 5/314, Layish A., Legal Documents on Libyan Tribal Society in Process of Sedentarization, I. The Arabic Documents (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1998 [forthcoming]). I am indebted to Aharon Layish for bringing this document to my attention
58. See Abū al-Falāh Ibn al- 'Imād, Shadharāt al-Dhahab fi Akhbār man Dhahab, 8 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Quds, 1351/1932 V, 213
59. Salāh al-Dīn Khalīl b. Aybak al-Safadī, al-Wāfī bil-Wafayāt, ed. S. Dedering, 7 vols. (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1972), VI 33-34
60. For a succinct but good biographical account, see the editor's introduction to his Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 7 ff
61. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbih al-Hukkām, 59, 62, 108-109, 135-136, 137, 139-140, 142, 144, 145, 156, 160, 169, 174, 181, 184, 187, 201, 204, 325, 330, 332, 334, 336, 337, 338 ff
62. passim
63. Adab al-Qadā', 14
64. IbidIbid, 15, 353- 365
65. Adab al-Qadā, Ibid, 353. 365
66. Tanbih al-Hukkām, 20-21
67. Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 343 ff
68. Māwardi Adab al-Qādī, II, 102, where the rationale for the need to write in the case of nukūl, in contradistinction with confession (iqrār), is explained
69. On 'adāla, see «Shahid», The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), IX, 207 (by R. Peters)
70. Farhat J. Ziadeh, «Integrity ('Adālah) in Classical Islamic Law», in Heer, N., ed., Islamic Law and Jurisprudence (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 1990), 73-93
71. Māwardī, Adab al-Qādi, 102-103
72. Qādī 'Iyād, Madhāhib al-Hukkām, 34, makes the significant statement that some Mālikite judges did not insist on the requirement of the witnesses' rectitude on the grounds of necessity, and that the court system has operated, presumably during and before his time, under this concession
73. Ibn al-Munāsif (Tanbih al-Hukkām, 173) argues that whoever receives the kitāb, whether he is the qādi addressed therein or not, must admit the validity of the kitāb's legal effect and must act in accord with it (provided, of course, that the kitāb itself has met all legal requirements)
74. The point here is that the kitāb's validity is independent of who and where the receiving qādī is. Cf. Simnānī, Rawdat al-Qudāt, I, 332-333, for the Hanafite position
75. Māwardī, Adab al-Qādī, II
76. For more details, see Kinānī, al- 'Iqd al-Munazzam II, 204
77. Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 347, 355
78. On determining who is a plaintiff and who is a defendant, see Burhān al-Dīn Abū al-Wafā' Ibn Farhūn, Tabsirat al-Hukkām fi Usūl al-Aqdiya wa-Manāhij al-Ahkām, 2 vols. (Cairo: al-Matba'a al-'Āmira al-Sharafiyya, 1301/1882), I, 98 f
79. Tarābulusī, Mu'īn al-Hukkām, 53
80. «wa-lil-hukkāmifī wad'i hādhihi al-mukātabāti rusūmun mutanawwi'atun, wa-nahnu nadhkuru mā huwa al-mukhtāra 'indanāfī bābi al-shurūti wal-mukātabāti al-hukmiyya» (p. 247, 11. 7-9)
81. Taq̄ al-Dīn al-Subkī makes the remark that the Shāfi'ites and the Mālikites generally consider the thubūt and the hukm to be two different categories, whereas the Hanafites deem them one and the same thing. Further on this, and on the differences between thubūt and hukm according to the distinguished eastern Mālikite jurist Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī, see Wansharīsī, al-Mi'yār al-Mu'rib, X, 73-76
82. Abū 'Abd Allāh Muhammad al-Rassā', Sharh Hudūd al-Imām Abī 'Abd Allāh Ibn 'Arafa (Rabat: Matba'at Fadāla, 1992), 620-621
83. A hukm may be overturned only under very specific and limited circumstances. See Ibn Farhūn, fabsirat al-Hukkām, I, 56-60
84. Rassā', Sharh Hudūd, 626-627
85. Cf. David S. Powers, «On Judicial Review in Islamic Law», Law and Society Review, 26 (1992), 315-341
86. Bājī, Fusūl al-Ahkām, 267
87. Haytamī, Fatāwā, IV, 293
88. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 152
89. On hulī and shiyāt, see Hallaq, «Model Shurūt Works», 119-120
