Qadi
A qadi (/ˈkɑːdi/; Arabic: قاضي, romanized: qāḍī[a]) 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 audition of public works.
[2] 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).
[5] 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).
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.
[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.
[7] 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.
[8] 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.
Through the Ministry of Justice, parties could appeal to the Cairo Sharia Court against decisions of provincial qadis and ni'ibs.
There, parties could appeal to the Sharia Court open to the Shaykh al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti, and other people could be added.
[9] A qadi must (per the cited source) be a male adult, free, a Muslim, sane, unconvicted of slander and educated in Islamic science.
The minimal requirement upon which all the jurists agree is that a qadi possess the same qualifications as a witness in court: being be free, sane, adult, trustworthy, and a Muslim.
[citation needed] The maẓālim was a court (presided over by the supreme ruler himself or his governor) that heard complaints addressed to it by virtually any offended party.
The maẓālim court thus provided a remedy for the inability of a qadi to take equity freely into account.
What was left to the qadi was a jurisdiction concerned mainly with cases having to do with inheritance, personal status, property, and commercial transactions.
Under the Ottoman system, Jews throughout the Empire retained the formal right to oversee their own courts and apply their own religious law.
Rabbi Samuel De Medina and other prominent rabbis repeatedly warned co-religionists that it was forbidden to bring cases to government courts and that doing so undermined Jewish legal authority, which could be superseded only "in matters that pertained to taxation, commercial transactions, and contracts".
[citation needed] In accordance with section 15 of the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, the Judicial Services Commission may appoint a Board of Quazis, consisting of five male Muslims resident in Sri Lanka, who are of good character and position and of suitable attainments, to hear appeals from the decisions of the Quazis under this Act.
[citation needed] As Muslim states gained independence from Europe, a vacuum was intentionally left by the colonizing powers in various sectors of education and government.
[20] Thus, the number of law graduates and legal professionals was inadequate, and women were needed to fill the empty spaces in the judiciaries.
[22] American women in World War II also entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers due to the dire need.
However, it was decided that as women they may only rule over custody, alimony, and common property issues, not over criminal or divorce cases, which usually make up most of a qadi's work.
[citation needed] In most cases, the qazi would pass on the title and position to his son, descendant or a very close relative.
The grand qadi of Martinique manages the mosque projects and has a role of social mediator, agents of Muslim justice.
[29] Alcalde, one of the current Spanish terms for the mayor of a town or city, is derived from the Arabic al-qaḍi ( القاضي), "the judge".
To deal with issues that fell outside of the purview of sharia or to handle municipal administration (such as oversight of the police and the markets) other judicial officers with different titles were appointed by the rulers.
The adoption of this term, like many other Arabic ones, reflects the fact that, at least in the early phases of the Reconquista, Muslim society in the Iberian Peninsula imparted great influence on the Christian one.
[33] Such efforts were met with mixed success as the Ottoman-drafted reforms often still left fields such as civil law open to a Qadi's rulings based on the previously used Hanafi systems in sharia-influenced courts.
[35] As the Empire expanded, so did the legal complexities that were built into the system of administration carried over and were enhanced by the conditions of frontier expansion.
Indeed, Jewish, Armenian, and Christian traders found institutional continuity across Islamic and Western regions, negotiating for and adopting strategies to enhance this resemblance.
