ensued upon the overthrow of the Caliphs, Persia became the appanage
of the Sophis or Shiite dynasty; the regions to the West of the
Euphrates--the ci-devant Roman Empire--acknowledged the rule of
the Turkish dynasties, which were Sunnite. On the Oxus and further
East--the old Turan--the Sunnite sect was sufficiently strong to defy
the efforts of the Shiite sovereigns of Persia to eradicate it. The
doctors of Samarkand and Bokhara continued (and continue) as orthodox
Sunnites as those of Kufah, Mecca, and Stamboul.

Accordingly, we find the authorities excerpted in the "Futawa
Alumgeeree" consist almost exclusively of two classes; they are either
the immediate disciples of Hanifa at Kufah and Bagdad, or the jurists
of Samarkand and Bokhara. The law-cases they expounded are such as had
originated, or might have originated, in those countries--in Babylonia
or Turan. And they are for the most part taken from a state of
society, and illustrative of social relations, which prevailed in
these countries at a period long antecedent to that of Aurunzebe. To
attempt to illustrate the civil and social condition of India, under
that Emperor by their aid, would be as preposterous as to attempt to
illustrate the civil and social condition of those parts of Germany
where the Roman law still possesses authority from cases recorded in
the Pandects of Justinian.

The real use and value of the "Futawa Alumgeeree" may be briefly
explained. In every country in Europe where the Roman law is still
recognized as more or less authoritative--and indeed in every country
where the common law has borrowed more or less from the Roman--an
acquaintance with the system of Roman jurisprudence as it is embodied
in the law-books of Justinian has its value for the scientific lawyer.
In like manner a knowledge of Mahometan jurisprudence as embodied in