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This article examines the institution of Wilāyat al-Maẓālim, the department of grievance redress, as it developed under the Abbasid Caliphate. Although often mentioned only briefly among the ten departments of the Abbasid dīwān system, the institution played a distinctive role in classical Islamic governance, operating alongside the qāḍī courts to address wrongs that formal judicial procedure could not always reach, particularly those committed by powerful officials against ordinary subjects. Drawing on both the theoretical framework set out largely by al-Māwardī in Al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭāniyyah and a range of recorded case examples from the reigns of al-Manṣūr, al-Mahdī, Hārūn alRashīd, al-Ma’mūn, and al-Muhtadī, the article traces three interrelated dimensions of the institution: its historical formalization under the early Abbasids, its structural composition and jurisdictional boundaries, and the practice of personal caliphal supervision in specific cases of redress. The study argues that the institution's durability rested on its capacity to adapt as caliphal power itself evolved, shifting from a personally exercised prerogative of the caliph to a more delegated institutional function, a flexibility that allowed Wilāyat al-Maẓālim to survive the political fragmentation of the later Abbasid period and to serve as a template for subsequent Muslim dynasties.

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Wilāyat al-Maẓālim, Abbasid Caliphate, Islamic judicial administration, al-Māwardī, grievance redress.

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This article examines Muslim–Byzantine relations from the emergence of Islam in the seventh century to the eve of Seljuk expansion into Anatolia in the eleventh century, arguing that prolonged military confrontation did not prevent sustained forms of cross-frontier interaction. Drawing on medieval Arabic-Islamic chronicles, geographical and administrative works, literary sources, and Byzantine historiography, it analyses the formation of the Muslim–Byzantine frontier and the interconnected roles of warfare, diplomacy, commerce, captivity, human mobility, artistic production, intellectual transmission, and religious encounter. The article demonstrates that the frontier functioned not simply as a barrier between competing political and religious worlds but as a changing zone in which conflict itself frequently generated mechanisms of contact. Military campaigns produced negotiations and prisoner exchanges; merchants, commodities, captives, and craftsmen moved across political boundaries; Byzantine artistic resources were incorporated into major Islamic building projects; and Greek scientific and philosophical traditions circulated through diplomatic and multilingual scholarly networks. Arabic representations of the Rūm similarly reveal the coexistence of hostility, curiosity, admiration, and religious polemic. By bringing these forms of interaction into a common analytical framework, the article argues that warfare and exchange were mutually entangled rather than historically separate processes. The Seljuk expansion of the eleventh century should therefore be understood not as the beginning of sustained Muslim engagement with Byzantium in Anatolia, but as a new political stage within a frontier world already shaped by several centuries of confrontation, mobility, negotiation, and cultural exchange.

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Muslim–Byzantine Relations; Byzantine Empire; Abbasid Caliphate; Arab–Byzantine Frontier; Cross-Cultural Exchange; Seljuk Anatolia.

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This is a thorough and contextualized re-reading of the status, rights and empowerment of women based on primary textual analysis of the Quran. In contrast to the current dominant narratives that tend to interpret Islamic paradigms of gender in terms of historical cultural practices and understandings of fiqh or Islamic jurisprudence, this paper detaches Quranic ontology from later medieval fiqh. Some of the important ayat or verses are examined from a hermeneutical and sociohistorical methodology when referring to spiritual equality, economic agency and legal status and marital autonomy. The findings reveal that, from the viewpoint of Quranic ethos, Qualitative equality and systemic empowerment of the women is embedded in the fundamental ethos and framework of the Quran. Concession is not a new idea, but an ontological precondition in the Quranic worldview which is female agency. The contemporary sociolegal issues are addressed by demonstrating that the regressive interpretation of the patriarchy can be overthrown by a text-centric and purposive or maqasidi interpretation. Finally, this study is valuable in the fields of Islamic feminism and human rights theory as it offers an alternative paradigm of gender justice not only to the deadlock of traditionalists but also to the orientalist criticism of multinationals, since it is textually validated.

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Family, Leadership, Society, Economics, Administration, Politics and Culture.

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This study examines the distinctive methodology of Imām al-Shāṭibī in al-Muwāfaqāt fī Uṣūl al-Sharīʿah and argues that, although the work belongs to Uṣūl al-Fiqh, its methodological framework differs fundamentally from the established approaches of the Mutakallimīn and the Fuqahāʾ al-Aḥnāf. Whereas the former emphasized deriving legal principles directly from the nuṣūṣ and the latter relied on istiqrāʾ to formulate universal legal principles, Imām al-Shāṭibī reconstructed the discipline upon the foundation of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah. Although earlier scholars, including Imām al-Ḥaramayn alJuwaynī, Imām al-Ghazālī, and ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, introduced the essential concepts of maqāṣid, al-Shāṭibī was the first to integrate these dispersed discussions into a coherent and comprehensive theoretical framework. He established the relationship between al-kulliyyāt and al-juzʾiyyāt, connected aḥkām, ʿilal, maṣāliḥ, and maqāṣid, and maintained that valid ijtihād requires not only mastery of the nuṣūṣ but also a comprehensive understanding of the objectives of the Sharīʿah. Furthermore, he distinguished between the maqāṣid al-Shāriʿ and the maqāṣid al-mukallaf, identified the principal sources for recognizing maqāṣid, and demonstrated that yusr, rafʿ al-ḥaraj, rukhaṣ, and iʿtidāl constitute integral components of the legal system rather than exceptions to it. The study concludes that al-Muwāfaqāt represents the first systematic exposition of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah and continues to serve as a foundational source for contemporary Islamic legal theory, ijtihād, and fiqh al-maqāṣid.

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al-Shāṭibī, al-Muwāfaqāt, Ijtihād, Uṣūl al-Fiqh, Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah

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This study examines the daʿwah-oriented themes of patience (sabr), reliance on God (tawakkul), and contentment (rida) in Arabic poetry. It argues that Arabic poetry has often functioned as more than an aesthetic or emotional record; it has also served as a memorable medium for moral guidance, spiritual formation, and public exhortation. Using a thematic analytical approach, the study selects poetic examples from wisdom poetry, ascetic verse, devotional poetry, and moral admonition, then classifies and interprets them under the three central concepts. The analysis shows that poetic representations of patience emphasize self-restraint, endurance, reward, and hope in a favorable outcome. Tawakkul is presented not as abandonment of practical means but as an inward reliance on God while taking responsible action. Rida develops the meaning further by cultivating inner tranquility and acceptance after events unfold, without denying natural grief or pain. The three values therefore form a connected educational sequence: patience regulates conduct under hardship, reliance directs the heart during effort and uncertainty, and contentment stabilizes the soul after the divine decree becomes manifest. The study concludes that Arabic poetry can remain an effective instrument of daʿwah when it is used with textual accuracy, sound theological framing, and careful attention to the difference between artistic expression and normative religious evidence.

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Daʿwah, Arabic poetry, patience, tawakkul, contentment, ascetic poetry, Islamic ethics.