DELEGATION AND THE CREATION OF JUDICIAL HIERARCHY

The period between the third and eighth decades of the second century (ca. 740–800 ad) witnessed the maturation of both the judiciary and legal doctrine, as all essential features of these two spheres acquired a final shape, only to be refined during the succeeding century or two. With the increasing specialization of the judge's office as a legal institution, and with the evolution of centralization policies of the government, came a gradual change in the source of judicial appointments. During this phase, especially with the rise of the ʿAbbāsids, investiture gradually shifted from the hands of the provincial governor to those of the caliph himself. This move toward judicial centralization, furthermore, seems to have been precipitated by the steady emergence of a professional legal elite whose interests were better served by direct caliphal supervision than by the perceived whims and arbitrariness of provincial military governors. As we shall see below in chapter 8, the perception of the caliphate as a religious and moral office – possessing the semblance of legality and capable of distributive justice – promised a better chance at equity and fairness than any military governor could have offered. It thus should not be surprising that, while promoting their own interests, the legists also pushed for caliphal supervision, as evidenced in juristic writings addressed to the caliphs.