HUMA 1845 Lecture Notes - Lecture 59: Mufti, Main Source
6 Jan 2018
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Topic: islamic legal practitioners: judges (qadis) and jurisconsults (muftis) According to islamic sources, the second caliph, umar (r. 634 644), appointed judges in conquered territories soon after the beginning of the conquest. Although the status of these first judges and of their legal rulings is unclear, the first muslim armies certainly needed men appointed by an authority to arbitrate the inevitable conflicts among the soldiers. The main task of the islamic judge was to dispense justice between litigants. In the abbasid period, the judge sat in a public place, usually the mosque (some judges preferred holding court in their home), where a plaintiff could come and lodge a complaint against an adversary. Judges were graduates of islamic legal colleges. Many of them at some point of their lives taught at these colleges. Since judges were salaried officials who had to depend on the government, many scholar shun away from accepting the posts.
