Fatawa Alamgiri

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Fatawa 'Alamgiri
फ़तवा आ़लमगीरी
Manuscript copy of al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyyah.jpg
Manuscript of the Fatawa 'Alamgiri
Author500 prominent Islamic scholars
LanguageArabic and Persian
GenreIslamic law (Hanafi)
PublisherEmperor Aurangzeb
Publication date
1672

Fatawa 'Alamgiri (Hindi: फ़तवा आलमगीरी), also known as Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyyah (Arabic: الفتاوى الهندية‎ अल-फ़तवा अल-हिन्दिया ), or Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (फ़तवा-ए-आलमगीरी), is a comprehensive 17th-century compilation of Islamic law that covers various aspects such as governance, ethics, military strategy, economic policies, and the administration of justice and punishment. This work was established during the rule of Mughal Emperor Muhammad Muhiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir and functioned as a principal legal framework for the Mughal Empire. In the 18th century through to the early 20th century, it became the key reference for implementing Sharia law in colonial India and has been recognised as "the most significant compilation of Muslim law during the Mughal Empire".

Outline[edit]

Fatawa-e-Alamgiri was the collaborative effort of numerous esteemed scholars from various regions, including Hejaz, primarily representing the Hanafi school of thought. To create this comprehensive compilation, Emperor Aurangzeb convened a team of 500 Islamic jurisprudence experts—300 from India, 100 from Iraq, and another 100 from Hejaz. Shaikh Nizam, a renowned lawyer based in Lahore, was appointed as the chairman of the commission responsible for assembling Fatawa-e-Alamgiri. The extensive work carried out by these scholars culminated in an Islamic legal code for India during the late Mughal Era. This code encompasses laws pertaining to personal matters, family issues, slavery, warfare, property rights, inter-religious interactions, transactions, taxation, and economic regulations, along with juristic opinions provided by the faqīh of that period.

The collection includes verses from the Qur'an, enriched with hadith reports from notable sources such as Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawood, and Sahih at-Tirmidhi.

The Fatawa is distinguished for several key reasons:

  • Initially comprising 30 volumes in multiple languages, it has since been condensed into 6 volumes in contemporary editions.
  • It made a noteworthy contribution to the economy of India, especially in Bengal Subah, facilitating an early form of industrialisation.
  • It established the foundation for judicial law across the Mughal Empire.
  • It instituted a legal framework that differentiated treatment based on individuals' religious affiliations.

Similar in content to other Hanafi texts, the laws outlined in Fatawa-i Alamgiri address various matters, including the following:

Criminal and personal law[edit]

  • Personal law for Muslims of India in the 18th century, their inheritance rights,[1]
  • Personal law on gifts,[2]
  • Apostates neither have nor leave inheritance rights after they are executed,[3]
  • The guardian of a Muslim girl may arrange her marriage with her consent,[4]
  • A Muslim boy of understanding, requires the consent of his guardian to marry.[5]
  • Laws establishing the paternity of a child arising from valid or invalid Muslim marriages,[6]
  • A Muslim man with four wives must treat all of them justly, equally and each must come to his bed when he so demands,[7]
  • Hudud punishments for the religious crime of zina (pre-marital, extra-marital sex) by free Muslims and non-Muslim slaves. It declared the punishment of flogging or stoning to death (Rajm), depending on the status of the accused i.e. Stoning for a Married (Muhsin) person (free or unfree), and as for the non-Muhsin, a free person will get one hundred stripes and a slave will get fifty if they self confess.[8]

Pillage and Slavery[edit]

