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laity or mitigation in fuifilling his duty toard his God thus, the observances of the
disciplines of religious duty is, incontestably, a vital and perennial element ٥‫ﺇ‬
Muslim life. For this reason, the application of the divine la (shariah) is alays a
matter of primary concern. Thus herever Muslims hive their comnmunity produces
different religious institutions hich address the problems of applying shariah rules
to daily life. The mosques, the courts, the guest-rooms of religious men, the markets
in small tons or villages, and many other places in the Islamic orld, daily intess
many Muslims coming either to solve a dispute, or to make sure that a decision
hich they have reached by themselves is in agreement ith the shariah. A religious
man such as an uli, qadi, iman, ufti, or shaikh sits every day to offer g‫ﻫ‬idance and
help, and henever necessary he acts as a mediator or arbitrator.

Muslim religious men thus act together as a religious authority ihch carries a
responsibiliyt to both observe and maintain Muslim relig‫ﻫ‬ous pracitce, ihlst also
acting as mediators and arbitrators in their community. In dealing ith religious
authoriyt in an lslamie rtibal communiyt, one realies that it has a dominant role and
many problems to resolve. Such societies sitll rely on the tradiitonal authoriyt of
rtibal leaders and religious men, rather than on their modern equivalents.

The problem as e see is an important one, because most of the social
anthropologists ho have done ork on lslamic socieites have exaimned in very
general and theoreitcal terms the poliitcal system, the tribal authoriyt, or Islam as a
poliitcal movement.9 Hoever, the problem of the relationship beteen the poliitcal
and religious authoriites, paritcularly their roles in the settlement of disputes at the
local level, has in fact received very little atteniton. For example, very little ork has
been done on the authoriyt of [slam as a religion, in the ifeld of social conrtol,
paritcularly the role of this authoriyt in the social process of dispute and settlement.?
Sig‫ﻫ‬ificantly, the problem derives from the fact that lslamic rtibal socieyt is inherently
both irbal and lslaimc, so e face the problem of a relationship beteen to
authoriise, both of hich are concerned ith order and conrtol in society. The
quesiton, is ho do these authoriites ork together ni establishing order and conrtol
i.e., precisely hat roles do they play in solving disputes and making settlements?

hTe Work of Religion

hTe relaiton of [slma to social conrtol and order in the context of [slaime tibal
soiceyt received ist ifrst consideraiton through hte ork of Abdul-Ramhan
Ibn-Khaldun (1332-146), hTe Muqaddimah (196). I‫ﻞ‬n-Khaldun starst rfom hte basic
preimse that hte prople in any form of social orgainaiton (umran bashari) must have
a leader to exercise some restrains upon htem. hTe leader's role is someitmes based
on divine la (shariah), and someitmes on raitonal poliitcs (al-siasa al-aglia)
(bn-ahldun 196 : 26-). He adds taht among rtibal socieites (badaa) ihts role is
largely hte responsibiliyt of relig‫ﻫ‬ous authoiryt (196 : 12).