HISBAH, or ihtisab, the "promotion of good and the forbidding of
evil" as one of the principal religious duties of every Muslim
and as the duty of a specially appointed person in each town,
particularly in regard to the supervision of markets, artisans,
and moral behavior in public. This person, called the muhtasib,
was concerned with such matters as fraud in the manufacture of
goods and swindling in their sale. In that respect he supervised
the conduct of both Muslims and the AHL AL-DHIMMAH ("People of
the Covenant"), or Dhimmis. His supervision had two aspects, one
religious, one legislative. The religious aspect was the
injunction on all Muslims to "promote good and forbid evil."
There is a strong historical connection between this formula and
Christianity in Islamic tradition, for Christ, according to
Islam, was the first person to enforce "what is legally right
and prevent illegality," which he did on Palm Sunday. The
legislative aspect is that the coveted status of Dhimmi was
authorized only by the imam