[282] This is the usual way of informing a person that another is dead. Many say in the same case, "Mayest thou live!" and then being asked, "Who is dead?" mention the name.
[283] El-Jabartee's History, vol. i., obituary of the year 1188.
CHAPTER X.
SLAVERY.
A slave, among Muslims, is either a person taken captive in war, or carried off by force, and being at the time of capture an infidel; or the offspring of a female slave by another slave or by any man who is not her owner, or by her owner if he does not acknowledge himself to be the father: but the offspring of a male slave by a free woman is free. A person who embraces the Mohammadan faith after having been made a slave does not by this act become free, unless he flies from a foreign infidel master to a Muslim country and there becomes a Mohammadan. A person cannot have as a slave one whom he acknowledges to be within the prohibited degrees of marriage. The slaves of the Arabs are mostly from Abyssinia and the Negro countries: a few, in the houses of very wealthy individuals, are from Georgia and Circassia.
Slaves have no civil liberty, but are entirely under the authority of their owners, whatever may be the religion, sex, or age, of the latter; and can possess no property, unless by the owner's permission. The owner is entire master, while he pleases, of the person and goods of his slave, and of the offspring of his female slave, which, if his, or presumed to be his, he may recognize as his own legitimate child, or not: the child, if recognized by him, enjoys the same privileges as the offspring of a free wife; and if not recognized by him, is his slave. The master may even kill his own slave with impunity for any offence; and he incurs but a slight punishment (as imprisonment for a period at the discretion of the judge) if he kills him wantonly. He may give away or sell his slaves, excepting in some cases which will be mentioned; and may marry them to whom he will, but not separate them when married. A slave, however, according to most of the doctors, cannot have more than two wives at the same time.
Unemancipated slaves, at the death of their master, become the property of his heirs; and when an emancipated slave dies, leaving no male descendants or collateral relations, the master is the heir; or, if the master be dead, his heirs inherit the slave's property. As a slave enjoys less advantages than a free person, the law in some cases ordains that his punishment for an offence shall be half of that to which the free is liable for the same offence, or even less than half: if it be a fine or pecuniary compensation, it must be paid by the owner to the amount, if necessary, of the value of the slave, or the slave must be given in compensation.
When a man, from being the husband, becomes the master, of a slave, the marriage is dissolved, and he cannot continue to live with her but as her master, enjoying, however, all a master's privileges, unless he emancipates her, in which case he may again take her as his wife with her consent. In like manner, when a woman, from being the wife, becomes the possessor, of a slave, the marriage is dissolved, and cannot be renewed unless she emancipates him, and he consents to the re-union.