In this excerptfromQuḍāt Qurṭuba, Khushanī recounts an anecdote involving the judge Muḥammad b. Bashīr. Upon his appointment to the judgeship in Cordoba, the judge had ten cards for summons prepared with his seal (ṭābiʿ), and he used these until he died. Al-Aʿshā, who was known for his wit, asked of every friend of the judge that he met, “When are you going to meet the ten auctioneers (dallāl)? When are you going to visit the ten agents?” When Muḥammad b. Bashīr learned of this, he was displeased and told al-Aʿshā to desist. In her chapter in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, MaribelFierro uses this anecdote as an example of judges’ being subjected to jokes and ridicule.
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.