in need of protection, and supervision of the enforcement of public morals .

The Abbasid caliphs created the office of 'chief qadi ( or ), whose holder acted primarily as adviser to the caliph in the appointment and dismissal of qadis. Among the most famous of the early judges appointed to the role of chief qadi was Abu Yusuf, a disciple of the early Muslim scholar and jurist Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man, founder of