Disclaimer: Random Musings™. One of the more interesting -- but unfortunately also more obscure -- aspects of Islamic history in the Medieval period was the use of mazalim courts. They were, in short, the equivalent of secular courts whose authority and legitimacy flowed not from the Divine, per se, but from the sovereignty of the caliph as the deputy/vice-regent of Allah (خليفة الله/khalifat-Allah). They were used at least as early as the rule of the Ummayad dynasty (661 AD - 750 AD) but really came to prominence under the Abbasids. They were basically an alternative to the highly corrupt and capricious fatawa (plural of fatwa) of the state-employed qadis of the time, who usually twisted and cherry-picked different precedents/sources from the sharia to make their rulings. The mazalim courts were viewed as a relatively more fair institution... though they were of course also subject to the arbitrary whims of the caliph. Your prospects for success in the mazalim court basically hinged on how effective your wali (equivalent of a lawyer; ولي, most closely translated as sponsor in this case) was -- ie. how well-connected he was, how charismatic he was personally, how persuasive he was in his delivery of your argument (regardless of the actual Islamic or legal substance). tl;dr: The Bernard Lewis conception of an Islam that cant distinguish between religious and secular spheres is a historically unsubstantiated and deeply Other-izing idea, and the existence of the mazalim court institution is just one of myriad reasons why. islamweb.us/what-is-mazalim.html Lauren, Shawn, Jeed, Obeida.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 18:39:09 +0000
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