Al-Ahkamal-Sultaniyyah Ofal-Qadi Abu Ya'la and Al-Mawardi on the islamic system of government: a critical evaluation of the relationships and differences

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine and evaluate the relationship between al-Ahkam 01Sultaniyyab of al-Qadi Abu Ya'la and al-Mawardi; the two laws of Islamic System of Government that outline the legal doctrines for political, administrative and military offices by the tenth century Sbafi'i jurist, al-Mawardi and Hanbali jurist, al-Qadi Abu Ya'la. The stt/dy hypothesises that ai-Qadi Abu Yo'las book is almost the same as that of al-Mawardi, even though there are many places in which the bulk of the wordings of both texts look alike but opinions were ascribed by each writer to different scholars. The study will, therefore, critically examine some of the areas of parities and disparities in these two books of Islamic System of government with the aim to establishing which of the two authors have copied from each other and to what extent such an act is found to haven been carried out.