Courts of law, historical - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Tillier, Mathieu
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
(4,932 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
According to Islamic tradition, the roots of the judicial system go back to the time of the Prophet Muḥammad, who, it is said, sent qāḍī s to various parts of the Arabian Peninsula. However, it is more likely that it was later Muslim rulers who appointed the first of these "judges," at the time of the Islamic conquests. These "proto- qāḍī s" (Hallaq, Origins , 34) were active in the great garrison cities of Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, although their precise role remains unclear; their coercive power was, for example, questioned