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Qadi

A qadi (/ˈkɑːdi/; Arabic: قاضي, romanizedqāḍī) is the magistrate or judge of a Sharia court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and minors, and supervision and auditing of public works.

The term 'qāḍī' was in use from the time of Muhammad during the early history of Islam, and remained the term used for judges throughout Islamic history and the period of the caliphates. While the mufti and fuqaha played the role in elucidation of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence (Uṣūl al-Fiqh) and the Islamic law (sharīʿa), the qadi remained the key person ensuring the establishment of justice on the basis of these very laws and rules. Thus, the qadi was chosen from amongst those who had mastered the sciences of jurisprudence and law. The office of qadi continued to be a very important one in every principality of the caliphates and sultanates of the various Muslim empires over the centuries. The rulers appointed a qadi in every region, town, and village for judicial and administrative control, and in order to establish peace and justice over the dominions they controlled. Although the primary responsibility of a qadi was judicial, he was generally charged with certain nonjudicial responsibilities as well, such as the administration of religious endowments (wāqf), the legitimization of the accession or deposition of a ruler, the execution of wills, the accreditation of witnesses, guardianship over orphans and others in need of protection, and supervision of the enforcement of public morals (ḥisbah).

The Abbasid caliphs created the office of chief qadi (qāḍī al-quḍāh or qāḍī al-quḍāt), whose holder acted primarily as adviser to the caliph in the appointment and dismissal of qadis. Among the most famous of the early judges appointed to the role of chief qadi was Abu Yusuf, a disciple of the early Muslim scholar and jurist Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man, founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence. Later Islamic states generally retained this office, while granting to its holder the authority to issue appointments and dismissals in his own name. The Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1516 CE, introduced the practice of appointing four chief qadis, one for each of the Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhhab).

A qadi is a judge responsible for the application of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). The office originated under the rule of the first Umayyad caliphs (AH 40–85/661–705 CE), when the provincial governors of the newly created Islamic empire, unable to adjudicate the many disputes that arose among Muslims living within their territories, began to delegate this function to others. In this early period of Islamic history, no body of Islamic positive law had yet come into existence, and the first qadis therefore decided cases on the basis of the only guidelines available to them: Arab customary law, the laws of the conquered territories, the general precepts of the Qurʾān and their own sense of equity.[citation needed]

During the later Umayyad period (705–750 CE), a growing class of Muslim legal scholars (distinct from the qadis) busied themselves with the task of supplying the needed body of law, and by the time of the accession to power of the Abbasid dynasty in 750, their work could be said to have been essentially completed. In constructing their legal doctrine, the legal scholars took as their point of departure the precedents that had been established by the qadis, some of which they rejected as inconsistent with Islamic principles as these were coming to be understood but most of which they adopted, with or without modification. Thus the first qadis in effect laid the foundations of Islamic positive law.

Once that law had been formed, however, the role of the qadi underwent a profound change. No longer free to follow the guidelines mentioned above, a qadi was now expected to adhere solely to the new Islamic law, and that adherence has characterized the office ever since.[citation needed]

A qadi continued, however, to be a delegate of a higher authority, ultimately the caliph or, after the demise of the caliphate, the supreme ruler in a given territory. This delegate status implies the absence of a separation of powers; both judicial and executive powers were concentrated in the person of the supreme ruler (caliph or otherwise). On the other hand, a certain degree of autonomy was enjoyed by a qadi in that the law that he applied was not the creation of the supreme ruler or the expression of his will. What a qadi owed to the supreme ruler was solely the power to apply the law for which sanctions were necessary that only the supreme ruler as head of the state could guarantee.[citation needed]

Similar to a qadi, a mufti is also an interpreting power of Sharia. Muftis are jurists that give authoritative legal opinions, or fatwas, and historically have been known to rank above qadis. With the introduction of the secular court system in the 19th century, Ottoman councils began to enforce criminal legislation to emphasize their position as part of the new executive. That creation of the hierarchical secular judiciary did not displace the original Sharia courts.

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