Page images
PDF
EPUB

cation of the word mawla is therefore the place in which, or the person in whom proximity exists, and, in its ordinary application, it serves to denote the ideas of master and slave, patron and client, companion, neighbour, confederate, relation (affinis), the granter and the receiver of a favour, etc. It is easy to see that one general idea pervades these various significations, that of proximity, either in a physical or a moral sense. The primitive signification of the verb wala is also apparent in the derivative wali ( propinquus), which serves to express the idea of friend, and that of saint, because saints are near to God.

The relationship betwen patron and client is termed wald () and it implies mutual assistance (tandsur). This mutual assistance embraces two conditions: 1. The obligation of the patron (al-mawla al-aala) to pay the diya, or fine for blood (1), incurred by the client (al-mawla al-asfal); 2. The right of the patron to inherit of the client; or, in other terms, that the patron should become his client's aakila (alle ransomer) and wârith ('s heir).

Wald results from enfranchisement or from approximation; it is therefore of two kinds, relationship by enfranchisement (walâ 'l-atâka), called also relationship by favour (walâ 'n-nêma), and relationship by approximation (walâ 'l-muwâlât); terms for which may be substituted in English effective patronage and adoptive patronage.

Effective patronage is established by enfranchisement. The enfranchised slave becomes the client of him who enfranchises, and if he die without male heirs, his property is inherited by the enfranchiser or his heirs. Effective patronage is valid not only when the two parties are Moslims, but when they are both infidels, or when one is a Moslim and the other an infidel.

Adoptive patronage is established by a contract made with mutual consent, as when a person makes profession of Islamism to another person, and then says: "Thou art my mawla (patron), to inherit of me when I die and to pay

1

(1) The diya is the penalty imposed on the author of a homicide per infortunium. It consists of one hundred camels, or one thousand pieces of gold (dinars), or twelve thousand pieces of silver (derhims). The diya incurred for the homicide of a woman, a Christian, a Jew, or a Magian, is half the ordinary diya. The diya is incurred for having occasioned the loss of the two hands, or of the two feet, or of the two eyes; the loss of a single hand, foot, or eye, requires the penalty of a half diya. The whole diya is incurred for having caused the loss of the nose, or of the hearing, or of the reason, or of the tongue, or of the sexual organs, etc.

[merged small][ocr errors]

"the fine for me when I am amerced;" and the other replies: "I accept," or "I form proximity with thee."

The necessary conditions of this act are that the future client should be without heirs, that he should not be an Arab or a mawla to an Arab, that no other person had already engaged to pay the fine for blood in case of his being amerced, and that the right of inheriting and the obligation of paying the fine should be enounced when forming the contract. Islamism in one or both parties is not a necessary condition, according to the majority of the doctors: a zimmi may contract wald with a zimmi or with a Moslim, and a Moslim with a zimmi; a man may also contract it with a woman, and a woman with a man; neither is it necessary that the act should pass in a Moslim country. The children of the client (born after the contract, for, before it, he was without heirs,) are bound by that act and benefit by the advantages which it assures them. Adoptive patronage confers on the foreign neophyte all the civil rights possessed by a Moslim, and by it he has the advantage of chosing his aâkila.

In the eyes of the Moslim law every individual must have an aâkila, that is, a person or a body of men bound to pay the fine of blood if he be amerced. The aakila of a man are all those who are inscribed on the same roll (diwan) with him, if he be engaged in military service, or if he receive a pension from the public treasury; otherwise, it is his tribe or family; then his patron, then his clients; and if he have no aâkila, the public treasury pays for him. If he inhabit a city or its suburb, all the enregistered inhabitants form his aâkila, and if he exercise a profession there, all the members of the same trade are his aâkila. Each class of zimmis is the aâkila of its individual members; the aûkila of a mawla by enfranchisement are the emancipator and kindred of the emancipator, and the aâkila of a mawla by approximation are his patron and patron's kindred.

MOSLIM EDUCATION.

The course of study universally followed in Muhammedan countries has been briefly indicated in the first volume of this work (1), but it is much to be regretted that the information we possess on this subject is very slight, and that the system of mental culture requisite to form a well-educated Moslim is a point on which great obscurity still prevails. And yet the importance of obtaining a clear insight into the causes which gave to the character of a great and polished nation its peculiar cast and form cannot but be deeply felt. Were it possible to dissipate the obscurity in which this question is involved, a more exact idea would then be formed of the Moslim mind and Moslim civilisation. In such an investigation the works of Arabic authors might be expected to afford the highest assistance, but unfortunately the documents which they have left on this subject do not enable us to view it in all its bearings. These indications are not, however, without their value; they aid us to understand some parts of the system, and from the parts we may judge of the whole. One of the most curious is that given by Ibn Khaldûn in his Prolegomena, where he expresses himself thus:

