Al-Mawardi

Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi was a Shafi'i jurist and judge in Basra and Baghdad, serving the Abbasid caliphs during a period when real power lay with Buyid and then Seljuk rulers. His Ordinances of Government is the classic juristic treatment of the caliphate: the qualifications and election of the imam, the delegation of authority to ministers and governors, and the conditions and limits of legitimate rule.

Key ideas

• The imamate is required to protect religion and govern worldly affairs.
• The ruler must meet conditions of justice, knowledge and competence.
• Authority can be lawfully delegated to ministers, governors and military commanders.
• Legitimate rule is bound by duties to the community and to the law.

Major works

• al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya (The Ordinances of Government)
• Adab al-dunyā wa-l-dīn (The Ethics of Religion and of This World)
• al-Ḥāwī al-kabīr

In the conversation

• Question If consent of the governed is the newcomer, what did legitimacy rest on before it? Aroha Tipene · 5 replies
• Reading group Reading group: al-Mawardi’s Ordinances of Government, on the conditions of legitimate rule Layla Haddad · 5 replies