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The second half of the third/ninth and the fourth/tenth centuries are of particular importance for the development of the judiciary in the central lands of the cAbbasid caliphate. At the end of the mihna and the victory of Sunnism under al-Mutawakkil (r. 232-47/847-61), the caliphate agreed not to interfere in the legal sphere, thus allowing the principal schools of law to complete their development toward their classical structure. 1 In Iraq the qadïs were allowed more judicial freedom, thanks to the growing independence of the legal system and to the political weakness of the caliphate,2 while in Egypt the provincial rulers and two successive dynasties, the Tülünids (254-92/868-905) and the Ikhshidids (323-58/935-69), profited from the caliphate's weakness and imposed their autonomy de facto. 3
The role played by the judiciary in this process is still unclear, as is the impact of Egyptian autonomy on the development of the local judiciary. 4 In this article, I intend to study the relationship between the Egyptian governors and the judiciary, from the accession of Ahmad b. TOlOn in 254/868 until the arrival of the Fätimids in 358/969. My main source of reference is Rafe al-isr (an qudät Misr, a biographical dictionary written by Ibn Hajar al-cAsqalam (d. 852/1449), which focuses on the history of Egyptian qâdïs.5 Although he wrote this dictionary five centuries after the fact, Ibn Hajar relies heavily on contemporary works: primarily that of Ibn Zöläq (d. 386/996), who wrote a now lost Akhbär qudät Misr dedicated to the qâdïs of the Tölönid and the Ikhshidid periods,6 and secondarily that of Ibn Yunus (d. 347/958), author of two biographical dictionaries about Egyptians and strangers who settled in Egypt. 7 Whereas another late author such as Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804/1401-2), who also wrote a book on Egyptian qâdïs, culled his material in order to construct a hagiographical narrative of judges whom he mostly regards as saints,8 Ibn Hajar did not stray from his sources. Even if he tends to reorganize and synthesize the information provided by his predecessors, as a comparison between his Rafe al-isr and al-Kindi' s Akhbär qudät Misr shows,9 Ibn Hajar usually quotes them faithfully and almost in extenso, avoiding any obvious manipulation. This makes his book a fairly reliable source for the history...