SHARIAsource

In this excerpt from his legal treatise, the Hanafī jurist al-Sarakhsī relays how the imperial grand judge Yaḥyā b. Aktham (d. 242/857) upheld the Ḥanafī position regarding the eligibility of non-Muslims to serve as witnesses. Yaḥyā was said to have permitted non-Muslim testimony against any other non-Muslims. He explained his position, writing that, “consulting the opinions of the earliest jurists, I have found no one forbidding the testimony of the protected people, except two [conflicting] opinions attributed to Rabīʿa.” Further, Sarakhsī relays the Ḥanafī criterion for witness eligibility which developed in a specific hierarchical framework. Muslims were placed above non-Muslims and, within that, locals above outsiders (dhimmī vs. ḥarbī). As Ahmed El Shamsy notes in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, this framework equates the right to give testimony with the right to demonstrate legal authority (wilāya) over another.

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts (ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of sources and other material used in and related to the book.  

English translation of the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan, published with the permission of Constitute.

English translation of the 1906 Constitution of Persia (now Iran), as amended by and including the Supplementary Constitutional Law of 7 October 1907.

English translation of the 1923 Constitution/Basic Law of Afghanistan ("Nizamnamah-ye-Asasi-e-Daulat-e-'Aliyah-e-Afghanistan"), with English translation of 1925 amendments appended.

English translation of the 1925 Constitution of Persia (Iran) (Supplementary Constitutional Law of October 7, 1907, as amended to 1925).

English translation of the 1931 Fundamental Principles of Government of Afghanistan (constitution), with added English translation of 1933 Addendum.

English translation of the 1931 Fundamental Principles of Government (Ussole Assassi) of Afghanistan. 

English translation of the 1952 constitution of Afghanistan, the Fundamental Principles (Ussole Assasi) of 1952.

English translation of the 1957 Constitution of Iran (Supplementary Constitutional Law of October 7, 1907, as amended to 1957).

English translation of the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan.

English translation of the 1979 Constitutional Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

English translation of the 1980 constitution of Afghanistan (The Fundamental Principles of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan; Fundamental Principles of 1980).

English translation of the 2011 Constitution of Uzbekistan (1992 Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as amended to 2011).

English translation of the 2014 Constitution of Uzbekistan (1992 Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as amended to 2014).

English translation of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

English translation of the 2003 Constitution of Uzbekistan (1992 Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as amended to 2003).

English translation of the 1993 Constitution of Uzbekistan (1992 Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as amended to 1993).

English translation of the 1987 constitution of Afghanistan (Constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan).

English translation of the 1989 Constitution of Iran (1979 Constitutional Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as amended to 1989).

English translation of the 1990 Constitution of Afghanistan (Constitution of Republic of Afghanistan).