MUHTASIB

The term muhtasib has primarily been used to designate a person who has been appointed by the political power (sultan or imam) to police the enforcement of Islamic law in a particular area. In works of law, the muhtasib is described as being responsible for ensuring that the activities of the Muslims in an area conform with the shari˓a. This is particularly the case with regard to commerce and supervision of the marketplace. In later times (after 1500 c.e.), the muhatsib was almost exclusively responsible for ensuring that the weights and measures used in the market were fair and consistent. He alerted the judge (qadi) of cases of infringement, though he had the power to act without the judge's express permission. One finds the official position of muhtasib for towns mentioned in sources from most periods of classical Islam (from the Abbasids through the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals). The position appears to have disappeared in the nineteenth century, as law enforcement across the Muslim world underwent modernization. It can be argued that all Muslims should, in a sense, be muhtasibs, since a muhtasib is one who enforces "public order" (hisba), and because all Muslims have this responsibility under the general obligation to "command what is approved and forbid what is reprehensible" (for example Q 3:104), and the law books allow for "voluntary" muhtasibs to enforce public morals.

See alsoHisba ; Political Organization .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buckley, R. P. "The Muhtasib." Arabica 34 (1992): 59–117.

Robert Gleave