alleging the following words of the Korân," "He who saveth a soul alive shall be as if he had saved the lives of all mankind." The Arabs, in thus murdering of their children, were far from being singular; the practice of exposing infants and putting them to death being so common among the ancients, that it is remarked as a thing very extraordinary in the Egyptians, that they brought up all their children; and by the laws of Lycurguse no child was allowed to be brought up, without the approbation of public officers. At this day, it is said, in China, the poorer sort of people frequently put their children, the females especially, to death, with impunity.7 This wicked practice is condemned by the Korân in several passages;8 one of which, as some commentators9 judge, may also condemn another custom of the Arabians, altogether as wicked, and as common among other nations of old, viz., the sacrificing of their children to their idols; as was frequently done, in particular, in satisfaction of a vow they used to make, that if they had a certain number of sons born, they would offer one of them in sacrifice. Several other superstitious customs were likewise abrogated by Mohammed; but the same being of less moment, and not particularly mentioned in the Korân, or having been occasionally taken notice of elsewhere, I shall say nothing of them in this place. SECTION VI. OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE KORAN IN CIVIL AFFAIRS. THE Mohammedan civil law is founded on the precepts and determi. nations of the Korân, as the civil laws of the Jews were on those of the Pentateuch; yet being variously interpreted, according to the different decisions of their civilians, and especially of their four great doctors, Abu Hanîfa, Malec, al Shâfeï, and Ebn Hanbal,' to treat thereof fully and distinctly, in the manner the curiosity and usefulness of the subject deserves, would require a large volume: wherefore the most that can be expected here is a summary view of the principal institutions, without minutely entering into a detail of particulars. We shall begin with those relating to marriage and divorce. That polygamy, for the moral lawfulness of which the Mohammedan doctors advance several arguments, is allowed by the Korân, every one knows; though few are acquainted with the limitations with which it is allowed. Several learned men have fallen into the vulgar mistake, that Korân, chap. 5, p. 86. • Al Mostatraf. Vide Ebn Khalekân, in Vita al Farazdak, and Poc. Spec. p. 334. Strabo, lib. 17. Vide Diodor. Sic. lib. 1, c. 80. • Vide Plutarch, in Lycurgo. Vide Pufendorf. de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. 6, c. 7, sect. 6. The Grecians also treated daughters especially in this manner; whence that saying of Posidippus, Mohammed granted to his followers an unbounded plurality; some pretending that a man may have as many wives, and others as many concubines, as he can maintain: whereas, according to the express words of the Korân, no man can have more than four, whether wives or concubines; and if a man apprehend any inconvenience from even that number of ingenuous wives, it is added, as an advice (which is generally followed by the middling and inferior people), that he marry one only, or if he cannot be contented with one, that he may take up with his she-slaves, not exceeding, however, the limited number; and this is certainly the utmost Mohammed allowed his followers: nor can we urge, as an argument against so plain a precept, the corrupt manners of his followers, many of whom, especially men of quality and fortune, indulge themselves in criminal excesses; nor yet the example of the prophet himself, who had peculiar privileges in this and other points, as will be observed hereafter. In making the abovementioned limitation, Mohammed was directed by the decision of the Jew. ish doctors, who, by way of counsel, limit the number of wives to four,' though their law confines them not to any certain number. Divorce is also well known to be allowed by the Mohammedan law, as it was by the Mosaic, with this difference only, that according to the latter a man could not take again a woman whom he had divorced, and who had been married or betrothed to another; whereas Mohammed, to prevent his followers from divorcing their wives on every light occasion, or out of an inconstant humour, ordained that if a man divorced his wife the third time (for he might divorce her twice without being obliged to part with her, if he repented of what he had done), it should not be lawful for him to take her again, until she had been first married and bedded by another, and divorced by such second husband.' And this precaution has had so good an effect, that the Mohammedans