Nuzi Fragments from the Estate of R.F.S. Starr (original) (raw)
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2017
This article presents a preliminary study of how an Imamite Shīʻī sharīʻa court in Iran in the Qājār period (1796-1925) issued a judicial decision in a lawsuit relating to religiously endowed property (vaqf). After an introduction to the state of research on sharīʻa court documents from Qājār Iran, we study how the scribe of an Imamite Shīʻī sharīʻa court in Neyrīz, a small town in the south-west province of Fārs, recorded details of a vaqf lawsuit onto a cotton document. Next, based on a comparative analysis between the Neyrīz sharīʻa court document and some previously edited Qājār sharīʻa court documents, we distinguish between the decision of a judge at the end of a lawsuit and the judge’s notarial certification of a claim based on the evidence of one party. We demonstrate that the recording procedures of the Neyrīz sharīʻa court leave no room for doubt that the judge issued a decision after he reviewed the evidence of both sides. This was important in order to ensure effective closure of the lawsuit in the decentralized Qājār judicial system. The article concludes with an edition and a facsimile of the Neyrīz sharīʻa court document.
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