Servants of the Sharia: The Civil Register of the Qadis' Court of Brava, 1893–1900 (review)

These two volumes present the contents of a huge register of court decisions that the editors found in Brava, one of the "Benadir" towns in southern Somalia. These towns were important entrepôts both economically and culturally for East Africa and the Indian Ocean, and Brava was populated half by Swahili speakers of local or Arab origin, half by local Somali speakers. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century it had been under the sultan in Zanzibar, but in the last decade of the century the sultan "rented" the region out to Italy. The administration was left to commercial companies and was fairly thin on the ground. Thus the existing Shari'a court system remained in place, but under Italian overall control.

The register includes the verdict of all cases presented before the qadi from 1893 to 1900, about two thousand cases in all. They are presented in chronological order without any division into topics. For each case the Arabic text and English translation are printed on facing pages.

Almost all the records are brief, many four or five lines only, stating the parties to the case, the issue, who presented witnesses, and the judge's conclusion. Most of the cases were uncontested and were thus rather a public registration of transactions than a decision by the judge. Most deal with property, but family matters—in particular, divorce—are also recorded.

The brevity of the records must often reflect the formality of the transaction. In others, one suspects a longer story in which the judge only registered what was required for his judgment. That would have been the case if the defendant had contested a plaintiff's claim, but no information is given as to why the claim was contested or about any proof that may have been presented; only that the plaintiff presented witnesses and the judge ruled in his favor.

As in all Shari'a cases, the main form of proof is witnesses. Again, the records are very brief; only the plaintiff and defendant are named, not the witnesses, or details of their background, or what they witnessed, all of which would have been important in the process itself. Normally, if no party could present a witness, the decision went in favor of the defendant under the principle of "continuation of the existing state of affairs." That is, the defendant was given the opportunity to prove his case by swearing an oath that he was right. On occasion the defendant refuses to do so, with the result that the plaintiff is "offered the oath" and wins the case. Again, the reader must speculate here about why the defendant apparently gave away his victory voluntarily.

The English translation is intentionally fairly literal, with only explanatory additions in brackets. Given the summary and repetitive nature of the prose, however, a nonspecialist can read the text easily, and the specialist has recourse to the Arabic text.

An introduction presents the historical context of the Benadir coast, and brief overviews describe the types of cases and some economic data. A detailed index of names is of great value for historians of Brava.

This work is a mine of information about the social and economic, as well as judicial, history of Brava and the Benadir towns at the onset of colonial rule. Because of their complete nature, giving the details of every case before the court in the seven-year period, they provide a snapshot of the concerns and transactions of the town. The book must be essential for all who write on Somali and East African history of the late nineteenth century, and will be of great importance for all who try to understand how Islamic courts worked in practice in a community such as this.