''Al-maẓālim'' (injustices, grievances) were an ancient pre-Islamic institution that was adopted by the
Abbasids
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
in the eighth century CE. The main purpose of the ''mazalim'' courts was to give ordinary people redress. ''Mazalim'', or the
sultan's court, was distinguished from the ''
shurṭa'', police courts.
[Knut S. Vikør Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic Law 2005-0195223985 Page 191 "group them into two main types recognized by the adab literature: mazalim, or the sultan's court, and shurta, police courts.7 Mazalim: the sultan 's court The first of these is the private court of the sultan (that is, whoever has the political power in .."]
References
Islamic terminology
Arabic words and phrases in Sharia
Government of the Abbasid Caliphate
Bibliography
* Tyan, Emile. ''Histoire de l'organisation judiciaire en pays d'Islam.'' Leiden: Brill, 1960.
* Nielsen, Jorgen. ''Secular Justice in an Islamic State: Maẓālim under the Baḥrī Mamlūks, 662/1264-789/1387.'' Leiden: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, 1985.
* Tillier, Mathieu. Qādī-s and the political use of the mazālim jurisdiction under the ʿAbbāsids. In Maribel Fierro and Christian Lange (eds.), ''Public Violence in Islamic Societies: Power, Discipline, and the Construction of the Public Sphere, 7th-18th Centuries CE.'' Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2009, . Online: http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/61/38/82/PDF/Tillier-Mazalim-Epreuves.pdf
*Tillier, Mathieu
The ''Maẓālim'' in Historiography In A.M. Emon and R. Ahmed (eds.), ''Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, p. 357-380.
* van Berkel, Maaike. Embezzlement and reimbursement. Disciplining officials in ‘Abbāsid Baghdad (8th-10th centuries A.D.). ''International Journal of Public Administration'', 34 (2011), {{p., 712-719.