'What ancient laws can teach us about holding autocrats to account today'
This was not the only tradition to develop the rule of law. Further to the east, Hindu priests were making laws that their kings were supposed to follow. The central Indian plains had long been ruled by powerful warlords but both political rulers and army generals looked to their priests to intercede with the gods and keep them safe.
, which told people of different classes how they should act in accordance with their dharma. This included rules that the kings should both follow and enforce. Gradually, the brahmins persuaded rulers all over the region to follow their ritual traditions. Even the most powerful came to accept that it was for the brahmins to declare what that law was.In practice, Hindu kings generally consulted councils of brahmins when they had to decide difficult legal cases.
In a similar way Islamic legal scholars set their expertise beyond the control of political leaders. Keen to ensure the support of the most respected scholars, the rulers of the early caliphates, which developed in the 7th to 10th centuries, established religious academies where scholars could develop their education. To this day, Muslims consult mufti, local legal experts, on tricky points of social conduct.
Autocrats always try to avoid the rule of law, and often they have succeeded. But the Romans’ citizen assemblies, the brahmins’ texts and the aloof authority of the Islamic legal scholars, are just some of the means that people have used to hold their rulers to account. As we struggle to curb autocracy and power in today’s fragmented world, we may need to look beyond the familiar model of the democratic state.