[ocr errors]

66

46

"To teach children the Koran is a sign of religion shown by the Moslims "in all their cities, and a duty which they universally fulfil; for by this means the faith is firmly planted in the youthful heart, as also a knowledge of the dogmas which are enounced in the verses of that book. The Koran is therefore the basis on which are reared the future faculties of "the mind; for that which is learned at an early age remains deeply impressed on the memory and serves as a foundation for what follows, and "we know that the form of the edifice is determined by the disposition of "the foundations.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][ocr errors]

"The different systems followed in teaching children the Koran are distinguished by the peculiar faculties developed by each. In Maghrib (Algiers and Morocco), that book is taught without any accompaniment; they

(1) See vol. I. Introduction, page xxxi.

66

[ocr errors]

begin by making the scholar read it over; then he learns it by heart from the edition of the text received in that country; and he is instructed, at the same time, in its peculiar orthography, the questions to which it "gives rise, and the various readings remarked in the systems of those "(ancient masters) by whom it was transmitted down. Till this first step be "surmounted, every thing else, such as Traditions, jurisprudence, poetry, and "the idiom of the desert Arabs, is excluded. It therefore happens that a failure in this early stage of the pupil's progress puts an entire stop to his career.

[ocr errors]

66

64

66

"Such is the mode of instruction followed in the cities of Maghrib and in some Berber towns where the example has been adopted; it applies equally to the scholar who has not attained the age of puberty, and to persons more "advanced in years who intend to recommence their studies; the result is, that the Maghribins are more intimately acquainted with the orthography of the Koran, and know it by heart much better than people of other countries.

16

66

66

66

66

66

[ocr errors]

In Spain they proceed otherwise; for, whilst they make it a rule to teach "the reading of the Koran and its orthography as actually used (because they consider that book as the foundation of learning, the groundwork of "education, and the basis of religion and the sciences), they instruct their ⚫ children at the same time in poetry, epistolary writing, the principles of “grammar, and the art of penmanship. The acquisition of this last accom'plishment occupies scholars till the age of puberty, so that whilst youths "obtain a knowledge of grammar and an acquaintance with the works of the poets, they become skilful penmen and persevere, nearly all, in the pursuit of learning. But learning subsists by transmission, and, as its trans"mission has been interrupted in the provinces of Spain, the students of that country can only acquire such portions of knowledge as are accessible "from the first steps of their education. This is however sufficient for him "whom God directs, and it gives him the means of reaching other branches of learning.

6.

66

66

66

66

"In Ifrîkiya (the province of Tunis), they generally instruct their children in the Traditions whilst teaching them the Koran, to which they add the principles of the sciences and some of the questions which they involve;

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

but, as their chief object is, to communicate a correct knowledge of the "text and various readings of that book, the art of penmanship is neglected. In the East instruction is also of a mixed nature, but I do not know to what length it is carried; we have been told however that they pay more *attention to the culture of penmanship and of the sciences than to the study of the Koran.

[ocr errors]

66

66

[ocr errors]

66

The people of Ifrîkiya and Maghrib, by confining their application to the Koran, can never attain the faculty of mastering the language. The "reason of this we shall here explain: No peculiar faculty can be developed in the mind by the study of the Koran, because the declaration that it is impossible to produce anything equal to it prevents it from being taken as a model for imitation; so that the student, though he may acquire an ample share of spiritual merit, can neither obtain a good command of “Arabic nor a facility of diction. The people of Ifrîkiya are perhaps more advanced in this last respect than those of Maghrib, because, in studying "the Koran, they learn Traditions and scientific rules; they have therefore "a certain command of language, but they do not attain elegance of expression.

66

66

66

66

66

66

The habit of teaching pupils, of repeating poems and epistles, and of studying the rules of grammar is so general in Spain, that the natives of that country have acquired a complete mastery of the Arabic tongue; but in the other branches of knowledge their skill is inferior, because they have not paid sufficient attention to the Koran and the Traditions, which are the “source and basis of the sciences. In grammar, however, and polite lite"rature they excel in a greater or less degree, accordingly as they have

66

66

devoted more or less time to these occupations on terminating the studies which engaged their youth.

66

The kâdi Abu Bakr Ibn al-Arabi (1) has laid down, in his Rihla, a highly "curious and original plan of study. He proposes that youths should be first

66

instructed in grammar and the works of the poets, conformably to the "Spanish custom, for,' says he, language is enregistered in its poetry, "and the corruption of the language renders it necessary that you should

(1) The life of Abû Bakr Ibn al-Arabi will be found in the third volume of this work.

« PreviousContinue »