VIII. Omar's Instructions to the Kadi

Extract

THE Instructions of the Second Caliph to the Judge Abū Mūsā al-Ash'arī are edited by several Moslem writers, with the differences which seem inseparable from Oral Tradition. The earliest existing copies are those produced by Jāḥiẓ (ob. 255 a.h.: Bayān, i, 169, ed. Cairo), by Mubarrad (210–85: Kāmil, i, 9, ed. Cairo), and Ibn Ḳutaibah (213–76: 'Uyūn al-akhbār, p. 87, ed. Brockelmann); to the next century belongs that of Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi (246–328: 'Iḳd Farīd, i, 33, ed. Cairo, 1293); to the same century or the next belongs the edition of Māwardī (362–450: Aḥkām Sulṭaniyyah, pp. 119–21, ed. Enger); and to a much later period that of Ibn Khaldūn (732–806: Muḳaddimah, i, 184, ed. Cairo, 1284; p. 221, ed. Beyrūt, 1900). According to Mubarrad the Instructions were very widely circulated; he has glossed a few of the expressions, but by no means provided a complete commentary. Glosses to one or two of the phrases are to be found in the Nihāyah or “Dictionary of Tradition” of Ibn al-Athīr. The document was translated into German by von Hammer (Über dic Länderverwaltung unter dem Chalifate, Berlin, 1835, pp. 206, 207) after Ibn Khaldūn; the same text was followed by de Slane in his translation of the Prolegomena (Notices et Extraits, xix, 449), and Professor Gottheil (History of the Egyptian Ḳāḍīs, p. vii). Finally the Beyrūt editor has vocalized the whole text.