Narrative is central to legal practice, shaping how cases are framed, evidence interpreted, and disputes resolved. In Republican-era (1911–1949), domestic conflicts within Uyghur communities were adjudicated largely according to Islamic law. This paper examines a corpus of legal documents from a prominent family in Nuri Känt in Chira County (Khotan) to identify the causes of intra-familial disputes and the reasoning behind judgments issued by Muslim judges. It analyzes the interplay of Shariʿa, local custom, and practical judicial considerations in these decisions. The study also explores women’s legal agency and the role of village elders and local officials in mediation, providing a foundation for further research into the socio-legal world of pre-socialist Uyghur society.
Aysima Mirsultan (Thu,) studied this question.