In this excerpt from his chronicle, Ibn al-Jawzī relates an incident in 530/1135–6 in which a woman was publicly immolated in the central mosque. In his chapter comparing earthly justice with heavenly justice in the early Islamic imagination in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Christian Lange cites this example of punitive burning to make the point that judges viewed their own function in adjudication along lines similar to divine judgment: in spite of the circulation of ḥadīths such as “Only the Lord of Fire punishes with fire,” rulers and judges had no qualms about burning criminals.
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.