Qādīe communicating: Legal change and the law of documentary evidence

Abstract

A study of two seventh/thirteenth century model legal manuals, one from Syria, the other from al-Andalus, show that the discourse about the modalities of written communication prescribed for judges (kitāb al-qādi ilā al-qādī) reflects an intimate relationship between doctrine and the realia of legal practise. One aspect of this relationship is the change that discursive doctrine had to undergo under the pressure of juridical practises of everyday life.