The qadi, judge in an Islamic court, is one of the most emblematic figures of medieval Islam. Appointed by rulers to dispense justice between litigants, he more than anyone else embodied the Islamic law that he was charged with applying. The early Egyptian qadis are known to us thanks to the book devoted to them by the historian al-Kindī (d. 350/961), of which the present work is a French translation. From the Arab conquest of Egypt about 640 to the arrival of the Ṭūlūnids in 868, al-Kindī traces, step by step, the construction of the Egyptian judiciary through the biographies of the first forty qadis. A major source for understanding the evolution of the judicial institution and its procedures, the History of Egyptian qadis also opens a unique window onto Egyptian society from the beginning of the Islamic period. Through the litigations and diverse cases submitted for the qadis' consideration, the Fusṭāṭ tribunal acts powerfully to reveal social relations and management by public authority. Al-Kindī highlights the essential role played by the qadis in Egyptian political life. Caught between the élites of Fusṭāṭ, anxious to maintain their dominant position, and the caliph, wishing to impose his authority, they were by turns lauded and maligned by their contemporaries. Thus al-Kindī offers the reader not only a gallery of colourful portraits but also a vast historical fresco of Umayyad and Abbasid Egypt. Preceded by an historical introduction, al-Kindī's text is accompanied by variants and additions proposed by Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (d. 257/871), Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804/1401-1402), and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449).
