Qadi (judge)

The qadi is the person appointed by the competent authority to settle disputes between people according to the sharia. Jurists treated the office as a state post. A qadi's authority does not end with the death of the person who appointed him, because he judges in the name of the state and not in the name of his appointer. ¹

The word qadi appears in the Qur'an in its lexical sense, one whose ruling is carried out, and not yet as an office. The Turkish encyclopaedia records that prophets in the Qur'an exercised judgement, that the Prophet judged disputes in Medina, and that it counts him the first qadi in Islam. ¹

Before Islam, disputes were settled by arbitration, by the words of tribal notables, and by custom, orally. After Islam this was reformed into a public function governed by fixed principles. ¹

The Prophet appointed several Companions to judge in Medina and in the conquered regions: Attab ibn Usayd (may God be pleased with him) to Mecca, Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Janad in Yemen, Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) to Yemen, and Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah (may God be pleased with him) to settle the disputes of the Christians of Najran. ¹ Of these, Attab ibn Usayd, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Ali ibn Abi Talib and Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah have records in the museum.

Under Umar ibn al-Khattab, as conquests multiplied, judges were appointed in Medina, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. In Medina the caliph heard cases of boundaries and homicide, and the provincial governors did the same. Judges heard civil cases and offences punishable by discretionary penalty. The judge's work resembled the giving of a fatwa in some respects, and he was sometimes called a mufti. ¹

Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan left the judgement in Damascus to a judge he appointed and did not hear cases himself. Provincial governors followed the same practice. The judge heard all civil and criminal cases, and only matters that reached the court of grievances (mazalim) went to the caliph or the governor. The Umayyads also gave judges administrative, financial and educational duties, and the protection of orphans' property and endowments. ¹

In the early Abbasid period the caliphs appointed and dismissed judges themselves. As cities grew, the number of judges increased. Harun al-Rashid appointed Abu Yusuf as chief judge (qadi al-qudat) to help him choose the judges of the cities. The chief judge's power over appointment and dismissal then grew step by step, and he appointed deputies in wide regions. ¹

From the middle Abbasid period, judges were appointed according to the school of law prevailing in each region, so that judging by the accepted school became the norm there. The encyclopaedia treats this as a source of unity in judgement. ¹

Jurists require a qadi to have deep knowledge of law, physical soundness, good character, probity and firmness in the sharia. The Ottoman civil code (Mecelle) lists the qualities of a qadi as wise, understanding, upright, trustworthy, firm and strong. ¹

Jurists disagreed on women. The Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis barred them from the office. Ibn Jarir al-Tabari and al-Hasan al-Basri allowed it in general, and the Hanafis and Ibn Hazm allowed it in matters where a woman's testimony is accepted. They also disagreed on whether a qadi must be a mujtahid. Some required it, while the Hanafis and most later jurists allowed a judge who had not reached that level to judge by a given school. ¹

The caliph or his delegate appoints the qadi. The appointment is a contract of agency, and the letter of appointment is read publicly in a ceremony. The term is not fixed by the appointment, but Abu Hanifa disliked appointments of more than a year, and in practice two or three years became usual. A qadi is dismissed for loss of probity, a crime, misuse of office or incapacity, and only after an inquiry and for a valid reason. ¹

The qadi is paid from the treasury, because he gives his time to public work, and his pay is set according to his standing. The entry gives two versions of the pay of Attab ibn Usayd in Mecca: four hundred dirhams a year, or forty ounces, which is sixteen hundred dirhams. ¹

A qadi who errs without negligence is not liable, and the loss falls on the treasury. A qadi who acts with intent or negligence must pay the damage from his own property. ¹

In the Ottoman state the qadi was a scholar of the sharia appointed by an imperial berat. He had administrative, municipal, financial and military duties as well as judicial ones. He represented the people of his district to the central government, and represented the government to them. ²

Mehmed II is credited with the most important step in organising training: he founded the Sahn-ı Semân madrasas, set the ranks, and treated teaching, judging and giving fatwas as equal grades. The Süleymaniye madrasas followed in the sixteenth century. ²

After graduation a candidate served an apprenticeship (mülazemet) with a senior judge, then sat an examination, then took a first post in the smallest districts. The entry says the apprenticeship became longer in the eighteenth century. Qadis were usually appointed for two years, and appointments and transfers were handled by the offices of the two kazaskers, of Anatolia and of Rumelia. ²

The entry names Ahmed Pasha of Bursa as appointed judge of Edirne in 855 AH (1451), in place of Molla Hüsrev, and later as kazasker. ³ The oldest surviving court registers date from the second half of the fifteenth century, including those of Bursa, so for the first century and a half of the Ottoman state the entry knows judges and court activity only from chancery letters. ²

The entry says the qadi's place changed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and changed again in the judicial system at the start of the twentieth century. The present page does not cover modern courts, which need their own sources. ²

• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "KADI", Fahrettin Atar, vol. 24, pp. 66–69. ¹
• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "Osmanlı Devleti'nde Kadı", İlber Ortaylı, vol. 24, pp. 69–73. ²
• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "AHMED PAŞA, Bursalı", Günay Kut, vol. 2, pp. 111–112. ³
• Works named in the entry's bibliography, not read for this record: al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam al-sultaniyya and Adab al-qadi; Ibn Abi al-Dam, Adab al-qada; Sadr al-Shahid, Sharh Adab al-qadi; Ibn Qudama, al-Mughni; Ibn Farhun, Tabsirat al-hukkam; Waki', Akhbar al-qudat; al-Kindi, al-Wulat wa-l-qudat.