13. THE IDEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DAR AL-’ADL IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ORIENT edieval Islamic architecture The medieval structure known as the presents the scholar with a fas- Dar al-’Adl belongs to this last category. cinating set of historiographi- This unique Islamic institution, which may cal problems. Some are be best translated in today’s context as ‘pal- Mmethodological, others are related to the ace of justice’, was initially conceived for the nature of the sources, and they are shared qada’ al-mazalim service, that is, for the pub- by various other branches of research in lic hearings held once or twice each week medieval history such as urban history, and presided over by the ruler himself or his topography and the history of arts and appointed deputies to review and redress crafts whose inquiries depend on the same grievances submitted by his subjects.1 The sources. Still others are peculiar to the spe- earliest known dar al-’adl was built c. 1163 by cifi c domain of architectural history. These Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zanki in his capi- last are the most challenging, for they tal Damascus, and the last one was con- require particular strategies that take into structed by the Mamluk Sultan al-Nasir account the disparities in our knowledge of Muhammad ibn Qalawun (1294–1340, with the two basic components needed to recon- two interruptions) at the Citadel of the struct the history of any architectural object: Mountain (Qal’at al-Jabal) in Cairo in 1315 the physical remains and the contemporary (it was rebuilt in 1334). Three more dur al- documents related to them. There are three ’adl are known to have been constructed possible kinds of disparity: in the best cases, between these two dates: one in Aleppo in buildings that are still standing and in fairly 1189 by al-Zahir Ghazi, the son of Salah al- good shape can be studied in light of rele- Din, and three in or next to the Citadel in vant contemporary documents. In more dif- Cairo beginning in c. 1206 and ending when fi cult cases, the structures still exist, but the last one was erected by al-Nasir supportive documents, written or otherwise, Muhammad. After this no more dur al-’adl do not. Most diffi cult of all is when we have seem to have been built until modern times, documents describing, or referring to, a when the palace of justice was introduced. structure or a group of structures for which The period when dur al-’adl fl ourished we have no visible trace. corresponds to the age of Crusader and –146– THE DAR AL-‘ADL IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ORIENT Mongol attacks on the central Islamic lands. ture or urban projects. Scattered in the The geographic area in which they appeared texts, however, are little details about dates is also well defi ned. The three cities in of buildings, locations, patrons, the reasons which they were built had been capitals of for building, the functions and ceremonies separate realms from the late eleventh to that took place in the structures once they the mid twelfth century, but by 1171, they were built and passing remarks about specifi c had all fallen under the control of Nur al- spaces or features inside them. By collating Din, the fi rst unifi er of the Islamic front and analysing these clues, or indices, one against the Crusaders. After Nur al-Din’s can reconstruct a historical account of the death, the three cities were taken over by dur al-’adl and propose an explanation for both Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (1174–1193), their emergence and their disappearance. Nur al-Din’s general, his deputy in Egypt The dar al-’adl was not simply a devel- and his nemesis in his last years, and were opment of the qada’ al-mazalim institution. It integrated into his empire. They became was an original product of an extraordinary loosely united and hotly contested Ayyubid time: the period of the counter-Crusade and capitals after Salah al-Din’s death, and, the ideological revival that went with it, as later, centres of Mamluk government, with ideal Islamic qualities were promulgated by Cairo leading as the sultan’s seat. From Nur both the ruling and religious classes and al-Din’s time onwards, the three cities had demanded by the people. The dar al-’adl visu- been joined by a highly popular common ally represented one of these qualities, jus- cause: fi ghting the Crusaders. The Zankids, tice, and provided the rulers with a forum to Ayyubids and early Mamluks were intensely publicly claim their adherence to proper engaged in the counter-Crusades, and the Islamic codes. That religious ardour, ignited latter also repelled the Mongol forays into by external threats and internal schisms, Bilad al-Sham. had withered away by the middle of the No trace of any of the fi ve palaces of fourteenth century, after the Crusader and justice remains today. Their existence is Mongol offensives had been thwarted and known to us only from textual references, Egypt and Bilad al-Sham had been securely except for the last one, torn down in 1825, united under the rule of the Mamluks. The