ALTNEULAND
Organ of the Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine
PUBLISHED BY
I. Introduction.
The foundation of the Islamic judicial constitution is to be traced back to the Prophet; he exercised the judicial power in Medina himself, and only exceptionally allowed himself to be represented therein. Judgment was given according to the laws of Abraham and Moses, to which Mohammed created supplements. His judgments have universally binding force and form a part of the Mohammedan law.
The foundation of Mohammedan legislation has from of old been the word of God (Koran) and the teaching of the Prophet (Sunnet), which may be designated the primal sources of Mohammedan law. Besides these there exist as sources of law the analogy of statute and the decision of an assembly of jurists.
When the Omayyads seized the sovereignty, a change in the judicial constitution took place, in that other courts were added to the court of the Prophet. Under the Caliph Abu Jafar-el-Mansur the legislative function of the courts was separated from the judicial. From that time down to recent days the Mohammedan judicial
*) After the essay of Savvas Pasha, formerly Turkish Minister of State, in the collective work "Die Strafgesetzgebung der Gegenwart" ("The Penal Legislation of the Present Day"), edited by Prof. Dr. Franz von Liszt on behalf of the International Criminalistic Association, Vol. I. Berlin 1894, p. 693 ff.