The innovative comparative study of a large corpus of legal documents from the 8th-to 16th century in the cald-database gives new insights into the evolution of sacred law in Islam. By comparing juridical notions/concepts of oral proof (since 10th century) and the binding-precedent-theory for cadi-judgements (13th century) with evidence from documents that safeguard individuals’ rights, the article illustrates the role of the jurists’ legal thinking for applied law which finally be-came identified with shari‘a.
Islamic law, legal documents, comparative method, cald database, attestation, proof, judgement, periodisation of Islamic law, applied law, legal thinking, subjective rights, shari‘a.