are seldom known to proceed to the extremity of divorce, notwithstanding the liberty given them; it being reckoned a great disgrace so to do: and there are but few, besides those who have little or no sense of honour, that will take a wife again, on the condition enjoined. It must be observed that though a man is allowed by the Mohammedan, as by the Jewish law, to repudiate his wife even on the slightest disgust, yet the women are not allowed to separate themselves from their husbands, unless it be for ill usage, want of proper maintenance, neglect of conjugal duty, impotency, or some cause of equal import; but then she generally loses her dowry, which she does not, Nic. Cusanus, in Cribrat. Alcor. lib. 2, cap. 19. Olearius, in Itinerar. P. Greg. Tholosanus, in Synt. Juris, lib. 9, c. 2, sect. 22. Septemcastrensis (de Morib. Turc. p. 24), says the Mohammedans may have twelve lawful wives and no more. Ricaut falsely asserts the restraint of the number of their wives to be no precept of their religion, but a rule superinduced on a politic consideration. Pres. State of the Ottoman Empire, book 3, chap. 21. 'Marracc. in Prodr. ad Refut. Alcor. part 4, p. 52, & 71. Prideaux, Life of Moh. p. 114. Chardin, Voy. de Perse, tom. 1, p. 166. Du Ryer. Sommaire de la Rel. des Turcs, mis à la tête de sa version de l'Alcor. Ricaut, ubi supra. Pufendorf, de Jure Nat. et Gent. lib. 6, c. 1, sect. 18. Chap. 4, p. 59. Vide Gagnier, in notis ad Abulfedæ Vit. Moh. p. 150. Reland, de Rel. Moh. p. 243, &c., and Selden. Ux. Hebr. lib. 1, cap. 9. "Vide Reland, ubi sup. p. 244. Kor. chap. 4, p. 59. "Sir J. Maundeville (who, excepting a few silly stories he tells from hear-say, deserves more credit than some travellers of better reputation), speaking of the Korân, observes, among several other truths, that Mohammed therein commanded a man should have two wives, or three, or four; though the Mohammedans then took nine wives, and lemans as many as they might sustain. Maundev. Travels, p. 164. 1 Maimon. in Halachoth Ishoth, c. 14. 2 Idem, ibid. Vide Selden. Uxor. Hebr. lib. 1, c. 9. Deut. xxiv. 3, 4. Jer. iii. 1. Vide Selden, ubi sup. lib. 1, c. 11. Koran, chap. 2, p. 27. • Vide Selden, ubi sup. lib. 3, cap. 21, and Deut. xxiv. 1. Leo Modena Vide Busbeq. Ep. 3, p. 3 Ricant's State of the Ottoman Empire, book 2, chap. 21. if divorced by her husband, unless she has been guilty of impudicity r notorious disobedience. When a woman is divorced, she is obliged, by the direction of the Korân, to wait till she hath had her courses thrice, or, if there be a doubt whether she be subject to them or not, by reason of her age, three months, before she marry another; after which time expired, in case she be found not with child, she is at full liberty to dispose of herself as she pleases; but if she prove with child, she must wait till she be delivered: and during her whole term of waiting, she may continue in the husband's house, and is to be maintained at his expense: it being forbidden to turn a woman out before the expiration of the term, unless she be guilty of dishonesty.' Where a man divorces a woman before consummation, she is not obliged to wait any particular time; nor is he obliged to give her more than one half of her dower. If the divorced woman have a young child, she is to suckle it till it be two years old; the father, in the mean time, maintaining her in all respects: a widow is also obliged to do the same, and to wait four months and ten days before she marry again." These rules are also copied from those of the Jews, according to whom a divorced woman, or a widow, cannot marry another man till ninety days be past, after the divorce or death of the husband: and she who gives suck is to be maintained for two years, to be computed from the birth of the child; within which time she must not marry, unless the child die, or her milk be dried up. Whoredom, in single women as well as married, was, in the beginning of Mohammedism, very severely punished; such being ordered to be shut up in prison till they died: but afterwards it was ordained by the Sonna, that an adulteress should be stoned, and an unmarried woman guilty of fornication scourged with an hundred stripes, and banished for a year. A she slave, if convicted of adultery, is to suffer but half the punishment of a free woman, viz., fifty stripes, and banishment for six months; but is not to be put to death. To convict a woman of adultery, so as to make it capital, four witnesses are expressly required,' and those, as the commentators say, ought to be men and if a man falsely accuse a woman of reputation of whoredom of any kind, and is not able to support the charge by that number of witnesses, he is to receive fourscore stripes, and his testimony is to be held invalid for the future. Fornication, in either sex, is by the sentence of the Korân to be punished with an hundred stripes.3 If a man accuses his wife of infidelity, and is not able to prove it by sufficient evidence, and will swear four times that it is true, and the fifth time imprecate God's vengeance on him if it be false, she is to be looked on as convicted, unless she will take the like oaths, and make the like imprecation, in testimony of her innocency; which if she do, she is free from punishment, though the marriage ought to be dissolved. 