In this excerpt from his legal treatise, Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820) argues that if a qāḍīis approached by a foreigner (ʿajamī) speaking a foreign tongue, he must employ two trustworthy witnesses familiar with the foreigner’s language in order to adjudicate the case. In his chapter in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Mahmood Kooria points out that with this prescription, the translator assumes a central role, almost taking the part of a witness. Taken as a whole, Shāfiʿī’s argument highlights the dangers of litigation in a foreign language.
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of sources and other material used in and related to the book.