for which we have several plans, façades and dar al-’adl, along with other innovations of a few views drawn by European visitors to the period, such as the fada’il of the Holy Cairo in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- Land and jihad literature, lost its raison d’être turies. Nor can archaeology help in investi- and vanished altogether when the circum- gating the history of dur al-’adl, for the areas stances that prompted its development had the buildings stood in have been built over passed. several times. The written sources, do, how- ever, provide a substitute for this lack of material remains, because for Egypt and THE DEVELOPMENT OF Syria, the medieval period is unusually rich THE QADA’ AL-MAZALIM in historical writing. Annals, biographical compendia, manuals for the chancery, geo- The qada’ al-mazalim or al-nazar fi -l-mazalim, graphical treatises (masalik) and topographi- which literally means ‘to consider or to look cal tracts (khitat) all exist in abundance for into acts of injustice’, is an Islamic judicial the period between the twelfth and the fi f- institution with a complex history. It has teenth centuries.2 The problem is that, been identifi ed as the organisation that numerous as they are, medieval Islamic ‘brings the litigants to an agreement by fear sources rarely deal directly with architec- and prevents the contestants from rebuffi ng –147– MAMLUK HISTORY THROUGH ARCHITECTURE judgment by awe. It is a position that com- lim.8 The next step was the institutionalisa- bines the authority of the ruler and the tion of qada’ al-mazalim, proposed by Abu impartiality of the judge.’3 This defi nition Yusuf (d. 798) in his book al-Khiraj, which he implies that the supervisor of the mazalim wrote for the fi fth Abbasid caliph, Harun must be a person who has greater executive al-Rashid (786–808).9 Abu Yusuf, who was power than a judge: he is able also to the qadi al-qudat (chief judge) of al-Rashid, enforce his decisions. Most Islamic sources recommended that the caliph regularly pre- attribute the conception of the qada’ al- side over mazalim sessions, obviously not to mazalim to some revered early caliphs, such undermine his own position, but because he as ‘Ali, Mu’awiya, ‘Abd al-Malik and ‘Umar saw the legitimising potential of supervising b. ‘Abd al-’Aziz, or even to Sasanian, pre- mazalim sessions and advised his caliph Islamic precedents.4 But some modern schol- accordingly. That political function was not ars have questioned whether the formal lost on the ambitious usurpers of Abbasid division between simple general qada’ and authority, whether they were in the prov- the qada’ al-mazalim appeared so early. They inces or in the capital, for they almost argue that during both the Rashidi and always took over the qada’ al-mazalim as part Umayyad periods, there was no clear-cut of their acquired power. Thus, Ibn Tulun separation between the political and judicial (868–884), the fi rst governor of Egypt to authorities. The caliphs and their provincial break away from Baghdad successfully and governors (wulat) were also judges. They to expand his domain into Syria, was also could exercise their judiciary authority the fi rst to hold mazalim sessions regularly.10 either directly in public or delegate it to an The Shi’ite Buyids, who overpowered the appointed qadi.5 It was not until the consoli- caliphate and its Iranian provinces, includ- dation of the Islamic legal corpus that ing Baghdad between 945 and 1055, and became known as the shari’a in the early reduced the Abbasid caliphs to fi gureheads, Abbasid period (the second half of the took control of the qada’ al-mazalim and eighth century), that a practical need for passed it on to the Shi’ite sharifs, whom they religiously qualifi ed judges had arisen. considered to be the imams.11 Gradually thereafter, the caliphs had to In the middle of the eleventh century, cede their judicial authority to the qadis. But the qada’ al-mazalim became for the fi rst time because they considered themselves to be an integral part of a comprehensive political the leaders of all Muslims and the succes- theory of Islamic rule. In his al-Ahkam sors (khulafa’) of the Prophet Muhammad, al-Sultaniyya, Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi the Abbasids upheld the claim to be the (974–1058), a legist and a high offi cer in protectors of the shari’a and the ultimate the Abbasid court, developed a full discus- administrators of justice.6 sion of mazalim jurisdiction and its relation- This political motive helps to explain ship to qada’, and decreed it to be one of the why the qada’ al-mazalim was detached from fundamental duties of Muslim rulers or the nascent judicial system and retained their appointed deputies.12 It has been sug- under the caliph’s jurisdiction: it was seen as gested that Mawardi’s theoretical formula- one of the symbols of the Abbasid right to tions had direct political relevance.13 rule.7 The third and fourth Abbasid caliphs, Mawardi’s career fell between two phases al-Mahdi (775–785) and al-Hadi (785–786), in the turbulent history of the Abbasids, both supervised mazalim sessions in person.