  • If two or more Muslims, or persons subject to Muslims, who enter a non-Muslim controlled territory (properties of non-combatants are excluded) for the purpose of pillage(seizing booties of the fighters) without the permission of the Imam, and thus seize some property of the inhabitants there, and bring it back into the Muslim territory, that property would be legally theirs.”[9]
  • Plundering and pillaging of residential areas is forbidden in Islam.[10][11]
  • The right of Muslims to purchase and own slaves.[12]
  • A Muslim man's right to have sex with a captive slave girl he owns.[13]
  • No inheritance rights for slaves.[14]
  • The testimony of all slaves was inadmissible in a court of law.[15]
  • Slaves require permission of the master before they can marry.[16]
  • An unmarried Muslim may marry a slave girl owned by another but a Muslim married to a Muslim woman may not marry a slave girl.[17]
  • Conditions under which the slaves may be emancipated partially or fully.[18]

Office of censor[edit]

The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri also institutionalised the legal concept of Muhtasib, or the office of censor, which had been employed by earlier rulers of the Mughal Empire. Under this framework, any publication or information could be labeled as heretical, making its dissemination a punishable offense. To enforce the Sharia principle of hisbah, officials known as kotwals were appointed. The administrative system and offices established by Fatawa-e-Alamgiri were designed with the objective of promoting the Islamisation of India.

Development[edit]

The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (also spelled Fatawa al-Alamgiriyya) was compiled in late 1672 by a group of 500 Muslim scholars from Medina, Baghdad, and India, primarily in Delhi and Lahore, under the leadership of Sheikh Nizam Burhanpuri. This compilation represented a creative application of Islamic law within the framework of Hanafi fiqh. It imposed restrictions on the powers of the Muslim judiciary and limited the ability of Islamic jurists to issue discretionary fatwas. The work was completed over eight years, from 1664 to 1672. Ahmet Özel from Atatürk University has noted in his research for the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi that the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri spread rapidly to Anatolia during Aurangzeb's reign, facilitated by the efforts of travelers, scholars, and officials.

As power transitioned from Muslim rulers in India to British colonial authorities, the latter chose to preserve local institutions and laws, opting to operate under traditional pre-colonial legal frameworks rather than imposing a secular European common law system. The Fatawa-i Alamgiri, recognized as a comprehensive Islamic law text, became the cornerstone of the legal system in India during the reign of Aurangzeb and subsequent Muslim rulers. Additionally, English-speaking judges depended on the expertise of Muslim law specialists to interpret and establish the law of the land, given that the original Fatawa-i Alamgiri (Al-Hindiya) was composed in Arabic. This reliance fostered the emergence of a social class of Islamic gentry, who diligently protected their legal expertise, authority, and autonomy. Consequently, this dynamic resulted in inconsistent interpretations and varied judgments in similar legal cases, a challenge that posed difficulties for British colonial officials.

The colonial government's assumption was that the locally interpreted sharia-based law, derived from the Fatawa-i Alamgiri, could be implemented through a common law-style legal institution with integrity. However, this assumption began to unravel in the latter half of the 19th century due to inconsistencies and internal contradictions within the Fatawa-i Alamgiri, as well as its foundation in Hanafi Sunni sharia, which did not adequately address the needs of Shia Muslims and other minority sects of Islam in South Asia. These groups contested the applicability of the Fatawa-i Alamgiri to their circumstances. Moreover, Hindus rejected the Hanafi sharia-based legal framework established by the Fatawa-i Alamgiri.

Additionally, the colonial belief in "legal precedent" was at odds with the disregard for such precedent in the Anglo-Muhammadan legal system that developed during the Company period, leading to a growing distrust of Maulavis (Muslim religious scholars) among colonial officials. In response to these complexities, the colonial administration established a bureaucratic framework that created distinct laws for various Muslim sects and non-Muslims, including Hindus. This bureaucracy utilised the Fatawa-i Alamgiri to formulate and implement a series of separate religious laws for Muslims while establishing common laws for non-Muslims, such as Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs. Many of these legal frameworks continued to be adopted in independent India after 1947.

The British undertook efforts to sponsor translations of the Fatawa-i Alamgiri. In the late 18th century, at the behest of the British, the al-Hidaya was translated from Arabic into Persian. Notable figures such as Charles Hamilton and William Jones contributed to this initiative by translating portions of the document along with other sharia-related texts into English. These translations contributed to a decline in the power and influence of Qadis/Kazis (Islamic judges) in colonial India.

