In this excerpt from Quḍāt Qurṭuba, Khushanī (d. 361/971) describes a scene in which a woman appears before a certain judge Sulaymān b. Aswad al-Ghāfiqī (d. after 273/886), who was known for being both austere and prone to jesting, and says to him, “Look at your wretched one!” (meaning herself). The judge replies with a joke: “You are not my wretched one! My wretched one is Ibn ʿAmmār’s mule, which spends the whole day eating away at the bit at the door o …
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.