<div class="image-200">
<a href="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/luwaran_1.webp" rel="lightbox">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/luwaran_1_t.webp" alt="First page of an original manuscript copy of the Luwaran" />
</a>
<div>
(First page of an original manuscript copy of the Luwaran)
</div>
</div>

The Arabic books quoted in the Luwaran are Minhaju-l-Arifeen, Taqreebu-l-Intifa, Fathu-l-Qareeb, and Miratu-t-Tullab. The 

first of these, generally known as the Minhaj, is the chief authority quoted. Datu Utu had an old copy of the 

Minhaj that looked more than two hundred years old. The author of the Minhaj must have lived in the ninth or tenth century. The 

compilation of the Luwaran must have been made before the middle of the eighteenth century.


Each Mindanao datu is assisted in the administration of justice by a judge and a vizier. The judge is called Datu Kali. The word kali is 

derived from the Arabic word meaning "judge". The Datu Kali is the chief pandita of the district and is supposed to be the best-informed man of the 

community. The pandita is the scholar who can read and write and perform the functions of a priest. The vizier is called "wazir", he is a 

pandita too, and acts in a semijudicial and clerical capacity. Mohammedan law being based on the teachings of the Quran, the chief pandita of the 

district is naturally regarded as the most competent expounder of the law and the best-fitted person in the community to act as a judge. As the wazir 

is a pandita, he should be a well-informed and wise man. Some datus are pandita themselves, and some take all matters into their own hands and 

delegate none of their offices or duties to a judge or a vizier; but this is the exception, not the rule.

The Luwaran, The Laws of Magindanao