In 1869, the British allowed Muslims to sit as judges on the High Court. This article explores the legal opinions of the first Muslim judge to be appointed to the High Court, Syed Mahmood. Straddling two competing worlds – that of Cambridge University and that of his native India – Justice Mahmood both legitimated and resisted colonial judicial power. In this essay I will demonstrate how British judges interpreted points of Islamic law within an English legal framework, and how these interpretations contradicted their translated texts of Islamic law, yet became the foundation of legal precedents established through the doctrine of stare decisis. Despite participating within the British colonial judiciary, Mahmood challenged these precedents, demonstrating his ability to navigate the paradoxes of colonial power to secure for himself a legitimate platform from which he could argue his juridical interventions. The efficacy of these challenges, however, ultimately was restrained by the institutions and structures of the colonial jural project.

中文翻译：

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驾驭殖民力量：挑战先例与本土精英的局限

1869 年，英国允许穆斯林担任高等法院的法官。本文探讨了第一位被任命为高等法院的穆斯林法官赛义德·马哈茂德 (Syed Mahmood) 的法律意见。跨越两个相互竞争的世界——剑桥大学和他的家乡印度——马哈茂德大法官既合法化又抵制殖民司法权。在这篇文章中，我将展示英国法官如何在英国法律框架内解释伊斯兰法的要点，以及这些解释如何与他们翻译的伊斯兰法文本相矛盾，但却成为通过遵循先例确立的法律先例的基础。尽管参与了英国殖民司法体系，但马哈茂德挑战了这些先例，展示了他驾驭殖民权力悖论的能力，为自己确保了一个合法的平台，他可以从中论证他的司法干预。然而，这些挑战的效力最终受到殖民法律项目的制度和结构的限制。