Fatawa 'Alamgiri, also called Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyyah (; ), Fatawa Hindiyyah, Fatawa-e-Alamgiri or Al-Fatawa al-'Alamkiriyyah (; ), is a 17th-century sharia based compilation on statecraft, general ethics, military strategy, economic policy, justice and punishment, that served as the law and principal regulating body of the Mughal Empire, during the reign of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Muhiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir.Jamal Malik (2008), Islam in South Asia: A Short History, Brill Academic, , pp. 194-197 It subsequently went on to become the reference legal text to enforce sharia in colonial South Asia in the 18th century through early 20th century,David Arnold and Peter Robb, Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader, Psychology Press, pp. 171-176 and has been heralded as "the greatest digest of Muslim law during the Mughal India".The Cambridge History of India, Volume 5, Page 317The End of Muslim Rule in India, Volume 1, page 192-198
Outline
Fatawa-e-Alamgiri was the work of many prominent scholars from different parts of the world, including Hejaz, principally from the Hanafi school. In order to compile Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, emperor Aurangzeb gathered 500 experts in Islamic jurisprudence, 300 from South Asia, 100 from Iraq and 100 from the Hejaz. Shaikh Nizam, a celebrated lawyer from Lahore was appointed the chairman of the commission which would compile the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri. The years long work of these scholars resulted in an Islamic code of law for South Asia, in the late Mughal Era. It consists of legal code on personal, family, slaves, war, property, inter-religious relations, transaction, taxation, economic and other law for a range of possible situations and their juristic rulings by the faqīh of the time.
The collection comprises verses from the Qur'an, supplemented by hadith narratives, including those of Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawood and Sahih at-Tirmidhi.The Administration of Justice in Medieval India, MB Ahmad, The Aligarh University (1941)
The Fatawa is notable for several reasons: It spanned 30 volumes originally in various languages, but is now printed in modern editions as 6 volumes Al-Bernhapuri, Nazarudeen. Fatawa Hindiyyah. 1st ed. Vol. 1. 6 vols. Damascus, Beirut, Kuwait: Dar an-Nawadir, 2013. It provided significant direct contribution to the economy of South Asia, particularly Bengal Subah, waving the proto-industrialization. It served as the basis of judicial law throughout the Mughal Empire It created a legal system that treated people differently based on their religion
In substance similar to other Hanafi texts,Alan Guenther (2006), Hanafi Fiqh in Mughal India: The Fatawa-i Alamgiri, in Richard Eaton (Editor), India's Islamic Traditions: 711-1750, Oxford University Press, , pp. 209-230 the laws in Fatawa-i Alamgiri describe, among other things, the following:
Criminal and personal law
Personal law for South Asian Muslims in the 18th century, their inheritance rights,A digest of the Moohummudan law p. 344 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London Personal law on gifts,A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 515-546 with footnote 1 etc, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London Apostates neither have nor leave inheritance rights after they are executed,Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 6, pp. 632-637 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980) The guardian of a Muslim girl may arrange her marriage with her consent,Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 402-403 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980) A Muslim boy of understanding, requires the consent of his guardian to marry.A digest of the Moohummudan law p. 5 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London Laws establishing the paternity of a child arising from valid or invalid Muslim marriages,A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 392-400 with footnote 2 etc, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London A Muslim man with four wives must treat all of them justly, equally and each must come to his bed when he so demands,Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, p. 381 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980) Hudud punishments for the religious crime of zina (pre-marital, extra-marital sex) by free Muslims and non-Muslim slaves. It declared the punishment of flogging or stoning to death (Rajm), depending on the status of the accused i.e. Stoning for a Married (Muhsin) person (free or unfree), and as for the non-Muhsin, a free person will get one hundred stripes and a slave will get fifty if they self confess.A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 1-3 with footnotes, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
Pillage and Slavery
If two or more Muslims, or persons subject to Muslims, who enter a non-Muslim controlled territory (properties of non-combatants are excluded) for the purpose of pillage (seizing booties of the fighters) without the permission of the Imam, and thus seize some property of the inhabitants there, and bring it back into the Muslim territory, that property would be legally theirs.”A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 364 with footnote 3, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London Plundering and pillaging of residential areas is forbidden in Islam. The right of Muslims to purchase and own slaves.Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 5, p. 273 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980) A Muslim man's right to have sex with a captive slave girl he owns.Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 395-397; Fatawa-i Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 86-88, Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980) No inheritance rights for slaves.Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 6, p. 631 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980); The Muhammadan Law p. 275 annotations The testimony of all slaves was inadmissible in a court of law.A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 371 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London Slaves require permission of the master before they can marry.Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, page 377 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980); The Muhammadan Law p. 298 annotations An unmarried Muslim may marry a slave girl owned by another but a Muslim married to a Muslim woman may not marry a slave girl.Fatawa i-Alamgiri, Vol 1, pp. 394-398 - Sheikh Nizam, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 6 vols, Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 3rd Edition, (1980) Conditions under which the slaves may be emancipated partially or fully.A digest of the Moohummudan law pp. 386 with footnote 1, Neil Baillie, Smith Elder, London
Office of Censor
The Fatwa-e-Alamgiri also formalized the legal principle of Muhtasib, or office of censorRegulation of Morals Mughal Administration, J Sircar that was already in use by previous rulers of the Mughal Empire. Any publication or information could be declared as heresy, and its transmission made a crime. Officials (kotwal) were created to implement the Sharia doctrine of hisbah. The offices and administrative structure created by Fatawa-e-Alamgiri aimed at Islamisation of South Asia.
