qadi

• cadi, kadi, Kazi, qazi
• casis, caxis, casiz (archaic, Portuguese)
• cauzy, cazee, cazy, kajee, cadjee, cogee (obsolete)

From Arabic قَاضٍ (qāḍin, “judge”). Doublet of alcalde, casis, and cauzee.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːdi/
• Rhymes: -ɑːdi
• Homophone: cardy

qadi (plural qadis)

1. (Islam, law) A judge who is trained in and practices Islamic law [from 16th c.]

   Hypernym: cleric

   • 1907, Various, The Olive Fairy Book‎:

     To this the Jew agreed, and the two went together to the great hall, in which the kadi was administering justice.

   • 1985, Yasmin Hussain, Sharon Siddique, Ahmad Ibrahim, Readings on Islam in Southeast Asia:

     legal treatises dealing with the subject usually spoke of the appointment to office of a qadi [...].

   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 74:

     The Qazi, his spiritual adviser, had recommended that the Russian be taken out into the desert and buried alive [...].

   • 2011 July 22, Jill Hamilton, The Guardian:

     While sharia law for divorce in many Muslim countries has been modified by governments, in Israel reform was initiated by qadis.

Most Islamic countries nowadays use Islamic law only for civil law, chiefly family law. In such systems a qadi is accordingly a particular kind of civil judge, but this situation is recent. Typically under the Turkish form kadi, the qadis of the Ottoman Empire also initially administered the functions of all local imperial government including taxation and military conscription.

• qaid