CAPTIVES. Asīr, pl. Usārā and Usarāʾ. With respect to captives, the Imām, or leader of the army, has it in his choice to slay them, “because the Prophet put captives to death, and also because slaying them terminates wickedness”; or, he may if he choose make them slaves. It is not lawful for the Imām to send captives back to their home and country, because that would be to strengthen the cause of infidelity against Islām. If they become Muslims after their capture, they must not be put to death, but they may be sold after their conversion. A converted captive must not be suffered to return to his country, and it is not lawful to release a captive gratuitously. The only method of dividing plunder which consists of slaves, is by selling them at the end of the expedition and then dividing the money. (Hidāyah, ii. 160.) [[SLAVERY].]
CARAVAN. Persian Kārwān, Arabic Qāfilah. As the roads in the East are often unsafe and lead through dreary wastes, merchants and travellers associate together for mutual defence and comfort. These companies are called both kārwān and qāfilah. The party is always under the direction of a paid director, who is called Kārwān- or Qāfilah-Bāshī. If a caravan is attacked on the road, the Muḥammadan law allows the punishment of crucifixion for the offence. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. 131.) But it is a curious provision of the Muslim law that if some of the travellers in a caravan commit a robbery upon others of the same caravan, punishment (i.e. of amputation) is not incurred by them. (Vol. ii. 137.)
CARRION (Arabic Maitah) is forbidden in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ii. 80]. “That which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine’s flesh, and that over which any other name than that of God hath been invoked, is forbidden. But he who shall partake of them by constraint, without lust or wilfulness, no sin shall be upon him.”
CASTING LOTS. Zalam, or casting lots by shooting arrows, was an ancient Arabic custom, which is forbidden by Muḥammad in his Qurʾān, [Sūrah v. 4]; but qurʿah, or casting lots, in its ordinary sense, is not forbidden, for ʿĀyishah relates that when the Prophet went on a journey, he used to cast lots as to which wife he should take with him. (Mishkāt Bābu ʾl-Qaṣam.)
CATS. Arabic Hirrah. According to a Ḥadīs̤ of Abū Qutādah, who was one of the Companions, Muḥammad said, “Cats are not impure, they keep watch around us.” He used water from which a cat had drunk for his purifications, and his wife ʿĀyishah ate from a vessel from which a cat had eaten. (Mishkāt, book iii., c. 10, pt. 2.)
CATTLE. Arabic Anʿām. They are said in the Qurʾān to be the gift of God, [Sūrah xl. 79], “God it is who hath made for you cattle, that ye may ride on some and eat others.”
Cattle kept for the purpose of labour, such as carrying burthens, drawing ploughs, &c., are not subject to zakāt, neither is there zakāt on cattle who are left to forage for one half year or more. (Hidāyah, i. 18.)
Al-Anʿām is the title of the sixth Sūrah of the Qurʾān.
CAVE, The Companions of the (Arabic Aṣḥābu ʾl-kahf), or the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, form the subject of one of the chapters of the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xviii. 6]. [ASHABU ʾL-KAHF.]