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Islamic law

Inheritance under Islamic law, where the Qur'an fixes shares for named relatives, and the waqf endowments families used alongside it.

50 storiesThe law overview

How does islamic law decide who inherits?

A succession rule known in advance let the throne pass within hours of a murder. Assets moved to children before death to defeat a former spouse's award can be pursued by her in court, against those children.

Stories
50
Years
525 BCE to 2021
Main regions
Middle East, South Asia, Europe
Main subjects
Islamic and Persian empires, Scripture and the ancient world, Cities
Updated
30 October 2026

Every islamic law story, newest first

  1. 2021Majid Al Futtaim died with ten heirs and a $16 billion mall group, and a court set up by Dubai's ruler gave government appointees five of nine board seatsgulfnews.com and 4 more
  2. 2020One Sursock left his Beirut villa to the city as a museum; another Sursock palace passed to a single heiress; the 2020 port blast hit both, and she died of her injuriessursock.museum and 3 more
  3. 2019Tunisia's president proposed equal inheritance for daughters and sons, died before parliament voted, and his successor called the debate falseAl Jazeera and 4 more
  4. 2016A Saudi billionaire took a diplomatic post to defeat his ex-wife's claim, lost, and died nine days before he had to pay £53 millionarchive.news.stv.tv and 3 more
  5. 2015Hamdard split at Partition, its Pakistani founder was shot dead in Karachi, and the Delhi heirs' fight over the waqf took Rooh Afza off Indian shelveslivelawbiz.com and 3 more
  6. 2014A Qatari collector died in 2014 owing auction houses millions; his heirs split over his blue diamond, and a cousin's company sued to buy itThe National Archives, Find Case Law and 2 more
  7. 2011A singer's son by a Suharto minister changed Indonesian law: children born outside marriage can now claim their fathersnasional.kompas.com and 2 more
  8. 2008A Greek Muslim left everything to his wife by notarial will, his sisters invoked sharia, and Greek courts cut her to a quarterechrcaselaw.com and 3 more
  9. 2002An orphanage trust sold its Mumbai plot for Antilia in 2002, the waqf board called the sale illegal, and the Bombay High Court dismissed the last challenge in 2025LiveLaw and 3 more
  10. 1979Iran's revolutionary court had plastics maker Habib Elghanian shot in 1979, and the state took the tower he builtjewishjournal.com and 4 more
  11. 1975Saudi King Faisal was shot by his nephew during an audience, and the nephew was beheaded in a Riyadh squareWikipedia (English) and 1 more
  12. 1967Mossadegh nationalised Iran's oil, was overthrown in a CIA and MI6 coup, and was buried under the floor of his own houseequaltimes.org and 2 more
  13. 1966The Nawab of Rampur's eldest son took all his private property in 1966; after 53 years the Supreme Court split it among 16 heirsapi.sci.gov.in and 2 more
  14. 1890Schliemann smuggled Priam's Treasure out of the Ottoman Empire and gave it to Berlin, the Red Army took it in 1945, and Moscow kept it secret for 50 yearssmb.museum and 2 more
  15. 1866Bombay Khoja dissidents sued the first Aga Khan for control of the community's funds, and a British judge ruled in 1866 that he was their hereditary imamEncyclopaedia Britannica and 1 more
  16. 1863Khedive Ismail sold Egypt's Suez Canal shares to Britain for £4 million in 1875, and the Ottoman sultan deposed him four years laterlegislation.gov.uk and 3 more
  17. 1856Sayyid Said died at sea in 1856, his sons split Oman and Zanzibar, and his daughter Salme was refused her inheritanceWikisource (primary text) and 6 more
  18. 1826The Sultan abolished the Bektashi order in 1826 and gave its lodges away, Atatürk closed the rest in 1925, and in 2024 Albania proposed a sovereign state for its leadersarakuehn.com and 2 more
  19. 1822The Ottoman state killed Ali Pasha of Ioannina in 1822 and confiscated more than 950 farmsislamansiklopedisi.org.tr and 2 more
  20. 1763The Jagat Seths financed the British at Plassey; six years later the Nawab had the two heads of the bank killed and their bodies thrown from a forten.banglapedia.org and 2 more
  21. 1714The Ottomans beheaded Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu and his four sons in Istanbul in 1714 after four months of torture over his fortuneadevarul.ro and 4 more
  22. 1707Aurangzeb was buried under a plain stone as he willed, and his sons fought for the throne; one said "a throne or a bier"Internet Archive and 1 more
  23. 1693The Sabarna Roy Choudhury family sold three villages to the East India Company in 1698, and their descendants won a 2003 ruling that Job Charnock did not found Kolkatatribuneindia.com and 3 more