Development
The Fatawa-e-Alamgiri (also spelled Fatawa al-Alamgiriyya) was compiled in the late 1672, by 500 Muslim scholars from Medina, Baghdad and in the Indian Subcontinent, in Delhi (India) and Lahore (Pakistan), led by Sheikh Nizam Burhanpuri.M. Reza Pirbhai (2009), Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, Brill Academic, , pp. 131-154 It was a creative application of Islamic law within the Hanafi fiqh. It restricted the powers of Muslim judiciary and the Islamic jurists ability to issue discretionary fatwas.Jamal Malik (2008), Islam in South Asia: A Short History, Brill Academic, , pp. 192-199 It is compiled in eight years between 1664 and 1672. Ahmet Özel from Atatürk University has reported in his work on TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, el-alemgiriyye, that Fatawa-e-Alamgiri has spread fast to Anatolia during Aurangzeb rule due to the promotions of travellers, scholars, and officials.
As the power shifted from Muslim rulers in India to the British, the colonial authorities decided to retain local institutions and laws, to operate under traditional pre-colonial laws instead of introducing secular European common law system. Fatawa-i Alamgiri, as the documented Islamic law book, became the foundation of legal system of India during Aurangzeb and later Muslim rulers. Further, the English-speaking judges relied on Muslim law specialist elites to establish the law of the land, because the original Fatawa-i Alamgiri (Al-Hindiya) was written in Arabic. This created a social class of Islamic gentry that zealously guarded their expertise, legal authority and autonomy. It also led to inconsistent interpretation-driven, variegated judgments in similar legal cases, an issue that troubled British colonial officials.K Ewing (1988), Sharia and ambiguity in South Asian Islam, University of California Press,
The assumption of the colonial government was that the presumed local traditional sharia-based law, as interpreted from Fatawa-i Alamgiri, could be implemented through common law-style law institution with integrity. However, this assumption unravelled in the 2nd half of the 19th century, because of inconsistencies and internal contradictions within Fatawa-i Alamgiri, as well as because the Aurangzeb-sponsored document was based on Hanafi Sunni sharia. Shia Muslims were in conflict with Sunni Muslims of South Asia, as were other minority sects of Islam, and they questioned the applicability of Fatawa-i Alamgiri. Further, Hindus did not accept the Hanafi sharia-based code of law in Fatawa-i Alamgiri. Thirdly, the belief of the colonial government in "legal precedent" came into conflict with the disregard for "legal precedent" in the Anglo-Muhammadan legal system which emerged during the Company period, leading colonial officials to distrust the Maulavis (Muslim religious scholars). The colonial administration responded by creating a bureaucracy that created separate laws for Muslim sects, and non-Muslims such as Hindus in South Asia. This bureaucracy relied on Fatawa-i Alamgiri to formulate and enact a series of separate religious laws for Muslims and common laws for non-Muslims (Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs), most of which were adopted in independent India after 1947.J. Duncan Derrett (1999), Religion, Law and State in India, Oxford University Press,
The British tried to sponsor translations of Fatawa-i Alamgiri. In the late 18th century, at the insistence of the British, the al-Hidaya was translated from Arabic to Persian. Charles HamiltonCharles Hamilton, , Allen & Co, London and William Jones translated parts of the document along with other sharia-related documents in English. These translations triggered a decline in the power and role of the Qadis in colonial India.U Yaduvansh (1969), The decline of the role of the qadis in India: 1793-1876, Studies in Islam, Vol 6, pp. 155-171 Neil Baillie published another translation, relying on Fatawa-i Alamgiri among other documents, in 1865, as A Digest of Mohummudan Law., Smith Elder London, Harvard University Archives In 1873, Sircar published another English compilation of Muhammadan Law that included English translation of numerous sections of Fatawa-i Alamgiri., (Translator: SC Sircar, Tagore Professor of Law, Calcutta, 1873) These texts became the references that shaped law and jurisprudence in colonial India in late 19th and the first half of the 20th century, many of which continued in post-colonial India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Contemporary comments