Adat is (javi: عادت) is a general term borrowed from the Arabic language to describe the diverse local customs and traditions practiced by Muslim communities in the North Caucasus, Central and Southeast Asia. Despite its Arab origin, the term "adat" is widespread throughout marine Southeast Asia, where due to colonial influence it was systematically used in various non-Muslim communities. In the pre-Islamic period of history, there were many legal norms that governed the life of communities, and one of them was the adat. The meaning of the word “adat” was often contrasted with Sharia law.
The essence of adat
In the legal field, adat is a customary law, rules, prohibitions and instructions of the leadership regarding the behavior of an individual as a member of the Muslim community and sanctions for their violation. It is also a form of appeal to various segments of the population for which these norms and rules are drawn up. They are quite conservative and strict. Adat also includes a set of local and traditional laws, dispute resolution systems, according to which society has existed for centuries.
Adat in the North Caucasus and Central Asia
Before the advent of Islam, the peoples of the North Caucasus and Central Asia had long had established norms of criminal and civil law, which in the Islamic period began to be called "adat." In traditional societies of Central Asia, it is established and supervised by authoritative members of the community, as a rule, by the council of elders. It is based on a tribal code of conduct and centuries of experience in resolving conflicts between individuals, communities and tribes. In the North Caucasus with regards to traditional values, the Code of Adat decided that the teip (clan) is the main guideline for loyalty, honor, shame and collective responsibility.
The colonial administration of the Russian Empire did not interfere with legal practice and delegated management at the local community level to the Councils of elders and teips. The Bolsheviks did the same in the early years of the 1917 revolution. Adat was practiced among residents of Central Asia and Caucasians until the early 1930s, until the Soviet government banned its use and replaced it with civil law.
Adat in Southeast Asia
In Southeast Asia, the concept of “adat” and its meaning were first formulated in the Islamized Malay-speaking world. Apparently, this was done to distinguish between traditional and Muslim norms. In the 15th century, the Malacca Sultanate developed a code of international law of the sea, as well as civil and business codes, which had a distinct influence of the law called "Sharia." Adat also greatly affected these legal documents. These codes later spread throughout the region and became full sources of law for local jurisprudence in major regional sultanates such as Brunei, Johor, Pattani and Aceh.
Adat in the East Indies and its study
In the early decades of the twentieth century in the Dutch East Indies, the study of adat emerged as a specialized field of study. Although this is related to the needs of colonial administration, nevertheless, the study generated an active scientific discipline that touched on various adat comparison systems in different countries. Among the outstanding scientists involved in the study of adat, there is Dutchman Van Wallenhoven, Ter Haar, as well as Snoke Hungronhe. Several key concepts that are still used today under customary law exist in modern Indonesia. These include the “law of the adat,” “the law of the circles of the adat,” “communal law on land plots or their use,” as well as the “law of the communities.” Adat law was used by the colonial government as a legal term for normative law, which was represented by an independent legal branch, in addition to canon law. The local laws and customs of all ethnic groups, including non-Muslims, began to be collectively denoted by the term "adat" - a word that had a broad legal meaning. Its norms and provisions were encoded in the legal documents of these countries, in accordance with which legal pluralism was introduced in the East Indies. According to this scheme, based on the classification of adat systems as a cultural-geographical unit, the Dutch divided the whole of East India into at least nineteen legal zones.
The modern influence of adat
Adat is still used in the courts of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia (countries in which Islam is the state religion) as a civil law in some respects. In Malaysia, there are authorized representatives of Malay state representatives in the Constitution of each state, such as the Head of Islam and Malay customs. The United States Councils, known as the Majlis Agama Islam Dan Adat (Council of Islam and Malay Customs) are responsible for advising state leaders, as well as for regulating Islamic and Adat affairs.
Customary litigation litigation
Litigation on issues related to Islamic and Adat affairs (for example, cases of the division of joint property of spouses and their common children) is carried out in the Shariah court. Adat law is what in most cases regulates civil and family relations in the Muslim part of Southeast Asia. In the states of Sarawak and Sabah, the adat code of the non-Malay indigenous community of Malaysia was legalized by the creation of special courts known as Mahkamaha Bumiputra and Mahkamah Anak Negeri. There is also a parallel system for ethnic Malays, which is called Mahkamah itself, but it has very limited jurisdiction.
In Indonesia, the Adat law still has great legal significance in some areas, especially in most Hindu villages on the island of Bali, in the Tenger region and in the sultanates of Yogyakarta and Surakarta.
Adat in the post-Soviet space
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the practice of adat in Central Asia began to revive in the 1990s among Muslim communities in rural areas. This was largely due to the collapse of legal and law enforcement institutions in most areas of the Central Asian region. The emergence of new constitutions in the republics also contributed to this process, since it expanded the capabilities of some traditional institutions, such as councils of elders (aksakals). Some administrative bodies are also often guided by adat norms.
Caucasian and Chechen adats
In the North Caucasus, for centuries, there has been a traditional clan system of community self-government. Chechen adates arose under Shamil. Word “adat,” the definition and translation of which means the concept of “custom or habit,” plays a huge role for the North Caucasian peoples. After the Stalinist era, he again began to operate underground (from the 1950s of the twentieth century). For Chechens, adat are unshakable rules of behavior in the family and society. Any decent Chechen family shows respect and care for the older generation, especially parents. Elderly parents live with one of their sons. Due to the repression of Islamic scholars during the Stalin years, the adat, which existed in Chechnya and Dagestan, practically did not contain elements of Islamic law. However, the number of Muslim scholars published in adat collections is now growing, the materials of which are used in making important decisions in village councils and district administrations.