that if an ewe brought forth twins seven times together, and the eighth time a male, they sacrificed that male to their gods; but if the eighth ume she brought both a male and a female, they used to say, She is joined to he. brother, and for the female's sake they spared the male, and permitted no the dam's milk to be drunk by women. A third writer tells us, that Wasîla was an ewe, which having yeaned seven times, if that which she brought forth the seventh time was a male, they sacrificed it, but if a female, it was suffered to go loose, and was made use of by women only; and if the seventh time she brought forth both a male and a female, they held them both to be sacred, so that men only were allowed to make any use of them, or to drink the milk of the female: and a fourth3 describes it to be an ewe which brought forth ten females at five births one after another, i. e., every time twins, and whatever she brought forth afterwards was allowed to men, and not to women, &c. Hâmi was a male camel used for a stallion, which, if the females had conceived ten times by him, was afterwards freed from labour, and let go loose, none driving him from pasture or from water; nor was any allowed to receive the least benefit from him, not even to shear his hair. These things were observed by the old Arabs in honour of their false gods, and as part of the worship which they paid them, and were ascribed to the divine institution; but are all condemned in the Korân, and declared to be impious superstitions." The law of Mohammed also put a stop to the inhuman custom, which had been long practised by the pagan Arabs, of burying their daughters alive, lest they should be reduced to poverty by providing for them, or else to avoid the disgrace which would follow, if they should happen to be made captives, or to become scandalous by their behaviour; the birth of a daughter being, for these reasons, reckoned a great misfortune, and the death of one as great a happiness. The manner of their doing this is dif ferently related: some say that when an Arab had a daughter born, if he intended to bring her up, he sent her, clothed in a garment of wool or hair, to keep camels or sheep in the desert; but if he designed to put her to death, he let her live till she became six years old, and then said to her mother, "Perfume her, and adorn her, that I may carry her to her mothers;" which being done, the father led her to a well or pit dug for that purpose, and having bid her to look down into it, pushed her in headlong, as he stood behind her, and then filling up the pit, levelled it with the rest of the ground: but others say, that when a woman was ready to fall in labour, they dug a pit, on the brink whereof she was to be delivered, and if the child happened to be a daughter, they threw it into the pit, but if a son, they saved it alive. This custom, though not observed by all the Arabs in general, was yet very common among several of their tribes, and particularly those of Koreish and Kendah; the former using to bury their daughters alive in mount Abu Dalâma, near Mecca. In the time of ignorance, while they used this method to get rid of their daughters, Sásaá, grandfather to the celebrated poet al Farazdak, frequently redeemed female children from death, giving for every one two she-camels big with young, and a he-camél; and hereto al Farazdak alluded when, vaunting himself before one of the Khalifs of the family of Omeyya, he said, "I am the son of the giver of life to the dead;" for which expression being censured, he excused himself by alleging the following words of the Korân,3" 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 Lycurgus 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; one of which, as some commentators 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 men tioned 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 determinations of the Koràn, 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 Hanifa, 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, tha 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 treatea 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 con tented 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 Jewish doctors, who, by way of counsel, limit the number of wives to four,' though their law confines them not to any certain number.2 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 Gaguer, 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 travel'ers 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 night sustain. Maundey. Travels, p. 164. Maimon. in Halachoth Ishoth, c. 14. 2 Idem, ibid. Vide Selden. Uxor. Hebr. lib. 1, c. 9. 3 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 Ricaut's State of the Ottoman Empire, book 2, chap. 21. Deut. xxiv. 1. Leo Modena Hist. degli Riti Hebr. part 1, c. 6. Vide Selden, ubi sup. "Vide Busbeq. Ep. 3, p. 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.3 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:5 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 forni cation 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 sen. tence 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 suffi. cient 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 impreca. tion, 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 Kor. chap. 24. Ibid. Ux. Heb. lib 3, c. 12. 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 none 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. 5 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 Korân. 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. Ibid. chap. 4. p. 60, and 63, &c. 'See Lev. xv. 24, xviii. 19, and xx. 18. Exod. xxi. 8—11. Deut. xxi. 10-14. Lev. aviii. 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. 2 Kor. chap. 33. 8 Deut. xxii. 13-19. 4 Chap. 4, p. 62. |