QADI VERSUS SHAIKH
Their Etymologies

S. Mahdihassan

What can be called “Traditional Etymology” looks upon a word in isolation? The word is all in all without any background or past which has given rise to it. Nevertheless to know the word Qādī requires our appreciating above all the circumstances when it became necessary to acquire the word since none other could express the sense at the time. The pre-Islamic Arabs were mainly nomads. There were various tribes each headed by a Shaikh. The word signifies Master, such as that of a slave, being the law-administrator as also the law-giver. His will and pleasure was all and his judgment was carried out with the speed of marshal law.

Later came a time when Arabs traded with China, bringing silk for the Alexandrian market. This maritime activity can be safely dated as beginning about 200 B.C. while later on Arabs became more and more daring sailors. We can easily grant that while in China disputes arose among the Arabs and they had to be settled. There was no Shaikh nor his plenipotentiary with the same autocratic powers. Thus arose the need for an arbitrator to dispense justice and redress the grievances. We have to realise such a situation, which created the circumstances for the word Qādī to enter into Arabic. Above all, Qādī becomes a pre-Islamic introduction. On the contrary, Bazmee Ansari[1] imagines that “.it is also probable that the Chinese borrowed the word Qādī from the Arabs”. In support of his suggestion the only source he offers is the Urdu work by Badr al-Din Chīnī, entitled Chin-o ‘Arab Ke Ta’alluqāt, Karachi, 1949. This work is a popular history of later Arabs visiting and settling in China. It throws no light whatsoever on the circumstances in which either the Arabs borrowed a Chinese term or the Chinese took over an Arabic word.

Let us now consider the word Qādī. It is not found in the Holy Qur’an and for obvious reasons. When it does appear for the first time in Arabic can be safely predicted. The great miracle of Islam was to integrate the numerous tribes into a community of the faithful when the Shaikh was superseded by the Holy Prophet. He now became the sole administrator but with the Holy Qur’an as the code of law. Further, after the demise of the Prophet his successor, the Khalīfah or Amīr al-Muminīn, be-came the proper administrator of justice. Only late when Khilāfat was virtually abolished and kingdoms arose to be ruled by Amīrs that these, being otherwise engaged in warfare or luxury, had to leave administration of justice to special officers, Qādīs. The word has a long history ; it was coined in China and came into prominence in Arabīa when Muslims were ruled by Amīrs rather than by the Khalifs of the Prophet. We have now to etymologise the word Qādī.

Giles[2] gives the word Shih, character 9992, which he trans­lates first as “officer” and next as “learned,” so that Shih = learned officer. This reminds us of the way we speak of a judge invariably as a “learned judge”. Shih then becomes a learned judge or simply “judge”. Now judgments were inscribed on wooden tablets. Such material is more tangible than paper or parchment, either of which was very expensive at the time. The word for “wooden tablets” as also for “law” is Ku, character 6221, in Giles. Karlgren[3] also translates the word Ku as “a block of writing, law”. This implies that a judgment or a verdict of law and the material on which judgment is inscribed, as the container and content, get identified with each other. Ku then would be a verdict or judgment inscribed on a wooden tablet. Then two words Ku-Shih would signify a judge who regularly dispenses jus­tice. Now the pronunciation of the present Chine language differ­ed in pre-Thang period or before A.D. 600. Ku was pronounced Kuo, as given by Karlgren.[4] And Shih was Dzi again according to Karlgren. Then Ku-Shih was pronouneed Kuo-Dzi earlier than A.D. 600. It is easy to accept that Kuo-Dzi was Arabicised as Qa-Dzi, hence Oādī or Kazi, the designation for a law-dispensing or active judg,. The word Qādi thus was imported before Islam.

The history of the word Qādī appears quite consistent with its significance as judge. But it lacks historicity. However, Hegel[5] “held that the real is rational and rational is the real.” This means that what appears as most probable and thereby rational would have greater chances of having been real. Moreover, Professor S.H. Nasr[6] observes that “One of the most important questions of Islamic philosophy [has been] the conditions under which something needs a cause”. Just as an -invention is preceded by some necessity, reality is preceded by some cause. Hence, accord­ing to al-Bīrunī, “what becomes manifested at a particular period of history is no more than the unfolding of possibilities already present in that being (at that time).” I ventured to explain how a colony of Arabs in, China would require a judge to settle their internal disputes. Such information I discovered is a recent book by R. Israeli where we read as follows:

“At Canton there is a Muslim appointed over those of his religion by the authority of the Emperor of China and he is the judge of all Muslims who resort to that area. The judgments he gives are conformable to the Quran and in accordance with Muslim jurisprudence.”[7]

This statement appears in an anonymous work in Arabic dated A.D. 851 entitled “Accounts of China and India”. Firstly, we must realise that the judge was no Shaikh or Imām and that he functioned specifically as a law-giver, whose services were required by the Arabs in a foreign land. It is natural to grant that his office was created as soon as the Arabs had formed a colony at Canton. This certainly occurred in pre-Islamic times. It coincides with the period of early trade between China and Arabia. In turn it means the time when the word Tseen for China entered Arabic.

The Emperor of the first Chhin dynasty died in 210 B.C. and it was about this time that Chhin = China = Tseen. Words like Qādī, Kimiyā and Sūfī are loanwords from Chinese, all to be dated soon after 200 B.C. At first the Qādī was a Pagan but later a Muslim, but in each case an Arab whose appointment was made official by the local government.

Summary

In Chinese Ku means wooden tablet, as also law, suggesting Ku=judgment. Shih signifies learned, officer. Before A.D. 600 Ku-Shih was pronounced Kuo-Dzi. It signifies a judge regularly dispensing justice. Kuo-Dzi was Arabicised as Qa-Dzi clearly before Islam.

NOTES