Sharia court in the North Caucasus

Sharia is a set of legal and religious norms that constitute the basis of Muslim law. This law enforcement system is considered extremely flexible. It is able to operate within the framework of completely different social structures and political regimes of both non-Muslim and Muslim states.

The Sharia court (mainly in the sphere of hereditary and family relations) operates in Greece, the Netherlands and other countries of European society. And some legal norms are also used in international law (the procedure for compensation of a shipwreck loss, for example).

The Shariah court in different historical epochs had different character of legal proceedings among these or those peoples. He developed quite distinctively in the North Caucasus. On this territory, the introduction of Sharia was one of the main and most important requirements of the revolutionary system of 1917. So, in May in Vladikavkaz the first congress of representatives of the Caucasian mountain people took place. On it, a decision was made to introduce the rules of the Sharia and the Koran in all Muslim courts.

In 1919, in January, with the outbreak of the Civil War, the Sharia court was transformed into a so-called military Sharia law. From that moment he began to play the role of a military tribunal. At the same time, it should be noted that the transformed body was not guided by sharia norms. Meanwhile, military regimes, succeeding one another, used the justice system as a means of settling accounts with their opponents on the political front.

The established Soviet power in the North Caucasus legalized the Sharia court in all the territories where it functioned: in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachay, Kabarda, and North Ossetia.

It should be noted that the Soviet government was directly opposed to Muslim law, rather than the pre-revolutionary administration of the country. The latter supported adat (custom), seeking to weaken the position of the Muslim insurgency. In the early 1920s, the Bolsheviks, on the contrary, sought to support the liberation movement. While the Soviet power did not grow stronger, they attracted many Muslim nations to their side. At the same time, the Sharia was supported at the expense of the adat.

At the beginning of the formation of Soviet power, in the territory of each autonomy of the North Caucasus, a hierarchy of the justice system was established. The most complex is considered a three-level organization in Dagestan, which was formed in 1922. In some towns and villages there were so-called "Sharia Triads". They consisted of two members and a chairman. A judge in Sharia (dibir or mullah), along with two other members, dealt with petty hereditary, civil, land and criminal cases. Their decisions were challenged in the district bodies.

Together with the Muslim law, in resolving land and criminal lawsuits, the Shariah judge was guided by the rules of customary law common to mountain people. Such norms, for example, were fines, cleansing oath, deportation of a blood canal, reconciliation and others.

In the first half of the 1920s, the Sharia courts were removed from the state and provided for maintenance of those Muslim communities that wanted to resolve their cases under these laws. These transformations were carried out simultaneously with collectivization and industrialization.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost universal movement for the restoration of Sharia justice began. Several dozen bodies were formed in the Muslim communities of Chechnya and Northern Dagestan. Together with the Shariah court, the North Caucasus Muslims have a Russian public and public arbitration court.