Mapping Arabic legal documents: a thematic-functional typology

Classifying legal documents by type is a major analytical goal, and CALD provides the research tool “typology” for that purpose. A new typology (March 2020) replaces the earlier version that resulted from the Ḥaram-corpus and the first stage of CALD during the ILM Project (2009-2013).

This forerunner worked with a formal typology based on different procedures (iqrār, išhād, šahāda) – as they existed in the Ḥaram-corpus.¹

After the ILM-project, the extended document-corpus opens new research questions that require new approaches for classifying the sources. A physical document (“manuscript” in CALD) may bear several authenticated legal writings: the receipt of delayed payment written on the back of the sale contract, the division of an inheritance following the evaluation of landed property, etc. It is important to note that CALD’s typology refers to each item, not to the “manuscript”. CALD’s typology now merges two different approaches of how to classify legal items, thematically and functionally.

Each document item in CALD is designated by its type. Each type is very briefly presented and described in the list of item typologies in the database. This list includes a seemingly complicated number of 4 to 9 digits with a meaning that is provided there. By means of the number system, one can search for a specific type or a group of types. The choice of numbers permits the researcher to combine formal and functional criteria with subject matters and a thematic approach, which helps for a better understanding of the different specific procedures. The typology research function of CALD provides different approaches, either a search for large groups or for specific types (download the user manual for an explanation how this works technically). For each digit, the numerals (1-9) have different meaning and therefore, they form an information grid within each type’s number as the numbers are bearers of information that links to its digit position. Therefore, even if the brief description that accompanies the numbers may prove a useful first step for understanding and searching in the database, we believe that the numbers are much useful for a targeted and refined research.

The digits of a typology-number concern specific information, here are the principles.

1) Thematic aspects are covered by digits 3-6 and (if existing) digits 9 or higher. Digits 3-4 designate major subjects; digits 5-6 refer to particular aspects within these subjects, with digit 5 covering legal consideration.

2) The functional frame, in which the historical context and how the document was formally notarized, concerns the first part, digits 1 and 2.

3) Judicial procedures, either mentioned in the text or as analytical result, are represented when they exist, by digits 7 and 8.

Table 1: Thematic aspects and the functional frame

First part (digits 1-2): Functional and historical frame

• 40 Papyri (long 9^th century)
• 41 procedural aspect by concerned party as subject (iqrār – išhād, ḥaḍara ilā šuḥūdihi)
• 42 introduced with an action by parties (verb mostly first)
• 43 Judeo-Arabic
• 44 attestations (subjects are witnesses)
• 45 qadi-court (mentioned in the text)
• 46 various facts (attested)
• 47 early Muslim rule (7th-early 9th century)
• 48 reports (by experts or others, different from parties or šahāda)
• 49 Christian rule: Mozarab documents, Sicily
• 52 tax administration
• 55 court documents: administrative, no individual subjective rights (non-attested)
• 56 administrative notifications
• 6 Persian documents (instead of 4)
• 71 šurūṭ-literature
• 80 informal notes
• 86 correspondence (early)
• 88 correspondence (Mamluk time)
• 90 official documents (taxes, payments…)

Second part (digits 3-4): Subject matters

(__3: aspects of property)

• __30_ various: mixing real estate, money or objects
• __31_ real estate
• __32_ money
• __33_ persons
• __34_ objects/animals
• __35_ heritage
• __36_ waqf
• __37_ guaranty (ḍamān, kafāla…)
• __38_ merchandise
• __39_ disputed property

(__6_: commercial life)

• __61_ labour/services
• __62_ trade/production
• __63_ agriculture (use of land)
• __64_ medical
• __65_
• __67_ salaries (?)
• __68_ taxes (for land, for persons, due, paid …)
• __69_ additional information on main document

(__7_: social, wider)

• __71_ marriage
• __72_ children (nafaqa, childcare)
• __73_ neighbourhood (conflicts,
• __74_ village-town

(__8_: debts and assets)

• __81_: waṣl (intermediary)
• __83_: qabḍ (legal reception)
• __87: debt/obligation
• __88: assets
• __89: waiver of rights

(__9_: procedures in court, attestations to role and status of persons linked to rights)

• __92_ qadi court cases (reports)
• __93_ procedure (qadi išhād) – Syrian – Egyptian
• __94_ litigations (claimant-defendant)
• __94_ litigation
• __95_ certifying former ḥukm (isǧāl)
• __97_ court representation (wakīl)

Third part (digits 5+): Additional analytical digits for further legal categorization

• ____26 contract of sale
• ____27 contract of lease
• __3232 reception of a price
• __353 accounts tarika
• __361 waqfiyya
• __711 ṭalāq
• __712 marriage contract
• __713 divorce by ḫulʿ
• __715 judicial divorce
• __935 court: cadi decision

Our approach here consists in discerning functional document-types throughout legal history. This result builds on our knowledge of notarial, juridical and judicial practices beyond the documents’ obvious “formal” criteria. In this new typology, functional document-types appear (sometimes) by using digits 1-2 and 5-8 according to the sophistication of the notarization. (Early documents are usually shorter with fewer authentication signs. This results in shorter type-numbers.) The Ḥaram iqrār documents (formerly T=41) then emerge as a step within the practice of law: notarial documents as raw material (only digits 1-6) that need judicial certification in order to become legally effective. This absence of certification is illustrated within the new typology and clarifies this difference.

Distinguishing the frame of 7^th–8^th century documents (47) from later notarial and judicial specimens renders the particularities of this small corpus obvious and opens it up to further investigation.

1. You may see this in ILM’s final report from 2014 in appendix 3 with a synopsis of legal documents included in CALD, ordered by type and by century. [↩]

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