In this excerpt from his Akhbār al-quḍāt,Wakīʿ reports that ʿUmar appointed Zayd b. Thābit as an arbiter in his, ʿUmar’s, dispute with an adversary. In her analysis of Islamic mirrors-for-princes literature on judging in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Louise Marlow cites this report as an example of the expectation that a model ruler be willing to defer to the judgment of others even in disputes involving himself.
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 primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.