90. Nizām, al-Fatāwā al-Hindiyya, VI, 248 ff
91. Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 360
92. The insignia ('alāma) consists of a short religious invocation, usually written in large script. One actual 'alāma adopted by a certain Ibn Hajar reads: al-hamdu li-Lāhi al-ghanī al-qawī
93. Other examples: ahmidu Allāha bi-jamī 'i mahāmidihi; al-hamdu li-Lāhi al-latif fi qadā ihi
94. On this and on Egyptian and Syrian practices concerning this matter around the ninth/fifteenth century, see Shams al-Dīn Muhammad al-Asyūtī, Jawāhir al-'Uqūd wa-Mu'īn al-Qudāt wal-Muwaqqi'īn wal-Shuhiid, 2 vols. (Cairo: Matba'at al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyya, 1374/1955), II, 369-370
95. Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 349
96. See Ibrāhim al-Muzanī, Mukhtasar al-Muzarii 'alā al-Umm, ed. Mahmūd Matarjī, 9 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1993), IX, 317
97. Qādī 'Iyād, Madhāhib al-Hukkām, 34
98. Imparting testimony, adā' al-shahāda, is the procedure required when witnesses deliver the testimonial evidence which they have «carried», so to speak
99. On tahammul and adā' al-shahāda, see Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 71-72
100. Shāshī, Hulyat al-'Ulamā', VIII, 152 f
101. Sahnūn, al-Mudawwana al-Kubrā, 5 vols. (Beirut; Dār al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1994), IV, 14
102. The Hanafites allow the inclusion in kitāb al-qādi of all areas of positive law to the strict exception of Quranic and discretionary punishments
103. See Abū Ja'far Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Tahāwī, Mukhtasar al-Tahāwī (Haydarabad: Lajnat Ihyā' al-Ma'ārif al-Nu'māniyya, 1370/1950), 330
104. See his Mughni, XI, 458
105. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 154, 173
106. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbih al-Hukkām, 155, 169
107. Muzanī, Mukhtasar, IX, 317
108. Sahnūn, al-Mudawwana, IV, 14
109. Kurdarī, al-Fatāwā al-Bazzāziyya, V, 185
110. On sahīh in relation to other doctrines, see Hallaq, W. B., «From Fatwās to Furū': Growth and Change in Islamic Substantive Law», Islamic Law and Society, 1 (1994), 51 ff
111. Bājī, Fusūl al-Ahkām, 270, argues that the qādi should accept the written communications of his deputies even though they may not be attested by witnesses. The deputy's seal, provided that the qādi is familiar with it, is sufficient
112. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām. 171-172
113. On the principle of delegation in general, see Tyan, E., Histoire de ['organisation judiciaire en pays d'Islam, Deuxiéme edition {Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969), 101 ff
114. «Judicial Organization», in Khadduri, Majid and Liebesny, Herbert J., eds., Law in the Middle East (Washington, D. C: The Middle East Institute, 1955), 236 ff
115. For a sample of 'uhūd (pi. of 'ahd), see Ahmad b. 'Alī al-Qalqashandī, Subh al-A'shā fi Sinā'at al-Inshā, 14 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1987), X, 264-291; XII, 38-58
116. Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 171
117. Ibn Farhūn Tabsirat al-Hukkām II 37
118. Kinānī al-'Iqd al-Munazzam, II, 201-202
119. Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb b. Ibrāhīm, Ikhtilāf Abī Hanīfa wa-lbn Abī Laylā (Cairo: Matba'at al-Wafā', 1357 / 1938), 159
120. See Shāshī, Hulyat al-'Ulama'̄, VIII, 151
121. Of the later jurists, it is reported that Abū Sa'id al-Istakhrī held, what seems to have been a unique view, that acquaintance with the qādī's handwriting and seal are sufficient for the acceptance of the kitāb. Simnānī, Rawdat al-Qudāt, I, 331
122. For the east, see the royal decrees of judicial appointment in Qalqashandī, Subh al-A'shā, XI, 192, 201, and n. 79, below
123. For a detailed account of the law pertaining to al-shahāda 'alā al-khatt, see Ibn Farhūn, Tabsirat al-Hukkām, I, 284-293
