spite of Muhammad's new law, was really, as the genealogist Daghfal once reminded the Halif111 Mu'awiya, the slave who used to lead Umayya by the hand in his blind old age.

99112

The rite of circumcision, which may be designated as the precursor and twin-sister of adoption, was likewise current among the pagan Arabs.113 Accordingly, no special legislative act is required for its continuance in Islam, circumcision being incumbent on all good Muslims as a part of the Sunna.114 For a full discussion of the ceremonies attendant upon the circumcision of a muṭṭahir,115 or Muslim boy of to-day,116 the reader is referred to Lane, The Modern Egyptians, vol. II, 244 ff.

The institution of slavery in Arabia is intimately associated with warfare. A passage in the Qur'an contains the following: 'O prophet, verily we make lawful for thee wives to whom thou hast given their gift (dowry), and what thy right hand possesses117

111 6 'Caliph.'

112 Kinship, 52.

113 A Jewish treatise (Mekilta) of the second century states that all Arabs were circumcised. The Abyssinians of pre-Islamic times became acquainted with the rite through the influence of southern Arabia. Circumcision was also known to the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Phoenicians. Cf. Benzinger, op. cit., 119 ff.

114

custom, e. g., a practice which is observed by reason of the prophet's own example. Cf. Muir, The Life of Mahomet, 185, n. 1; cp. Doughty, op. cit., I, 318.

115 act. part. of the fifth form of tahara: one who purifies or cleanses himself; cp. mutahhar, one who is freed from impurity (II. pass. part.).

116 For a description of the 'nomad children's circumcision feasts' (muzayyin) compare Doughty, op. cit. I, 340-342.

117 ma malakat aymanukum, a term generally used for slaves. This expression also occurs when male slaves are referred to; cf. Sura 4: 40; 16: 73; 24: 33, 57; 30: 27, etc.

out of the booty God hath granted thee. '118 And again: 'When ye meet the unbelievers, then strike off their heads until ye have massacred them, and lay (the remainder) in fetters. And subsequently permit the latter either to go free or to be ransomed until the war shall have laid down its burdens. "119

The mention of negro slaves in old Arabian poetry120 at once suggests a second method by which the ranks of the servile population were further recruited. Probably these Africans had been transported to Arabia by men engaged in the slavetrade.121 Of the captives taken by the ancient Arabs in their numerous plundering excursions and intertribal wars, many found their way to the slavemarkets of Mecca and Medina, Taima and Ḥaibar, where they could be sold into foreign slavery.122 In the early stages of Islam, however, it was considered unlawful to treat Muslim women as captives.123 But with the accession of Mu'awiya the older custom again prevailed.124

The practice of cohabiting with female captives, both married and single, constitutes a third factor in the history of slavery among the Arabs. "Unlawful for you are married women,125 save such as your

119 Sura 33: 49; cp. Numbers 31: 9.

119 Sura 47: 4-5.

120 Mu'allaqat.

121 Jakob, op. cit., III, 137; cp. Doughty, op. cit., I, 247, 553; II, 165–168.

123 Kinship, 89, 295.

123 Goldziher, op. cit., I, 125, n. 1.

124 Kinship, 89, n. 2.

125 muḥsana, 'honorable women,' i. e., free Arab women of marriageable age legally married to Arabs of equal rank.

right hands possess.""126 According to the commentators127 women captives may be cohabited with, 'even though their husbands be still alive. "128 The children of female captives of foreign birth would ordinarily join the ranks of the slave population, unless they had been raised to the status of sonship by a formal acknowledgment on the part of their respective parents.

Enslavement for debt is practically unknown in the life of a nomadic people. There is no evidence of its existence among the urbanites of ancient Arabia. But with the growth of a commercial atmosphere, as in the days of Islam, the debtor may be compelled to work off his debt.129

The legislation of Muhammad is remarkably lenient toward the insolvent debtor. "If there be any (debtor), under a difficulty (of paying his debt), let (his creditor) wait till it be easy130 (for him to do it); but if ye remit it as alms, it will be better for you. In order to safeguard the rights of both parties to a contract, the amount of the loan

99131

126 Sur. 4: 28.

127 Al-Jalalan.

123 Female slaves captured simultaneously with their husbands are prohibited to the followers of Abu Ḥanifa; cf. Roberts, op. cit., 13, n. 3.

129

Lane, op. cit., I, 132; 246 f. In his book of travels (I, 345) Doughty remarks that "if any villager has entrusted beasts to a nomad to graze with his own cattle, and they are reaved by the tribe's enemies, the villager will demand his own, and scurvily attach the Beduwy, as his debtor, if he may take him again in his village: but the Beduwy, whose law does not bind him to such restrictions, will beware, and no more adventure thither." Cp. II, 387-388.

must be carefully committed to writing in the presence of two fellow-Muslims, or a man and two women. 'If ye mutually engage in a debt for a stated time, then write it down, and let a scribe write it down between you faithfully; . . and call two (male) witnesses; and if there be not two men, then a man and two women, from those whom he (the debtor) chooses for witnesses, so that if one of the two should err, the second of the two may remind the other; and do not tire of writing it,132 be it small or great, with its time of payment. "133 According to the Hedaya the insolvent debtor may be imprisoned; but if he establish his insolvency, the judge shall declare him free.134

When a slave-girl becomes a mother by her owner, she is entitled to special consideration. Muḥammad is quoted by the traditionalists as saying that 'a slave-girl who has a child by her master is to be free at his death.' Upon giving birth to a son, the master will frequently emancipate his concubine at once, and make her his wife, in accordance with a precedent established by the prophet after he had been presented with a son by his Coptic slave woman.135 Henceforth she could neither be sold in the market nor ransomed by her people, and her offspring would be both free and legitimate.

Kindness to slaves is an act of piety which is highly commended. 'Serve God, and do not associate aught with him; and show kindness to your

132 e. g., a detailed account of the debt.

133 Sura 2: 282-284.

134 Charles Hamilton, The Hedaya, 532.

185 Mary.

parents, and to kindred . . . and to those whom your right hands possess, for God loves not him who is arrogant and proud. "136 Wealthy Muslims shall not refuse to share the good things of life with the slave members of the household. 'God has preferred some of you above others in providing for you; but those who have been preferred will not give of their provisions to those whom their right hands possess that they may share equally therein. Will they thus deny the favors of God?"137 In a memorable speech delivered in the valley of Mina in the presence of a vast crowd of pilgrims the prophet continues: "And your slaves! See that ye feed them with such food as ye eat yourselves; and clothe them with the stuff ye wear. And if they commit a fault which ye are not inclined to forgive, then sell them, for they are the servants of the Lord, and are not to be tormented.'"138 A man who is cruel to his slave 'will not enter paradise.'

The condition of slaves in modern Arabia is nearly always tolerable and often happy: "bred up as poor brothers of the sons of the household, they are a manner of God's wards of the pious Muḥammadan householder, who is 'ammy,1 139 and abuy, 'my father.' Slave-holding among them is harsher in the mixed Holy Cities (where is the churlish military obedience and Turkish violence, and where some poorer citizens make merchandise of their slaves' labor). '"140