  24. 1666Mughal prince Aurangzeb jailed his father for eight years and executed his brother to take the throneWikipedia (English) and 1 more
  25. 1648The last male of the Ottoman house would not leave his room when told he was sultan, and eight years later his mother agreed to his depositionislamansiklopedisi.org.tr and 1 more
  26. 1627Asaf Khan crowned a Mughal prince to hold the throne for Shah Jahan, and Shah Jahan had him imprisoned and killedInternet Archive and 1 more
  27. 1595Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III had his 19 brothers strangled on the day he took the throneWikipedia (English) and 1 more
  28. 1562Süleyman paid the Shah of Persia to hand back his son Bayezid, who was strangled in Qazvin with his four sonsEncyclopaedia Britannica and 2 more
  29. 1553Süleyman had his eldest son Mustafa strangled in the imperial tent in 1553 after his grand vizier produced a letter in the prince's name to the ShahEncyclopaedia Britannica and 2 more
  30. 1523The Knights of St John surrendered Rhodes in 1522, sailed away with 4,000 islanders, and rented Malta from the Emperor for a falcon a yearProject Gutenberg and 2 more
  31. 1495Mehmed II's younger son lost the throne to his brother and spent 13 years as a paid captive of the Knights of Rhodes, the Pope and the King of FranceEncyclopaedia Britannica and 2 more
  32. 1481A Turkish court ruled in 2020 that Mehmed II's endowment deed still bound Hagia Sophia as a mosque, while an Armenian foundation could not recover its confiscated Istanbul innharvardlawreview.org and 2 more
  33. 1476Vlad III Dracula's head was sent to the sultan, and the grave at Snagov opened in 1933 held no bodyresearch.library.kutztown.edu and 5 more
  34. 1449Ulugh Beg kept back his son's share of the treasury, and the son defeated him, had him sentenced, and let the emirs kill him on the road to Meccaislamansiklopedisi.org.tr and 2 more
  35. 1405Soviet scientists opened Timur's tomb on 19 June 1941 over the objections of Samarkand's clerics, and the keeper who read out its warning was ordered arrestedEncyclopaedia Britannica and 2 more
  36. 1361Plague estates paid for Sultan Hasan's Cairo mosque, a minaret fell and killed about 300, and the sultan was murdered and never buried in his tombmadainproject.com and 2 more
  37. 1290Sultan Qalawun built Cairo's great hospital with forced labour after a vow in a Damascus hospital funded by a captured European king's ransomegymonuments.gov.eg and 3 more
  38. 1258Hulagu took Baghdad and killed the last Abbasid caliph in 1258, chroniclers gave seven different deaths, and a surviving kinsman was made caliph in Cairocambridge.org and 3 more
  39. 1193A waqf fed Maghrebi pilgrims in Jerusalem for 774 years, and its quarter was bulldozed in one night in June 1967laviedesidees.fr and 2 more
  40. 1187Two Muslim families have opened the Church of the Holy Sepulchre every day for centuries, and dispute which of them came firstipsnews.net and 4 more
  41. 1094The vizier al-Afdal put al-Musta'li on the Fatimid throne in 1094 over his elder brother Nizar, and the Ismailis splitiis.ac.uk and 4 more
  42. 1020Tradition says Sultan Mahmud's gold for the Shahnameh reached Ferdowsi's town as his coffin left it, and his daughter refused itjls.um.ac.ir and 2 more
  43. 680Mu'awiya made his son Yazid heir to the caliphate; Muhammad's grandson al-Husayn refused to swear and was killed at Karbala with most of his family's menInternet Archive and 2 more
  44. 634Full brothers left with nothing asked the caliph Umar to treat their father as a donkey, and he changed his rulingislamqa.info and 2 more
  45. 632Jabir, with only sisters to inherit, asked Muhammad how to leave his estate; the last verse revealed answered him, and the caliph Umar said he never fully understood itihadis.com and 3 more
  46. 632While Muhammad's family prepared his body, a meeting in a Medina courtyard chose Abu Bakr as successor over the people of Medina's own candidateihadis.com and 3 more
  47. 632Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her inheritance from Muhammad; he refused, she did not speak to him again, and caliphs returned and seized the land of Fadak for 200 yearsInternet Archive and 2 more
  48. 625Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' was killed at Uhud and his brother took everything; his widow brought their two daughters to Muhammad, and the Koran's inheritance verse followedihadis.com and 3 more
  49. 610The Quran says a servant of God rebuilt a wall in an inhospitable town so two orphans could recover their father's buried treasurequran.com and 3 more
  50. 525 BCEA boy king of Sidon cursed anyone who moved his coffin; in 1855 it was dug up, fought over and shipped to the LouvreGoogle Books and 3 more