FONDET E GJYKATAVE TË SHERIATIT NË ARKIVIN E KOSOVËS DHE RËNDËSIA E TYRE
SHARIA COURT FONDS IN THE KOSOVO ARCHIVES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE

Summary/Abstract: In Kosovo, which by force remained part of the former Serbo-CroatianSlovenian Kingdom (1918-1929) and later under the Yugoslav Kingdom (1929-1941), residents of the Muslim denomination, all issues from the personal status domain, family law, inheritance law and issues related to the waqfs institutions (legates), have resolved through the rules of Sharia law. Therefore special state bodies were organized - the Sharia courts, which, in fact, were part of the state courts and had similarities with them. These courts were also established with the same system in other countries with Muslim population, such as Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. There were district or first instance Sharia courts and second instance courts or Supreme Sharia courts. The application of Sharia law in Kosovo, since the beginning of the Ottoman rule, and even between the two World Wars, has not been the subject of study of our scholars until today, although this right has been applied for a long time and although there are still a considerable number of documents related to this field. The Kosovo Archives alone contain some fonds with thousands of documents produced by Sharia court offices, which operated in Kosovo between the two World Wars, and such documents have been little researched and not considered. Our paper therefore aims to present some data from these documents and other sources on the role and activity of these courts, as well as to present the fonds of these courts that are preserved in the Archives of Kosovo.

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