qadi

Evidenced qadi role

Record the evidence connecting this person to the intended judicial role.

1. What does the recorded title mean in this language, locality and period? definition
2. Which source identifies this person as an officeholding qadi rather than merely carrying the title or name? provenance

Appointment standing

Record appointment, commencement, termination and any contest over authority.

1. Who appointed or recognised this qadi, and what evidence records the commission? provenance
2. During which dates was the commission effective, and how precise are those dates? measurement
3. What suspension, removal, expiry or dispute changes whether the person may act now or at the date being assessed? action

Referral boundaries

Identify the conditions that place a proposed matter within or outside the commission.

1. Which territories, categories of persons and subjects fall within this qadi's documented authority? boundary
2. What consent, residence, subject-matter or other conditions must be established before referring this matter? action

Governing framework

Record applicable rules without treating personal jurisprudential affiliation as sufficient evidence of governing law.

1. Which sources establish the statutes, procedural rules or jurisprudential requirements governing this office? provenance
2. Which qualifications are required for this appointment, and what evidence establishes whether the person meets them? provenance

Matter-specific competence

Record assignment, relevant conflicts and procedural prerequisites for hearing the matter.

1. What assignment or procedural step authorises this qadi to hear the particular matter? provenance
2. Which relationships to parties, prior involvement or other conditions require disclosure, recusal or reassignment under the applicable rules? action

Act type and effect

Link the officeholder to the actual instrument while separating adjudication, advice and recorded agreement.

1. Was this act a judgment, procedural order, legal opinion, mediated agreement or another locally defined act? definition
2. What authenticated record establishes the qadi's participation and the capacity exercised? provenance
3. Which conditions govern whether the act has effect, remains challengeable or may be referred for enforcement? boundary

Supervisory mandate

Separate an evidenced supervisory power from direct management or personal custodianship.

1. Does this commission grant any authority over guardianship or waqf supervision, and which source establishes it? provenance
2. Where does the qadi's supervisory authority end and the guardian's, trustee's or administrator's responsibility begin? boundary

Nonjudgment service capacity

Record whether the qadi may provide the requested service and what performing it establishes.

1. Which authentication, registration or mediation services are explicitly assigned to this qadi? boundary
2. For the requested service, may the qadi act directly, delegate it or refer it elsewhere? action

Accountability routes

Record evidenced oversight relationships without assuming a modern appellate hierarchy.

1. What review or complaint mechanisms exist for this qadi's decisions and conduct in the relevant period? provenance
2. Who may enforce an operative decision, and what must the qadi or requesting party provide to initiate that process? action

Delegated and continuing authority

Distinguish the qadi's own authority from a deputy's mandate and a successor's responsibilities.

1. Which functions may a deputy exercise, under whose grant and within what limits? boundary
2. When the qadi is absent, suspended or replaced, who may receive pending matters and maintain access to the relevant judicial records? action

Kinds and varieties

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Ordinary territorial qadi of a city, town, or district
• Chief judge (qadi al-qudat) over a capital or realm, who appoints and disciplines other qadis
• Military judge (qadi al-askar / kadiasker) for army personnel and related cases
• Deputy qadi (na'ib) sitting in place of, or as a circuit under, an appointed qadi
• Madhhab-specific qadi in a multi-rite city (e.g. a Hanafi qadi beside a Shafi'i or Maliki colleague)
• Modern personal-status or family-law qadi whose docket is limited to marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance
• Appellate sharia-court qadi in contemporary dual-court systems
• Colonial or registrar qazi retained mainly to record Muslim marriages and personal status (especially South Asia)

1. Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Identifiers and schemes

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Wikidata - Q185351 - Item for the Islamic judicial office (qadi / kadi / qazi), not for individual holders.
• Arabic lemma - قاضي (qāḍī); plural قضاة (quḍāh) - Standard Arabic name of the office.
• Library of Congress Subject Headings - Qadis - Authorized heading for the office and its holders.
• Common romanizations - qadi | kadi | qazi | kazi | cadi | alkali - Orthographies used in Arabic, Ottoman/Turkish, South Asian, older European, and Hausa contexts.

1. Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Standards and regulation

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Classical procedural law of judgeship (qada') as compiled in adab al-qadi treatises, notably Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Khaṣṣāf, Adab al-qāḍī (Hanafi juristic tradition, not a state statute).
• Ottoman kanun (sultanic regulations) on kadi appointment, fees, and the kaza as a judicial district, issued by the imperial chancery and applied alongside sharia in kadi courts.
• Morocco, Family Code (Moudawana), Law 70-03 of 2004 - governs family-law adjudication in which qadis and family-court judges sit.
• Malaysia, state Administration of Islamic Law enactments and Syariah Court legislation - constitute and limit the kadi/syariah judiciary in each state.
• Northern Nigerian states' Sharia Courts of Appeal and Area/Sharia Court laws - statutory basis for contemporary qadi courts in that federation.

1. Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Real-world use

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• In pre-modern cities the qadi's majlis was the ordinary forum for debt, property, marriage, divorce, inheritance, and waqf disputes, and the place where sale and endowment deeds were witnessed and recorded.
• Ottoman kadi sicils (court registers) survive as the main local archive of urban life: they mix litigation with notarial acts, price lists, and orders from the centre.
• Today a qadi is most often encountered as a family-law or sharia-court judge in states that retained a personal-status track (e.g. Morocco, Jordan, Egypt's family courts in the Islamic-law tradition, Malaysia, Brunei, northern Nigeria).
• In parts of South Asia a qazi may function mainly as a marriage registrar for Muslims rather than as a full trial judge.
• Litigants still treat the qadi as the official who can make a hukm that the political authority is expected to enforce, as distinct from a mufti's advisory fatwa.

1. Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Typical measurements

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Appointment term (Ottoman territorial kadi, typical practice) - about 1-2 - years
• Number of legally sufficient witnesses for a typical pecuniary claim - 2 (adult male 'adl witnesses; female and non-Muslim testimony restricted or excluded depending on madhhab and claim type) - persons
• Territorial jurisdiction - one town or Ottoman kaza; a chief qadi's remit is a capital or province - administrative district
• Deputies (nuwwab) under a busy urban qadi - 0-several - persons

1. Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Failure modes and hazards

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Venality: sale of office, fee-gouging, and bribery, a recurrent complaint in chronicles and visitation records.
• Ignorance or weak training (a 'jahil' qadi), producing unsound judgments and dependence on poorly chosen assessors.
• Partiality (mayl) toward kin, patrons, one madhhab, or the appointing ruler.
• Unenforceable hukm when the qadi lacks the ruler's coercive backing.
• Jurisdictional clash with mazalim boards, the muhtasib, military courts, or modern civil courts, leading to forum shopping and contradictory orders.
• Procedural inequality built into classical evidence rules (gender, religion, slave status), which modern reformers treat as a rights hazard.
• Capture of short-tenure postings by local notables, or the opposite: a revolving door that destroys local legal memory.

1. Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Regional variation

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Ottoman lands: kadi of a kaza, supervised by kadiaskers; court sicils are the characteristic record; kanun and sharia sat in the same court.
• Maghrib and al-Andalus: typically a Maliki qadi, often a prominent urban office; Spanish alcalde derives from al-qadi but became a municipal magistrate.
• South Asia: qazi/kazi; under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughals a full judge, under the British often reduced toward marriage and personal-status registration, a role that still exists.
• West Africa: Hausa alkali (from al-qadi); emirate courts historically and, in northern Nigeria, reconstituted sharia courts.
• Southeast Asia: kadi/syariah court judge in Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore; overlapping but not identical to Indonesian penghulu and religious-court (pengadilan agama) judges.
• Iran: qazi in the sharia tradition, later largely absorbed into the modern state judiciary (dadgostari) after legal reforms.

1. Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Mufti - A mufti issues a non-binding fatwa on a legal question; a qadi issues a binding hukm in a concrete case after hearing parties.
• Hakam (arbitrator) - A hakam is chosen by the parties for a dispute; a qadi is appointed by public authority and his competence does not depend on that choice.
• Sahib al-mazalim / mazalim board - Mazalim is the ruler's grievance and equity jurisdiction, used especially against officials; the qadi's court is the ordinary sharia forum between private parties.
• Muhtasib - The muhtasib polices markets, public morals, and hisba offences on the spot; the qadi tries private claims under courtroom procedure.
• Imam (prayer leader) - An imam leads worship and may teach; he is not thereby a judge, though in some small communities one person has held both roles.
• Notary / professional witnesses ('udul) - They attest and draft; they do not decide the case. The qadi may rely on them and may also perform notarial acts, but the distinguishing act is the judgment.
• Civil or common-law trial judge - Applies state codes and judicial precedent as such; a qadi's formal source is fiqh (and, where dual courts exist, a personal-status statute), even if the same modern official sometimes sits in both capacities.
• Alcalde (Iberian municipal magistrate) - The word comes from al-qadi, but the alcalde is a Spanish municipal or royal officer under Christian law, not a sharia judge.

1. Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of qadi this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance