''Al-Maẓālim'' () were an ancient pre-Islamic institution that was adopted by the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...
in the eighth century CE. The main purpose of the maẓālim courts was to give ordinary people redress. Al-Maẓālim, or the
sultan
Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...
's court, was distinguished from the
shurṭa or police courts.
References
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
Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
History
Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...
, 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.