Qanun is an Arabic term [lower-alpha 1] that refers to laws established by Muslim sovereigns, especially the body of administrative, economic and criminal law promulgated by Ottoman sultans. It is used to contrast with sharia, the body of law elaborated by Muslim jurists. [5] It is thus frequently translated as "dynastic law."
The idea of qanun entered the Muslim World in the thirteenth century, borrowed from the Mongol Empire following their invasions. [6] The 10th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman was known in the Ottoman Empire as Suleiman Kanuni ("the Lawgiver"), due to the laws he promulgated.
After the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258, a practice known to the Turks and Mongols transformed itself into Qanun, which gave power to caliphs, governors, and sultans alike to "make their own regulations for activities not addressed by sharia". [7] This became increasingly important as the Middle East modernized, addressing problems of a modern state, which were not covered by sharia. The Qanun began to unfold as early as Umar I (586–644 CE). [7] Many of the regulations covered by Qanun were based on financial matters or tax systems adapted through the law and regulations of territories Islam had conquered. [7]
Kanun took on significant importance during the period of modernization in the Ottoman Empire. Kanun and sharia did not contradict each other concerning administrative matters and so kanun was assimilated easily into Ottoman regulatory functions. Kanun promulgated by Ottoman sultans was used for financial and penal law. Under Sultan Mehmed II (1451–1481), the kanun continued to be strictly applied for those practices. However, the influence of Abu ʾl-Suʿūd, the grand mufti of Istanbul from 1545 to 1574, kanun was expanded to deal with matters concerning property rights. Previously, property rights had been exclusively under the jurisdiction of sharia. Despite that seeming contradiction, skillful bureaucrats allowed kanun and sharia to coexist harmoniously. The kanun retained its relevance in the Middle East regarding civil, commercial, administrative and penal laws. It influences the ways that sharia is reproduced. [8]
The term ḳānūn derives itself from the Greek word κανών. Originally having the less abstract meaning of "any straight rod," it later referred to any "measure or rule" in Greek. The word was then translated into and adopted by Arabic after the Ottoman Empire's conquest of Egypt under Sultan Selim I (ca. 1516). In the Ottoman Empire, the term still carried the word's original meanings of a system of tax regulation. However, it later came to also refer to "code of regulations" or "state law," a well-defined secular distinction to "Muslim law," known as sharia.
Suleiman I, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in Western Europe and Suleiman the Lawgiver in his Ottoman realm, was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under his administration, the Ottoman Empire ruled over at least 25 million people.
Sultan is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun سلطة sulṭah, meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who claimed almost full sovereignty without claiming the overall caliphate, or to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. The adjectival form of the word is "sultanic", and the state and territories ruled by a sultan, as well as his office, are referred to as a sultanate.
The Malacca Sultanate was a Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks c. 1400 as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Parameswara, also known as Iskandar Shah, although earlier dates for its founding have been proposed. At the height of the sultanate's power in the 15th century, its capital grew into one of the most important transshipment ports of its time, with territory covering much of the Malay Peninsula, the Riau Islands and a significant portion of the northern coast of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia.
The Hanafi school or Hanafism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was established by the 8th-century scholar, jurist, and theologian Abu Hanifa, a follower whose legal views were primarily preserved by his two disciples Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. As the oldest and most-followed of the four major Sunni schools, it is also called the "school of the people of opinion". Many Hanafis also follow the Maturidi school of theology.
The qanun, kanun, ganoun or kanoon is a Middle Eastern string instrument played either solo, or more often as part of an ensemble, in much of Iran, Arab East, and Arab Maghreb region of North Africa, later it reached West Africa, Central Asia due to Arab migration. It was also common in ancient Armenia, and Greece. The name derives ultimately from Ancient Greek: κανών kanōn, meaning "rule, law, norm, principle". The qanun traces one of its origins to a stringed Assyrian instrument from the Old Assyrian Empire, specifically from the nineteenth century BC in Mesopotamia. This instrument came inscribed on a box of elephant ivory found in the old Assyrian capital Nimrud. The instrument is a type of large zither with a thin trapezoidal soundboard that is famous for its unique melodramatic sound.
The Tanzimat was a period of Western influenced reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane in 1839. Its goals were to modernize and consolidate the social and political foundations of the Ottoman Empire in order to secure territorial integrity against internal nationalist movements and external aggressive powers. The reforms encouraged Ottomanism among the diverse ethnic groups of the Empire and attempted to stem the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire.
The Sultanate of Rûm was a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state, established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples (Rûm) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert (1071). The name Rûm was a synonym for the medieval Eastern Roman Empire and its peoples, as it remains in modern Turkish. The name is derived from the Aramaic (romī) and Parthian (frwm) names for ancient Rome, via the Greek Ῥωμαῖοι (Romaioi).
Adat is a generic term derived from Arabic to describe a variety of local customary practices and traditions deemed compatible with Islam as observed by Muslim communities in the Balkans, North Caucasus, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. Despite its Arabic origin, the term adat resonates deeply throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, where due to colonial influence, its usage has been systematically institutionalised into various non-Muslim communities. Within the region, the term refers, in a broader sense, to the customary norms, rules, interdictions, and injunctions that guide individuals' conduct as members of the community and the sanctions and forms of address by which these norms and rules are upheld. Adat also includes the set of local and traditional laws and dispute resolution systems by which these societies are regulated.
