Trade Turnover Law in the Uzbek Khanates

The article deals with the Sharia norms regulating transactions in the sphere of trade turnover applied in the Uzbek khanates in the 16th–19th centuries. The author reveals the provisions on the subject and object of law, the subject of the contract, conditions and methods of conclusion, termination and enforcement of contracts, obligations arising from the terms of the contract. Islam, as you know, was very supportive of trade and saw one of its main tasks in ensuring the interests of private property and trade turnover. The five tasks of Islam — the protection of religion, life, reason, race and property — the protection of private property occupies, in fact, a central place. Sharia therefore pays special attention to the trade agreement, and Muslim lawyers include in the chapter on trade all the main provisions on contracts and obligations in general. The doctrine of property rights was not developed in Muslim law, but the doctrine of the law of obligations was developed in great detail. Sharia has the detailed classification of obligations, the division of obligations on the basis of their emergence into obligations arising from the law or from the actual situation and obligations arising from contracts, as well as the division of obligations into unilateral and bilateral, non-conditional and conditional, solidary and non-solidary, simple and alternative, divisible and indivisible. The author analyzes the types of transactions provided for by Sharia that were the most widespread and had the best law enforcement in the Uzbek khanates in the 116th–19th centuries. The author highlights conditions under which a ban could be imposed on transactions or under which transactions could be invalidated. All transactions, according to the fundamental principles of Sharia, had to be made on the basis of good will, legality and consent of the parties.

1. Berg L. Osnovnye nachala musulmanskogo prava, soglasno ucheniyu imamov Abu Khanify i Shafii [The basic principles of Muslim law, according to the teachings of imams Abu Hanifa and Shafi’i]. St. Petersburg: Shakht and Co. Publ. House; 1882 (In Russ.).

2. Ibn Hajar Al ‘Askalyani. Bulug al-Maram. Dostizhenie tseli v uyasnenii svyashchennykh tekstov, na kotorye opiraetsya musulmanskoe pravo [Achieving the goal of understanding the sacred texts on which Muslim law is based]. Moscow: Umma Publ.; 2003 (In Russ.).

3. Koran [The Quran]. Moscow: Umma Publ.; 2003 (In Russ.).

4. Kremer A. Musulmanskoe pravo [Muslim law]. Tashkent: Military region headquarters Publ. House; 1888 (In Russ.).

5. Nalivkin VP. Konspekt lektsiy po istorii islama i po musulmanskomu pravu, chitannykh v 1906–1907 gg. [Summary of lectures on the history of Islam and on Muslim law, delivered in 1906–1907] (In Russ.). Tashkent; 1908 (In Russ.).

6. Nalivkin VP., Nalivkina MV. Ocherk byta zhenshchina osedlogo tuzemnogo naseleniya Fergany [An essay on the life of a woman of the settled indigenous population of Fergana]. Kazan: Imperial University Publishing House; 1886 (In Russ.).

7. Nofal I. Kurs musulmanskogo prava: o sobstvennosti [The course of Muslim law: Property]. St. Petersburg : Military and training Headquaters; 1886 (In Russ.).

8. Opyt sistematicheskogo izlozheniya glavneyshikh nachal shariata, primenyaemykh nyne v korennykh oblastyakh Turkestanskogo kraya [The experience of systematic presentation of the main principles of Sharia, which are now used in the indigenous regions of the Turkestan region]. Unoffic. ed. of Tashkent: Turkestan Governor General Admin. Office.; 1909 (In Russ.).

9. Ostroumov NP. Islamovedenie. Shariat po shkole (mazkhab) Abu-Khanify. [Islamic studies. 4. Sharia according to the school (madhhab) of Abu Hanifa]. Tashkent: Syrdarya region statistics department under Turkestan Governor General Administrative Office; 1912 (In Russ.).

10. Prokhorova VM. Ponyatiynyy podstrochnik k Koranu [Conceptual substring to the Koran]. Moscow: RIPOLL classic Publ.; 2017 (In Russ.).

11. Tornau NE. Osobennosti musulmanskogo prava [Features of Muslim law]. St. Petersburg; Imperial Academy of Sciences Publ. House; 1892 (In Russ.).

12. Yushkov SV. Istoriya gosudarstva i prava SSSR : v 2 ch. [History of the state and law of the USSR : in 2 parts]. Part 1. Moscow: Legal publishing house of the NKYU of the USSR; 1940 (In Russ.).