Religious Court: Pagan, Christian Canon and Muslim Law in Medieval South-West Georgia

Abstract

The article deals with the religious courts in medieval southwestern Georgia, the analysis of which is presented in chronological Dynamics. Research in the field of canon law is based on ancient Georgian written sources, mainly, Georgian law monuments, and people’s courts are based on ethnographic materials. Judgment according to the Muslim rule is studied according to Georgian periodicala of the second half of the nineteenth century, the beginning of the twentieth century and the facts revealed in the life of the people.

In medieval Georgia, in parallel with the religious court, there was ecclesiastical-canon law, which in a separate article reflected almost all the legal problems that took place in the society. Various articles of canon as well as state feudal law books were based on the norms of people’s rights. The religious court took many things from pagan customs, where legal judgment was also mixed with pagan beliefs. Among the judicial organizations based on the Muslim norm, the Kadi court, which was based on Sharia, should be singled out in southwestern Georgia.

Before the establishment of Christianity and then after the spread of Islam, there was a people’s court in Adjara, which was an organic part of the community members’ way of life and a necessary condition for the community’s vitality and normal existence. Effectively, tension between people’s court and canon law began to spread and establish in South-West Georgia already in the Christian environment. Islam brought with it legal institutions with all the necessary components, as it did in the typical Muslim states.