65. 65. 184. Smith, de Morib. ac Instit. Turcar. Ep. 2, p. 52, and Chardin, Voy. de Perse, tom 2, p. 169. 2 Korân, chap. 4, p. 62, 63. Idem, chap. 2, p. 26, and 27, and chap. Ibid. chap. 33. Ibid. chap. 2, p. 27. Ibid. chap. 2, p. 27, and chap. Mishna, tit. Yabimoth, c. 4, Gemar. Babyl. ad eund. tit. Maimon. in Halach. Girushin, Shylhan Aruch, part 3. Mishna, and Gemara, and Maimon, ubi supra, Gem. Babyl. ad tit. Cetuboth, c. 5, and Jos. Karo, in Shylhân Aruch, c. 50, sect. 2. Vide Seldeni Ux. Hebr. lib. 2, c. 11, and lib. 3, c. 10, in fin. cording to a passage once extant in the Korân, and still in the notes to Kor. chap. 3, p. 37, and the Prel. Disc. p. 48. See the notes there. 2 Kor. chap. 24. Ux. Heb. lib. 3, c. 12. And the adulterer also, ac. force as some suppose. See Kor. chap. 4, p. 61, 62. 1 Kor. chap. 4, p. 61, 62. See notes there Ibid. This law relates not to married people, as Selden supposes; Ibid. See the notes there. 9 Ibid. p. 63. In most of the last-mentioned particulars, the decisions of the Korân also agree with those of the Jews. By the law of Moses, adultery, whether in a married woman or a virgin betrothed, was punished with death; and the man who debauched them was to suffer the same punishment. The penalty of simple fornication was scourging, the general punishment in cases where one is particularly appointed: and a betrothed bond-maid, if convicted of adultery, underwent the same punishment, being exempted from death, because she was not free. By the same law, no person was to be put to death on the oath of one witness: and a man who slandered his wife was also to be chastised, that is scourged, and fined one hundred shekels of silver. The method of trying a woman suspected of adultery, where evidence was wanting, by forcing her to drink the bitter water of jealousy, though disused by the Jews long before the time of Mohammed,' yet, by reason of the oath of cursing with which the woman was charged, and to which she was obliged to say Amen, bears great resemblance to the expedient devised by that prophet on the like occasion. The institutions of Mohammed relating to the pollution of women during their courses, the taking of slaves to wife, and the prohibiting of marriage within certain degrees, have likewise no small affinity with the institutions of Moses; and the parallel might be carried farther in several other particulars. As to the prohibited degrees, it may be observed, that the pagan Arabs abstained from marrying their mothers, daughters, and aunts both on the father's side, and on the mother's, and held it a most scandalous thing to marry two sisters, or for a man to take his father's wife; which last was notwithstanding too frequently practised, and is expressly forbidden in the Korán. Before I leave the subject of marriages, it may be proper to take notice of peculiar privileges in relation thereto, which were granted by God to Mohammed, as he gave out, exclusive of all other Moslems. One of them was, that he might lawfully marry as many wives, and have as many concubines, as he pleased, without being confined to any particular number; and this he pretended to have been the privilege of the prophets before him. Another was, that he might alter the turns of his wives, and take such of them to his bed as he thought fit, without being tied to that order and equality which others are obliged to observe.1 A third privilege was, that no man might marry any of his wives, either such as he should divorce during his lifetime, or such as he should leave widows at his death: which last particular exactly agrees with what the Jewish doctors have determined concerning the wives of their princes; it being judged by them to be a thing very indecent, and for that reason un 'Lev. xx. 10. Deut. xxii. 22. The kind of death to be inflicted on adulterers in common cases being not expressed, the Talmudists generally suppose it to be strangling; which they think is designed wherever the phrase shall be put to death, or shall die the death, is used, as they imagine stoning is by the expression his blood shall be upon him : and hence it has been concluded by some, that the woman taken in adultery, mentioned in the gospel (John viii.) was a betrothed maiden, because such a one and her accomplice were plainly ordered to be stoned. (Deut. xxii. 23, 24.) But the ancients seem to be of a different opinion, and to have understood stoning to be the punishment of adulterers in general. Vide Selden, Ux. Hebr. lib. 3, c. 11, and 12. Levit. xix. 20. ' Deut. xix. 15, xvii. 6, and Num. xxxv. 30. Num. v. 11, &c. * Vide Selden, ubi supr. lib. 3, c. 15, and Leon. Modena, de' Riti Hebraici, parte 4, c. 6. Kor. chap. 2, p. 26. See Lev. xv. 24, xviii. 