Rafia Zakaria: Pushing Baby Back into the Womb

The purpose behind this historical overview is to reveal the fallacy of assertions that suggest that going back to formulations of justice that appear medieval somehow denotes a return to an era of Islamic authenticity; proximity in this sense does not automatically produce purity in terms of legal tradition.

Assertions that Qazi courts are representative of the Medinite caliphate are not only historically inaccurate, but mischaracterise the reality that Qazis fulfilled an administrative function that had more to do with managing an empire than any textual allegiance to the Quran.

Rafia