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MEMLÛKLERDE DÖRT MEZHEP BAŞKADILIKLARININ KURULUŞU VE İŞLEYİŞİ THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FOUR JUDGESHIPS IN THE MAMLUKS AND ITS FUNCTIONING
Authors: Burak Gani EROL
Number of views: 1054
The qadi, whose real task was to establish justice according to the shar’i provisions and rulings,
represented such positions as religious, financial, administrative in the history of Islam and was also
one of the most important elements of the functioning of the state. The authority to whom qadis were
attached, the one who appointed and dismissed them and the one who was elected by the caliph /
sultan was the chief qadi. Founded in the Abbasids period in the history of Islam, the system of qadis
was established over time, providing a very important function to the all of the Islamic states. While
qadis were appointed, they were assigned according to the prevailing denomination of the Islamic
country. Since many of the Muslims who resided in Egypt and their environment were Shafi, the successors
were also Şhafi, and among the qadis they chose as their deputy the Şhafîs had outnumbereother sectarian qadis, which were Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali. In the Mamluk period, Sultan al-Zahir
Baybars appointed a chief qadis for the first time in history from the other three Sunni denominations.
But, among the chief qadis who shared the same title, the Şhafi qadi continued to preoccupy others
in terms of authority, reputation, and deference to him. There were negative consequences, such
as the fact that head of qadi was removed from the monopoly of Şhafi sect (madhhab) and that the
appointments of the chief qadi of the other sects had positive results, and the chief qadis belonging
to different sects occasionally disagreed with each other. Because many of the Mamluk sultans and
emirs belonged to the Hanafi sect, they also sometimes acted with sectarian intent. Sometimes, the
sultans and emirs interfered with the functioning of the justice organization, which was not in line
with Islamic understanding. In this study, we tried to explain the causes of Sultan Baybars’ reform
of institution of chief qadis, the duties and authorities of the Şhafi chief qadi, and the relations of the
chief qadis with each other and the influence of the political mechanism on the chief qadis.