International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science - Volume 1, No. 9, August 26, 1850 — John Shaqi
International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science - Volume 1, No. 9, August 26, 1850Various
Science
International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science - Volume 1, No. 9, August 26, 1850
Various
Art -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
The Caliphs dominated over both countries and over both sects. Under
their orthodox protection the Sunnite doctrines were able to strike
root in Balkh and Samarkand--the ancient Turan, and therefore hostile
to Iran and Persia. When Islam was reorganized after the anarchy which
ensued upon the overthrow of the Caliphs, Persia became the appanage
of the Sophis or Shiite dynasty; the regions to the West of the
Euphrates--the ci-devant Roman Empire--acknowledged the rule of
the Turkish dynasties, which were Sunnite. On the Oxus and further
East--the old Turan--the Sunnite sect was sufficiently strong to defy
the efforts of the Shiite sovereigns of Persia to eradicate it. The
doctors of Samarkand and Bokhara continued (and continue) as orthodox
Sunnites as those of Kufah, Mecca, and Stamboul.
Accordingly, we find the authorities excerpted in the "Futawa
Alumgeeree" consist almost exclusively of two classes; they are either
the immediate disciples of Hanifa at Kufah and Bagdad, or the jurists
of Samarkand and Bokhara. The law-cases they expounded are such as had
originated, or might have originated, in those countries--in Babylonia
or Turan. And they are for the most part taken from a state of
society, and illustrative of social relations, which prevailed in
these countries at a period long antecedent to that of Aurunzebe. To
attempt to illustrate the civil and social condition of India, under
that Emperor by their aid, would be as preposterous as to attempt to
illustrate the civil and social condition of those parts of Germany
where the Roman law still possesses authority from cases recorded in
the Pandects of Justinian.
The real use and value of the "Futawa Alumgeeree" may be briefly
explained. In every country in Europe where the Roman law is still
recognized as more or less authoritative--and indeed in every country
where the common law has borrowed more or less from the Roman--an
acquaintance with the system of Roman jurisprudence as it is embodied
in the law-books of Justinian has its value for the scientific lawyer.
In like manner a knowledge of Mahometan jurisprudence as embodied in
the "Futawa Alumgeeree" cannot fail to be instructive for the lawyers
of all the countries of Islam, and the lawyers of India, where so much
of the existing practical law has been derived from that source. To
the general scholar who wishes to master the civil history of Arabia
and Babylonia, in which the Sunnite sect, and more particularly the
Hanifite subdivision of it, originated, or to familiarize himself
with the moral theories which regulate the judgments and actions of
the modern Turks, Turcomans, Arabians, and Egyptians, the digest of
Aurungzeebee is also a valuable repertory of facts and illustrations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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