RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESfrom 698 until 700 and then by ash-Sha'bI,35 Sa'd ibn l:Iudhayfa ibn
al-Yaman was qaq.f at Mada'in in the late seventh century.36
At Basra, the brothers 'Amr in 662 and 'Amlra/'Umayr ibn Yath-
ribI in 663 served as qaq.fs for Mu'awiya. Among others, Ziyad was
served by 'Imran ibn al-l:Iu~ayn al-Khuza'I, by Shurayl}. for a year,
and by 'Umayr ibn YathribI in 671. In 674 Zurara ibn AwfaI and
Ibn Udhayna al-'AbdI were judges of Basra for 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad.
Then, from 678 until 693, Hisham ibn Hubayra of the Banu Dabba
was qaq.f of Basra. He was followed by Zurara ibn AwfaI in 694 and
695, by Musa ibn Anas from 697 until 699, and by 'Abd ar-Ral}.man
ibn Udhayna in 700.^37
In their arbitration of private disputes, these early qatjts continued
the role of the arbiter (Ar. ~akam) among pre-Islamic Arabs. Muslim
Arabs who settled in Iraq brought the custom of appealing to arbi-
tration with them, and it already existed among the tribal Arabs there.
Its use was sanctioned and reinforced by the way the Qur'an encour-
aged Muslims to submit their disputes to Mul}.ammad for arbitration.
Apart from the famous arbitration between 'All and Mu'awiya, there
'are numerous other examples indicating that arbitration was a normal
part of an informal and unofficial set of legal practices in early Islamic
Iraq. In 657, Ka'b ibn Sur was killed by an arrow while he was trying
to arbitrate at the Battle of the Camel at Basra. When Yazld I died in
683, An-Nu'man ibn Suhban ar-RasibI arbitrated between the Mu<;lar
and RabI'a tribes at Ba~ra. The Christian Arab poet al-Akhtal arbi-
trated a dispute between two Muslim Arabs of the tribe of Bakr in
the masjid at Kufa. Almost everything that is known about Shurayl}.'s
activities as a qaq.f indicates that he was the same kind of arbiter. He
is described helping some people make a division of property. Al-
Ash'ath ibn Qays appealed a case to him, and when 'AlI was caliph,
he took his case with a non-Muslim to Shurayl}. to judge. Shurayl}.
seems to have had some sort of official position as a judge by the time
of 'All, but, according to BukharI, he never touched his stipend but
3S Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Iqd, IV, 164, 169; Ibn Khallikan, Biographical Dictionary, Il,
2-3; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, VI, 82; Tabari, Ta'rfkh, Il, 16-17, 81, 156,295, 399, 537,
636, 752, 784, 796, 834, 852, 873, 940, 1035, 1039, 1047, 1063; Tyan, Organisation
;udiciaire, pp. 75-77.
36 Al-'Ali, "AI-Madii'in," p. 64.
37Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqiit, VI, 95; VII(I), 109-10; Tabari, Ta'rfkh, Il, 17,67, 79, 156,
172, 195, 295, 399, 537, 593, 700, 753, 783, 796, 834, 854, 863, 873, 940, 1035,
1039, 1047, 1063.