For a closer understanding of Islamic legal practice and for the application and social functionof Islamic fiqh, medieval al-Andalus offers some highly fascinating source materials.Apart from a wealth of legal textbooks of the Maliki madhhab that originate from thatregion and a wide range of biographical and historical texts covering the different stages of thehistory of Islamic Spain, al-Andalus provides some of the earliest surviving collections of reportedcourt cases (nawazil and ahkam) whose coverage of decisions in some casesreaches well back into the 9th century.