al-Taratib al-Idariyya = Nizam al-Hukuma al-Nabawiyya
- Author died
- 1382 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Arqam
Al-Taratib al-Idariyya (fully titled Kitāb al-tarātīb al-idāriyya wa-l-‘amālāt wa-l-ṣinā‘āt wa-l-matājir wa-l-ḥāla al-‘ilmiyya allatī kānat ‘alā ‘ahd ta’sīs al-madaniyya al-islāmiyya fī al-madīna al-munawwara al-‘aliyya, and also known as Niẓām al-ḥukūma al-nabawiyya) is an administrative and institutional study of the prophetic era by the Moroccan hadith scholar Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani (1305?–1382 AH / 1888–1962 CE) .
Background and Composition
The foundation of the book rests upon Takhrīj al-dalālāt al-sam‘iyya ‘alā mā kāna fī ‘ahd Rasūl Allāh min al-ḥiraf wa-l-ṣanā’i‘ wa-l-mu‘āmalāt al-shar‘iyya by Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Khuza'i . Al-Kattani sought out al-Khuza‘i's work and obtained a copy from the library of the Zaytuna Mosque in Tunis in 1339 AH with the assistance of Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur, who was then serving as a judge in Tunis . The manuscript lacked its tenth and concluding section; al-Kattani compensated for this gap and substantially augmented the text with material drawn from extensive source literature, multiplying its original size . In his work, al-Kattani underlined al-Khuza‘i’s original passages to distinguish them from his own additions and corrections .
Al-Kattani intended the work to counter the omission of the prophetic era from administrative and civil histories of Islam, arguing that the civilization and governmental structures that flourished during the Umayyad and Abbasid eras had their foundational roots and precursors established during the Prophet’s ﷺ leadership in Medina, where religious and temporal affairs were unified .
Structure and Scope
The work arranges the administrative, economic, and civil functions of the prophetic community into thematic sections and chapters, covering:
- Governance and Personal Service: Leadership, ministerial consultation (wizāra), chamberlains, doorkeepers, guards, and those who attended to the Prophet's ﷺ personal needs .
- Scribes and Communication: Scribes of revelation, correspondence, peace treaties, land grants, translation, couriers, town criers, accountants, and the etiquette of writing .
- Judiciary and Law Enforcement: Regional governors, judges, market inspectors (ḥisba), estate distributors, night patrols, gatekeepers during crises, executioners of legal penalties (ḥudūd), and prison administration .
- Treasury and Economic Life: Custodians of public funds (bayt al-māl), grain storage, weights and measures, coinage and the mint, protected public lands (ḥimā), trades, agriculture, and commerce .
- Education and Society: Educational practices, scholarly circles, and the social conditions of the Companions in Medina .
Publication and Reception
The book was originally published in Rabat in two volumes in 1346 AH (1927–1928 CE), and later reissued in Beirut .
The scholar Ihsan Abbas observed that al-Kattani's additions to al-Khuza‘i's text were mostly beneficial, though they occasionally suffered from obvious prolixity and excess (tazayyud) . Despite this, the work came to be regarded as one of the most comprehensive compilations on the administrative arrangements and institutional history of the prophetic period .
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