Al-Ahkam al-Kubra li-Ibn Sahl: A court case on a martyr of Cordova that reached the orient

The work al-ahkam al-kubra of ibn sahl al-qurtubi (1022-1093) is a collection of court cases and fatwas from the tenth and eleventh centuries in al-andalus. in this paper i will introduce this relatively unknown but important work,concerning its manuscripts,partial editions,and research work done on it until now. i will provide a short introduction on the themes and then give a selection of cases and fatwas contained in the book,especially those cases concerning christians. as an example,i have translated a case related to the martyrs of cordova that was known in the orient this concrete case was known by ibn taymiyya (1262-1358) who includes it in his book al-sarim al-maslui. the case,like most of the other cases in the book,can be precisely dated on the basis of studying the muftis' biographies,of those who took part in the trial and whose biographies are found in k. al-tabaqat or biographical works. hence,we can define al-ahkam al-kubra as a historical archive for this period of the history of al-andalus. it is also important to realize the existing exchange of material and persons between the orient and the occident regarding legal sciences in the islamic world of the time. studying the case in its historical context,it is also possible to observe that blasphemy law meant a rebellion against the state at that time rather than an insult of a private person of one religion to the leader of the other religious community.