but no reward
is due
to the reftorer
.of a ßrayed
■Have.
’companions] may be thus reconciled:—secondly, if a reward be
made incumbent, men’s property will be fecured, becaufe people will
feize fugitive flaves and reftore them to the owners, in hopes of the
inward;—for the performance of ads merely from a motive of con-
fcience feldom occurs in the world, more Specially in the pre/ent
times:-—(the rating the premium at forty dir ms, or lefs, is grounded
upon oral teftimony *; but no report has reached us concerning ftrayed
flaves, and hence, in their cafe, nothing is declared to be due:)—
t h i r d l y , in the inftance offtrayed flaves the neceflity of conferva-
.tion is lefs, urgent than in the cafe of fugitive flaves, becaufe a ftrayed
Have does not,conceal himfelf,— whereas a fugitive Have endeavours to
keep concealed; a fugitive Have, therefore, is eflentially different from
a ftrayed flave; and hence a premium is eftablifhed in the cafe of the
former, and not in the cafe of the latter. As to what was before advanced,
(that, “ if a perfon apprehend and bring back a fugitive
■“ flave, from a diftance fhort of three days journey, he is entitled to
“ a proportional recompence,”—(it is to be obferved that if the fer-
vice be calculated at the rate of value of the eflablifhed premium,
there will be thirteen dirms and one third of a dirm due for each day
invariably, which is what fome have alleged. The beft method,
however, is to refer this point to the difcrelion of the magiftrate, or'
to leave it to the parties themfelves, (namely, the reftorer of the
flave and the owner,') in which cafe the reftorer is entitled to whatever
fum they may agree upon.
Rale where If the value of the fugitive flave be fhort of forty dirms, the
ihe <1value o f z i i v r> i ° . . J J .
the flave falls owner mult be directed to pay to the reftorer thirty-nine d ir m s , pro-
f°“ °f forty vided he have feized and brought him back-from a diftance of three
days-journey.—Our author remarks that this is the opinion o f Mohammed.—
Aboo Toofaf maintains that he is entitled to forty d ir m s , be-
* T h is phrafe is applied (in law language.) to any thing which is not founded either
upon the text of the Koran, or the ordinances o f the prophet.
caufe,
caufe, as the rate is fo eftablilhed upon. the authority of the facred
writings*, it cannot be leflened; whence it is that if the reftorer of
the flave and the owner were to enter into a compofition. at a rate
above forty d ir m s , it would be unlawful;—bjit if, on the contrary,
they agree for fewer than forty, it is lawful, becaufe as the reftorer is
at liberty to decline accepting of any part of the forty dirms, it follows
that he may lawfully accept of left than that fum. The argument
of Mohammed is that the defign, in eftabliftnng a reward, is: to excite
and encourage men to reftore fugitive flaves to their owners, in order
that the proprietor may recover his property; and hence one d i r m is'
dedufted, in order that fome part of the fugitive may remain for his
mafter, and that the advantage of inftituting a reward may be alcer-
tained f.
Am-Walids and Modabbirs are, with refpect to the reward,
confidered in the fame light as abfolute flaves, provided they be reftored
before the demife of their owner, becaule flaves of the above deferip-
tions are a property to their owmer, and the reftoration of them is a
viviftcation of them with refpedt to him; the reward, therefore, is
due:—but where they are reftored after the owner’s deceafe, no part
of the reward is due, becaufe flaves of both the above defcriptions are
free upon the demife of their mafter: contrary to the cafe of abfolute
flaves, fince they do not become free upon their mafter’s death, for
which reafon the reward for reftoring them is due, although they be
reftored after the mafter’s deceafe.
A reward is
due for Am-
Walids, and
Modabbirs,
provided they
be reftored before
the owner’s
death ;
and for abfolute
flaves, although
they
be not reftored
until after his
death.
* T h is apparently contradicts what was before mentioned, that the rating o f the premium
at forty d ir m s , or lefs., is grounded upon o r a l t e s t im o n y : the oral tejiimony however
relates folely to the additional words, or lefs.
+ T h e doCtrine o f Mohammed, as ftated in the cafe in queftion, is according to the Perjian
verfion o f the Hedaya. T h e tranflator, conceiving it his duty to adhere clofely to his text,
has not ventured to alter it. T h e paflage, however, is much more clearly exprefled in
the Arabic copy, and in a way to which the reafoning o f Mohammed is direCtly applicable
(which is not the cafe here:)— I t limply fays “ I f the value o f the flave be Jhort o f forty
d ir m s , let the rejlorer be decreed the valuer except a d i r m .”
V ol. II. O o I f