al-Hisba li-Ibn al-Mubarrad
- Author died
- 909 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭba‘ah al-Kāthūlīkīyah
al-Hisba (The Manual of Market Inspection) is a concise administrative and legal treatise on market regulation and the crafts of Damascus by the Hanbali jurist and traditionist Ibn al-Mubarrad (d. 909 AH / 1503 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
The work serves as a practical guide defining the competencies and responsibilities of the market inspector (al-muhtasib) over the artisans and vendors operating in Damascus during the author's era . Ibn al-Mubarrad states at the opening that a muhtasib must possess a comprehensive understanding of religious jurisprudence—including the rulings of ritual prayer, fasting, zakat, commercial sales, marriage, divorce, lawful and prohibited foods and drinks, apostasy and faith, slaughtering conditions, and the laws of judicial testimony and confession—to hold the populace accountable to them . Additionally, the inspector must understand technical crafts in order to distinguish superior craftsmanship from defects, adulteration, and counterfeit goods .
Structure and Contents
The treatise is arranged as an enumeration of 102 numbered categories of professions, trades, and market activities, specifying the primary points of oversight required for each :
- Textiles and Commerce: The treatise opens with the weavers (al-ḥāka), divided into over one hundred varieties across materials such as cotton (including makers of linings, turbans, wraps, towels, and quilts), linen (over twenty varieties), silk (over forty varieties), wool (over twenty varieties), carpets (over ten varieties), and coarse sacks . Oversight of these trades focuses on quality, preventing artificial stiffening with dough, barring fraud, and prohibiting silk weavers from secluding themselves behind closed doors with young boys . It then outlines merchants (al-tujjār) selling new and second-hand apparel, demanding piety and fair dealing in transactions .
- Provisions and Foods: Subsequent entries cover grain sellers, flour millers, bakers, cooks, fruit and dried-fruit sellers, confectioners, butcher shops, dairy and cheese vendors, pickle makers, and chickpea roasters . Market inspectors are tasked with enforcing food hygiene, requiring covered storage vessels, clean utensils, and preventing the dilution of beverages or the adulteration of high-quality produce with inferior stock .
- Building Trades and Manufacturing: Ibn al-Mubarrad lists carpenters, builders, blacksmiths, needle makers, potters, papermakers, coppersmiths, painters, glassmakers, shoemakers, cap makers, soap makers, and weapons smiths, demanding sound craftsmanship, non-fraudulent materials, and honest business conduct .
- Medical and Public Services: Supervision extends to physicians, surgeons, bone-setters, oculists, herbalists, and farriers, who are evaluated on medical skill, deliberate care, humility, and the purity of their medicines . For beast drivers, porters, quarry workers, and woodcutters, the inspector must prevent animal cruelty and ensure beasts are not overloaded . Public bathhouse operators must maintain water temperature, hygiene, and honesty, while street sweepers are overseen to ensure they do not obstruct passages or soil pedestrians .
- Religious, Legal, and Scholarly Occupations: The text encompasses court witnesses (al-shuhūd), demanding mildness and piety; muezzins, requiring knowledge of prayer times and personal reliability; scribes and bookbinders; schoolteachers (al-mu’addibūn), prioritizing sound instructional methods; and money changers, requiring expertise in currency laws and adherence to lawful exchanges .
- Marginal and Prohibited Trades: The author includes geomancers (al-ramliyya) and conjurors (al-musha‘widha), stating that hisba oversight over them requires either banning them outright or ensuring their actions do not harm the public .
Ibn al-Mubarrad concludes the work by noting that the overarching obligation of the hisba across all trades is enforcing religious piety, honest dealing, and the exact calibration of weights and scales (taḥrīr al-mīzān wa-l-ṣunaj) . He remarks that he omitted exhaustive technical descriptions of each trade's specific forms of cheating solely to preserve conciseness and avoid tedious length .
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