al-Muraqaba al-Ulya fiman yastahiqq al-Qada wa al-Futya = Tarikh Qudat al-Andalus
- Author died
- 792 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīdah
al-Muraqaba al-Ulya fiman yastahiqq al-Qada wa al-Futya (Arabic: المرقبة العليا فيمن يستحق القضاء والفتيا, lit. 'The Highest Vigilance Concerning Those Deserving Judicial Office and Fatwa Issuance'), also published under the title Tarikh Qudat al-Andalus (تاريخ قضاة الأندلس, History of the Judges of al-Andalus), is a biographical and legal-historical work by the Andalusian scholar and judge Abu al-Hasan al-Nabahi (713 – c. 792 AH / 1313 – c. 1390 CE) . The book combines theoretical jurisprudence on the rules and ethics of judicial appointment and fatwa issuance with historical biographies and rulings of judges across al-Andalus .
Author and Purpose
The work was authored by Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Judhami al-Nabahi al-Malaqi (also known as Ibn al-Hasan), who was born in Malaga in 713 AH and served as chief judge (qadi al-jama'ah) and preacher (khatib) in Granada . His death is reported around 792 AH, after 792 AH, or in 793 AH (c. 1390 CE) .
In his introduction, al-Nabahi states that while predecessors had written on the subject, he composed the treatise as a personal reminder and guidance for practitioners of the judiciary . He outlined its scope to address the office of the judiciary (khittat al-qada'), the conduct and biographies of past judges, those who reached the level of legal reasoning (ijtihad), the boundaries of legal conformity (taqlid), the required qualifications of a mufti whose legal opinions may be accepted, sound standards of fatwa delivery, and legal rulings on whether muftis are permitted to accept gifts from petitioners or whether such gifts constitute forbidden bribery .
Structure and Content
The author organized the core subject matter of the book into roughly four main divisions (abwab) :
- Judicial theory and qualifications: The work examines the essential conditions for judges, dividing them into necessary validity requirements (such as Islam, sanity, puberty, male gender, and freedom) and conditions of perfection (such as dignity, intelligence, and consultation with scholars of legal opinion) .
- Administrative divisions of the judiciary: It describes judicial and executive offices in al-Andalus—drawing upon previous authorities such as Abu al-Asbagh ibn Sahl and Ali ibn Yahya—including the office of chief judge (qadi al-jama'ah), the middle and minor police prefects (al-shurta al-wusta and al-shurta al-sughra), the supervisor of grievances (sahib mazalim), the officer of review (sahib radd), the city administrator (sahib madina), and the market inspector (sahib al-suq or sahib al-hisba) .
- Biographical chronicles of Andalusian judges: The text provides historical notices and legal cases of judges who held office in Cordoba and other Andalusian cities from the early Umayyad period onward .
Sources and Publications
Al-Nabahi drew upon earlier Andalusian judicial and biographical literature, including the historical writings of Ahmad ibn Abd al-Barr on the judges of Cordoba and Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi's Siraj al-Muridin .
The work was published in modern print in Cairo in 1948 under the editorially assigned title Tarikh Qudat al-Andalus, followed by photographic reprints and subsequent editions in Beirut (including printings in 1967 and 1400 AH / 1980 CE) that maintained both the editorial title and the book's original title .
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