Sharia is a combination of legal and religious norms that form the basis of Islamic law. This law enforcement system is considered extremely flexible. It is able to operate within the framework of completely different social structures and political regimes of both non-Muslim and Muslim states.
The Sharia court (mainly in the field of hereditary and family relations) operates in Greece, the Netherlands and other countries of European society. And some legal norms are also used in international law (the procedure for damages in a shipwreck, for example).
The Sharia court in different historical epochs of various peoples possessed a different nature of legal proceedings. He developed quite peculiarly in the North Caucasus. On this territory, the introduction of Sharia was one of the main and most important requirements of the 1917 revolutionary system. So, in May in Vladikavkaz the first congress of representatives of the Caucasian mountain peoples took place. It was decided to introduce the rule of Sharia and the Koran in all Muslim courts.
In 1919, in January, with the outbreak of the Civil War, the Sharia court was transformed into the so-called military Sharia court. From that moment he began to play the role of a military tribunal. It should be noted that the sharia norms of the transformed body were practically not guided. Meanwhile, successive military regimes used the justice system as a means of settling accounts with their opponents on the political front.
The established Soviet power in the North Caucasus legalized the Sharia court in all the territories where it functioned: in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachai, Kabarda, and North Ossetia.
It should be noted that the Soviet government was opposite to Muslim law, rather than the pre-revolutionary administration of the country. The latter supported the adat (custom), seeking to weaken the position of the Muslim rebel movement. In the early 1920s, the Bolsheviks, in contrast, sought to support the liberation movement. Until the Soviet regime was strengthened, they attracted many Muslim peoples to their side. At the same time, Sharia was maintained to the detriment of the adat.
At the beginning of the formation of Soviet power on the territory of each autonomy of the North Caucasus, its own hierarchy of the justice system was created. The most difficult is the three-stage organization in Dagestan, which took shape in 1922. In certain cities and villages were the so-called "Sharia trios." They consisted of two members and a chairman. A judge in Sharia (Dibir or Mullah), together with two other members, dealt with small hereditary, civil, land and criminal cases. Their decisions were disputed in the district authorities.
Together with Muslim law, when resolving land and criminal lawsuits, the Shariah judge was guided by the norms of customary law common among the highlanders. Such norms, for example, were fines, a purifying oath, expulsion of a blood clot, reconciliation, and others.
In the first half of the 1920s, Sharia courts were withdrawn from state support and transferred to the upkeep of those Muslim communities who wanted to decide their affairs under these laws. These transformations were carried out simultaneously with collectivization and industrialization.
After the USSR collapsed, an almost universal movement began to restore Sharia justice. Several dozen bodies were formed in the Muslim communities of Chechnya and Northern Dagestan. Together with the Sharia court, North Caucasian Muslims have a Russian people's and public arbitration court.