In 1865, Neil Baillie published another translation titled "A Digest of Mohummudan Law", which relied on the Fatawa-i Alamgiri among other documents. Subsequently, in 1873, Sircar released an English compilation of Muhammadan Law that included translations of numerous sections of the Fatawa-i Alamgiri. These translated texts became key references that shaped legal frameworks and jurisprudence in colonial India during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Many of these legal principles continued to influence law in post-colonial Republic of India, Islamic republic of Pakistan, and People's republic of Bangladesh.

Contemporary comments[edit]

Burton Stein posits that the Fatawa-i Alamgiri marked a re-establishment of the prominence of the Muslim ulama within the political and administrative spheres, a status that had diminished during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar. The document reformulated legal principles to expand Islam and Muslim society by creating a new and comprehensive code of Islamic law.

Modern historians have noted that British efforts to translate and implement Sharia from documents like the Fatawa-i Alamgiri left a lasting legal legacy that persisted during and after India's independence, influencing legal frameworks in Pakistan, Republic of India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

Jamal Malik argues that the Fatawa-i Alamgiri reinforced social stratification among Muslims and diverged from the consensus of Hanafi Law. He contends that specific punishments solidified established social categories:

  • Muslim nobles, such as Sayyids, were exempt from physical punishments;
  • governors and landholders could face humiliation but not arrest or physical punishment;
  • The middle class could be humiliated and imprisoned but not physically punished;
  • While lower-class commoners could be arrested, humiliated, and subjected to physical punishment.

Furthermore, the emperor was endowed with the authority to issue farmans (legal decrees) that could overrule fatwas issued by Islamic jurists, thereby centralising legal authority within the imperial structure.

Mona Siddiqui emphasises that despite being referred to as a fatawa, the Fatawa-i Alamgiri is not a fatwa or a collection of fatwas from the time of Aurangzeb. Instead, it is characterised as a mabsūts:' style text within the furu al-fiqh genre of Islamic literature. This type of text compiles various statements and draws upon earlier Hanafi sharia texts for justification. Furthermore, the Fatawa-i Alamgiri approaches the concept of contracts not merely as written documents between two parties but as oral agreements. In specific cases, such as marriage, these agreements are recognised as being valid in the presence of witnesses, highlighting the importance of oral testimony and communal acknowledgment in establishing legal bonds.

Translation[edit]

In 1892, the Bengali scholar Muhammad Naimuddin published a four-volume translation of the Fatawa-i Alamgiri into the Bengali language. This significant work was supported by Wajed Ali Khan Panni and received patronage from Hafez Mahmud Ali Khan Panni, the Zamindar of Karatia. Additionally, Kafilur Rahman Nishat Usmani, a Deobandi jurist, undertook the translation of the Fatawa-i Alamgiri into Urdu. These translations contributed to the accessibility of Islamic legal texts for speakers of Bengali and Urdu, further influencing legal and cultural discourse within these communities.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law p. 344 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  2. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 515-546 with footnote 1 etc, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  3. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 6, pp. 632-637 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
  4. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 402-403 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
  5. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law p. 5 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  6. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 392-400 with footnote 2 etc, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  7. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, p. 381 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
  8. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 1-3 with footnotes, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  9. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 364 with footnote 3, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  10. ↑ https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/articles /hr/ch04.html [bare URL]
  11. ↑ "Hadith on Plunder: Stealing from the enemy is unlawful". 10 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 5, p. 273 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
  13. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 395-397; Fatawa-i Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 86-88, Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
  14. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 6, p. 631 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980); The Muhammadan Law p. 275 annotations
  15. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 371 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
  16. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, page 377 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980); The Muhammadan Law p. 298 annotations
  17. ↑ Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 394-398 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980)
  18. ↑ A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 386 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London

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