The term Luwaran, which the Mindanao Moros apply to their code of law, means "selection" or "selected." The laws that are embodied in the Luwaran are selections from old Arabic law and were translated and compiled for the guidance and information of the Mindanao datus, judges, and pandita who do not understand Arabic. The Mindanao copies of the Luwaran give no dates at all, and nobody seems to know when this code was made. They say it was prepared by the Mindanao judges some time ago, but none of those judges is known by name. Datu Mastura's copy of this code was written about 1886, and it is undoubtedly copied from some older manuscript. The original manuscript [11] accompanying this code is older still, but it bears no date at all. The Arabic books quoted in the Luwaran are Minhaju-l-Arifeen, Taqreebu-l-Intifa, Fathu-l-Qareeb, and Miratu-t-Tullab. The first of these, generally known as the Minhaj, is the chief authority quoted. Datu Utu had an old copy of the Minhaj that looked more than two hundred years old. The author of the Minhaj must have lived in the ninth or tenth century. The compilation of the Luwaran must have been made before the middle of the eighteenth century. Each Mindanao datu is assisted in the administration of justice by a judge and a vizier. The judge is called Datu Kali. The word kali is derived from the Arabic word meaning "judge." The Datu Kali is the chief pandita of the district and is supposed to be the best-informed man of the community. The pandita is the scholar who can read and write and perform the functions of a priest. The vizier is called "wazir;" he is a pandita, too, and acts in a semijudicial and clerical capacity. Mohammedan law being based on the teachings of the Quran, the chief pandita of the district is naturally regarded as the most competent expounder of the law and the best-fitted person in the community to act as a judge. As the wazir is a pandita, he should be a well-informed and wise man. Some datus are pandita themselves, and some take all matters into their own hands and delegate none of their offices or duties to a judge or a vizier; but this is the exception, not the rule.