Malaysian legal history has been determined by events spanning a period of some six hundred years. Of these, three major periods were largely responsible for shaping the current Malaysian system. The first was the founding of the Melaka Sultanate at the beginning of the 15th century; second was the spread of Islam in the indigenous culture; and finally, and perhaps the most significant in modern Malaysia, was British colonial rule which brought with it constitutional government and the common law system.
The First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire was the period of constitutional monarchy from the promulgation of the Ottoman constitution of 1876, written by members of the Young Ottomans, that began on 23 December 1876 and lasted until 14 February 1878. These Young Ottomans were dissatisfied by the Tanzimat and instead pushed for a constitutional government similar to that in Europe. The constitutional period started with the dethroning of Sultan Abdulaziz. Abdul Hamid II took his place as Sultan. The era ended with the suspension of the Ottoman Parliament and the constitution by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, with which he restored his own absolute monarchy.
The Constitution of the Ottoman Empire was in effect from 1876 to 1878 in a period known as the First Constitutional Era, and from 1908 to 1922 in the Second Constitutional Era. The first and only constitution of the Ottoman Empire, it was written by members of the Young Ottomans, particularly Midhat Pasha, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. After Abdul Hamid's political downfall in the 31 March Incident, the Constitution was amended to transfer more power from the sultan and the appointed Senate to the popularly-elected lower house: the Chamber of Deputies.
Ebussuud Efendi, was a Hanafi Maturidi Ottoman jurist and Quran exegete, served as the Qadi (judge) of Istanbul from 1533 to 1537, and the Shaykh al-Islām of the Ottoman Empire from 1545 to 1574. He was also called "El-İmâdî" because his family hailed from Imâd, a village near İskilip.
The Ottoman Empire was governed by different sets of laws during its existence. The Qanun, sultanic law, co-existed with religious law. Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority. Ottoman power revolved crucially around the administration of the rights to land, which gave a space for the local authority develop the needs of the local millet. The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire was aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.
Undang-Undang Melaka, also known as Hukum Kanun Melaka, Undang-Undang Darat Melaka and Risalah Hukum Kanun, was the legal code of Melaka Sultanate (1400–1511). It contains significant provisions that reaffirmed the primacy of Malay customary law or adat, while at the same time accommodating and assimilating Islamic principles. The legal code is believed originally compiled during the reign of Muhammad Shah (1424–1444), before it was continuously expanded and improved by the succeeding sultans. The Melaka system of justice as enshrined in the Undang-Undang Melaka was the first digest of laws, compiled in the Malay world. It became a legal resource for other major regional sultanates like Johor, Perak, Brunei, Pattani and Aceh, and has been regarded as the most important of Malay legal digests.
Sultan Muhammad Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Mansur Shah (1455–1475) was the founder of the old Pahang Sultanate and reigned from 1470 to 1475. A former heir apparent to the Malaccan throne, he was banished by his father Mansur Shah for committing murder, following an incident in a Sepak Raga game and went into exile in Pahang and was later installed as its first sultan in 1470.
Sultan Abdul Ghafur Muhiuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Kadir Alauddin Shah was the 12th Sultan of Pahang reigning from 1592 to 1614. He was originally appointed as regent for his younger half-brother of a royal mother, Ahmad Shah II after the death of their father, Sultan Abdul Kadir Alauddin Shah in 1590. Two years later he deposed his half-brother and assumed power.
The province of Aceh in Indonesia enforces some provisions of Islamic criminal law, the sole Indonesian province to do so. In Aceh, Islamic criminal law is called jinayat. The laws that implement it are called Qanun Jinayat or Hukum Jinayat, roughly meaning "Islamic criminal code". Although the largely-secular laws of Indonesia apply in Aceh, the provincial government passed additional regulations, some derived from Islamic criminal law, after Indonesia authorized the province to enact regional regulations and granted Aceh special autonomy to implement Islamic law. Offences under the provisions include alcohol consumption, production and distribution, gambling, adultery, rape, sexual harassment, certain intimacies outside marriage, and certain homosexual acts. Punishments include caning, fines, and imprisonment. There is no provision for stoning; an attempt to introduce it in 2009 was vetoed by Governor Irwandi Yusuf. In 2016 Aceh processed 324 first instance court cases under Islamic criminal law, and carried out at least 100 caning sentences.
The Pahang Sultanate also referred as the Old Pahang Sultanate, as opposed to the modern Pahang Sultanate, was a Malay Muslim state established in the eastern Malay Peninsula in the 15th century. At the height of its influence, the sultanate was an important power in Southeast Asia and controlled the entire Pahang basin, bordering the Pattani Sultanate to the north and the Johor Sultanate to the south. To the west, its jurisdiction extended over parts of modern-day Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.
Hukum Kanun Pahang, also known as Kanun Pahang or Undang-Undang Pahang was the Qanun or legal code of the old Pahang Sultanate. It contains significant provisions that reaffirmed the primacy of Malay adat, while at the same time accommodating and assimilating the Islamic law. The legal code was largely modelled on the Undang-Undang Melaka and Undang-Undang Laut Melaka, and was compiled during the reign of the 12th Sultan of Pahang, Abdul Ghafur Muhiuddin Shah. It is regarded as one of the oldest digest of laws compiled in the Malay world.