CALD: a very short introduction

The database CALD constitutes a new research tool for the comparative study of legal documents in Islam. First developed by the ERC-AdG-project Islamic Law Materialized (ILM), CALD contains meta-data, Arabic text and images of documents from the 7^th to the 16^th centuries CE from various regions of the Muslim world.

Our comparative study of Arabic legal documents uses a combination of various information, given by the text itself and provided by what can be called meta-data, such external dating, typology or classifying content. The major innovation of CALD consists in sequencing the document’s Arabic text into units of equal or similar abstract meaning, which are labelled by numbers (SQN) for further study.

In so doing, CALD sequences and labels each textual element according to its content and function according to our best understanding of its meaning. This methods adds information to texts and allows for improving existing published editions. With ongoing research and text comparison, this information will grow for particular legal aspects. One can find references to the meaning of sequences in a reference table.SEE

Three-level documents, Search and Results

For technical reasons, CALD provides information on three levels:

1) manuscript level: reflects meta-data of the physical support, such as a sheet of paper or parchment

2) item level: provides meta-data of the document’s different notarizations

3) Arabic text level: gives the Arabic text analysed in sequences

This complex modelling of documents allows for the listing of results in two ways: documents as meta-data or as Arabic text sequences. Depending on what you would look for, the Search feature uses two different formulas 1) for meta-data and 2) Arabic text.

Both tools allow the research of legal concepts, document provenance and typology, as well as dating, to be combined. Besides the aforementioned listing of search results, CALD allows for an Export of the data that is grouped by each document, and the abstract visualization of documents by SQN-numbers (SQN-analysis) for further research.

Navigating between levels of manuscript, item and Arabic text

CALD refers to documents by the “short inventory number” (SIN) that includes information on the archive or institution where the document is kept or known to be from. The following diagrams show where to click in order to pass within one single document from one level to the other in both directions:

And from “Arabic text” to “item” and then back to “manuscript”:

The study of “applied law” according to its “materialized” relics of judicial practice is the project’s academic purpose. Therefore, CALD gives particular importance to documents from the qadi-courts.

Further reading:

Christian Müller: CALD Comparing Arabic Legal Documents: a database. How to use the CALD database, Version 2.1.3, published on 3/11/2020, download here.

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