SOURCES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE IN THE HISTORY OF QAZI (ISLAMIC JUDICIARY)

Abstract

 The institution of the Qāẓī courts in the Movarounnahr (Transoxiana) and Turkestan region represented one of the principal legal-social governance mechanisms of the 10th–20th centuries, bridging Islamic jurisprudence, customary practice and colonial reform. This article examines key source-categories — historical manuscripts, Sharia/fiqh works, archival legal-administrative records and modern scientific scholarship — and traces how the Qāẓī courts functioned, transformed and declined under Russian colonial policy. Using a document-analysis approach, the study investigates how Qāẓī courts adjudicated social, religious and civil disputes; how they integrated notarial, administrative and judicial roles; and how their institutional status evolved from the golden age of 10th–13th century Transoxiana to the late 19th–early 20th century imperial reforms. The results show that by the 19th century these courts remained socially central but legally marginalized under colonial pressure; conventional Sharia-customary adjudication (e.g., biy courts) transitioned into hybrid forms of justice. The discussion highlights how an understanding of these sources is essential to reconstruct the socio-legal role of the Qāẓī institution, its normative basis, and its transformation in Central-Asian Islamic history.