124. The Zāhirites also admitted the kitāb on the basis of attestation to handwriting. In fact, they seem to have been the most lenient of the schoools on a great number of crucial matters. For example, witnesses were not required, and if they do come to play a role, their rectitude is not a necessary condition for the validity of the kitāb. See Ibn al-Munāsif, Tanbīh al-Hukkām, 153, for a summary of the Zāhirite doctrine
125. Ibn Hazm, however, discusses these issues neither in his Muhallā bil-Āthār nor in Mu'jam al-Fiqh
126. For North Africa, particularly Tunis, see Ibn 'Abd al-Salam's and Ibn Rashid's weighty statements in Wansharīsī, al-Mi'yār al-Mu'rib, X, 61-62
127. See Carmona González, A., «La correspondencia oficial entre jueces en el Mufīd de Ibn Hishām de Córdoba», in Homenaje al Prof. Jacinto Bosch Vilá, I (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1991), 505-506
128. Similarly, see Areas Campoy, M., «La correspondencia de los cadíes en el Muntajab al-Ahkām de Ibn Abī Zamanln», Adas del XII Congreso de la U.E.A.I. (Málaga, 1984) (Madrid: Union Européenne d'Arabisants et d'Islamisants, 1986), 62
129. See Qalqashandī, Subh al-A'shā, XI, 192, 201, where one royal decree of judicial appointment, probably issued sometime after the middle of the seventh/thirteenth century, acknowledges al-shahaida 'alā al-khatt as being a distinctly Mālikite institution that is beneficial and conducive to the welfare of society (qubūlu al-shahaidati 'alai al-khatti. fa-ha dha mimmā fi-hi fushatun lil-nāsi wa-rāhatun mā fi-hā ba'sun̄ wa-huwa minimā tafarrada bi-hi huwa (viz. the Mālikite madhhab) dūna al-baqiyya wa-fīhi maslaha)
130. See also 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Muhammad Bā'alawi, Bughyat al-Mustarshidin̄in fī Talkhīs Fatāwā ba'd al-A'imma min al-'Ulamā' al-Muta'akhkhirīn (Cairo: Mustafā Babī al-Halabī, 1952), 266
131. See Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 76
132. «wa-la ̄budda⋯ min al-tanqībi wal-talattufi fi isnādi dhālika ilā wajhin sahīhin wa-aslin wādihin yasluhu al-masīru ilayhi wa-binā'u ahkāmi al-sharī'ati 'alayhx (156)
133. See also 'Asqalānī, Fath al-Bārī, XIII, 140-145
134. See nn. 23-34, above. On the manner in which the jurists strip actual documents and fatwās of references to mundane matters and real names and irrelevant facts, see Hallaq, «From Fatwās to Furū'», 44 ff
135. Hallaq, idem, «Murder in Cordoba: Ijtihād, Iftā " and the Evolution of Substantive Law in Medieval Islam», Acta Orientalia, 55 (1994), 67-83
136. idem, «Model Shurūt Works», 120 ff
137. See also Shihāb al-Dīn Ahmad b 'Abd al-Wahhāb al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-Arab fi Funūn al-Adab, 31 vols. (Cairo: Matba'at Dār al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1351/1933), IX, 152 ff
138. For a somewhat earlier Hanaflte example of a kitāb pertaining to debt, see Samarqandī, Rusūm al-Qudāt, 245 ff
139. The earliest example of a kitāb I could find is recorded in Abū al-'Abbas Ahmad b. Abī Ahmad al-Tabarī Ibn al-Qāss (d. 335/946), Adab al-Qādī, ed. Husayn Jabbūrī, 2 vols. (Tā'if: Maktabat al-Siddīq, 1409/1989), II, 350 ff
140. Kindī, Akhbār Qudāt Misr, 407-410, however, preserves an actual kitāb dating from 188/803
141. For occasional references to very early kitābs, see Muhammad b. Khalaf Wakī', Akhbār al-Qudāt, 3 vols. (Beirut: 'Ālam al-Kutub, n. d.), I, 265; II, 11, 12, 22, 49-50, 67, 119, 416, and passim
142. One of the two largest scripts of the curvilinear category. More on this see Gacek, A., «Arabic Scripts and their Characteristics as Seen Through the Eyes of Mamluk Authors», Manuscripts of the Middle East, 4 (1989), 147
143. That naskh belongs to the rectilinear category underscores the intention to distinguish the deed of debt from the qādi's kitāb, written in a curvilinear style
144. Ibn Abī al-Damm, Adab al-Qadā', 349, and n. 56, above
145. However, he makes no specific reference to kitāb al-qādī. See his Nihāyat al-Arab, IX, 8
146. See his al- 'Iqd al-Munazzam, II, 203 f
147. Cf. Hallaq, Model Shurūt Works 134, n. 100