Qanun (law)

Qanun, also spelled kanun, is an Arabic term for laws issued by Muslim sovereigns, most notably the body of administrative, economic and criminal law promulgated by the Ottoman sultans. It is distinguished from sharia, the law developed by Islamic jurists, since qanun derives its authority from the ruler rather than religious scholarship. In the Ottoman context this body of legislation is also known as sultanic law or, more broadly, dynastic law, and it operated alongside sharia as a parallel, secular source of legal authority. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/