19, and xx. 18. Exod. xxi. 8-11. Deut. xxi. 10-14. Lev. xviii. and xx. Abulfed. Hist. Gen. al Shahrestani, apud Poc. Spec. p. 321, and 338. * Vide Poc. ibid. p. 337, &c. Chap. 4, p. 62. Kor. chap. 33. See also chap 66 and the notes there. Kor. chap. 33. See the notes there. ⚫ Kor. chap. 33. * Deut. xxii. 13-19. Ibid. chap. 4, p. 60, and 63, &c. Chap. 4, p. 62. lawful, for another to marry either the divorced wife or the widow of a king; and Mohammed, it seems, thought an equal respect, at least, due to the prophetic as to the regal dignity, and therefore ordered that his relicts should pass the remainder of their lives in perpetual widowhood. The laws of the Korân concerning inheritances are also in several respects conformable to those of the Jews, though principally designed to abolish certain practices of the pagan Arabs, who used to treat widows and orphan children with great injustice, frequently denying them any share in the inheritance of their fathers or their husbands, on pretence that the same ought to be distributed among those only who were able to bear arms, and disposing of the widows, even against their consent, as part of their husband's possessions. To prevent such injuries for the future, Mohammed ordered that women should be respected, and orphans have no wrong done them; and in particular that women should not be taken against their wills, as by right of inheritance, but should themselves be entitled to a distributive part of what their parents, husbands, and near relations, should leave behind them, in a certain proportion. The general rule to be observed in the distribution of the deceased's estate is, that a male shall have twice as much as a female: but to this rule there are some few exceptions: a man's parents, for example, and also his brothers and sisters, where they are entitled not to the whole, but a small part of the inheritance, being to have equal shares with one another in the distribution thereof, without making any difference on account of sex. The particular proportions, in several cases, distinctly and suf ficiently declare the intention of Mohammed; whose decisions expressed in the KorânR seem to be pretty equitable, preferring a man's children first, and then his nearest relations. If a man dispose of any part of his estate by will, two witnesses, at the least, are required to render the same valid; and such witnesses ought to be of his own tribe, and of the Mohammedan religion, if such can be had." Though there be no express law to the contrary, yet the Mohammedan doctors reckon it very wrong for a man to give away any part of his substance from his family, unless it be in legacies for pious uses; and even in that case a man ought not to give all that he has in charity, but only a reasonable part in proportion to his substance. On the other hand, though a man make no will, and bequeath nothing for charitable uses, yet the heirs are directed, on the distribution of the estate, if the value will permit, to bestow something on the poor, especially such as are of kin to the deceased, and to the orphans.10 The first law, however, laid down by Mohammed touching inheritances was not very equitable; for he declared that those who had fled with him from Mecca, and those who had received and assisted him at Medina, should be deemed the nearest of kin, and consequently heirs to one another, preferably to and in exclusion of their relations by blood; nay, though a man were a true believer, yet if he had not fled his country for the sake of religion and joined the prophet, he was to be looked on as a stranger:' but this law continued not long in force, being quickly abrogated.2 It must be observed that among the Mohammedans the children of their Mishua, tit. Sanhedr. c. 2, and Gemar. in eund. tit. Maimon. Halachoth Melachim, c. 2. Vide Selden, Ux. Hebr. lib. i. c. 10. Prid. Life of Moham. p. 118. • See c. 4. p. 59-62, and the notes there. Vide etiam Poc. Spec. p. 337. Kor. c. 4, ubi sup. Ibid. p. 60, and 80. Vide Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. i. p. 293. Kor. Ibid. 'Ibid. Kor. c. 5, p. 96. p. 60, 61. c. 8. io Ibid. c. 4, p. 60. Ibid. and p. 80. Ibid. and 33. |