In this excerpt from Quḍāt Qurṭuba, Khushanī (d. 361/971) describes a scene in which the humorous scholar and potential judgeal-Aʿshā encounters a drunkard during a walk with the judge Muḥammad b. Ziyād (d. after 240/854). The judge orders his assistants to capture and punish the drunkard, but once al-Aʿshā, the joker, finds himself alone with the assistants, he tells them that the judge has decided to spare the drunkard’s life and has ordered that they r …
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.