Evrengzīb Ālemgīrī Hān of the Timurid Dynasty and the Criminal Code (Ta'zirat)

Abstract

The Timurid dynasty was a Turkish dynasty founded by Emir Timur in 1370 and destroyed bythe British in 1858. They founded the Timurid Empire (1370-1507), which ruled Iran and CentralAsia, and the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) in India. A member of the aristocratic Timurid dynasty,Evrengzīb Hān, was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling from July 1658 until his deathin 1707.During the reign of Muhyiddin Evrengzīb Ālemgir I (1658-1707), the powerful sultan of theMuslim Turkish state known as the Mughal Empire or the Mongols of India, three important codeswere issued: The first is the Fetāwāy-ı Hindiye (also called Fetāwāy-ı Ālemgirīya or Fetāwāy-ıCihāngīya), which was compiled entirely from fiqh books and compiled sharī'ah rulings. The secondis Ālemgirī's Code of State Organisation, which is called AHKAM-I-ALAMGIRI and translated intoEnglish by Hamid-ud-din Khan Bahadur under the title ANECDOTES OF AURANGZIB. The third isĀyīn-i Akbarī or Ahkām-i Ālemgirī, a collection of laws similar to the first chapter of the OttomanGeneral Qanunnāmas, which regulates the part of the customary law especially related to ta'zīrpunishments. It is known as Ta'zīrāt-ı Ālemgīrī.In this article, we will translate the Ta'zīrāt-ı Ālemgīrī, of which there is only one copy in theworld, into Turkish and analyse it according to Islamic law. The original of the Qanunnam is inPersian and there is only one copy of it in the world. Although the existence of this Qanunname hasbeen mentioned before, it has not yet been published in scholarly circles.