Chapter III · RELIGION AND LAWS. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Retaliation for intentional wounds and mutilations is allowed, like as for murder; “eye for eye,” etc.;[196] but a fine may be accepted instead, which the law allows also for unintentional injuries. The fine for a member that is single (as the nose) is the whole price of blood, as for homicide; for a member of which there are two, and not more (as a hand), half the price of blood; for one of which there are ten (a finger or toe), a tenth of the price of blood; but the fine of a man for maiming or wounding a woman is half of that for the same injury to a man; and that of a free person for injuring a slave varies according to the value of the slave. The fine for depriving a man of any of his five senses, or dangerously wounding him, or grievously disfiguring him for life, is the whole price of blood.
Theft, whether committed by a man or by a woman, according to the Kur-án,[197] is to be punished by cutting off the offender’s right hand for the first offence; but a Sunneh law ordains that this punishment shall not be inflicted if the value of the stolen property 95is less than a quarter of a deenár;[198] and it is also held necessary, to render the thief obnoxious to this punishment, that the property stolen should have been deposited in a place to which he had not ordinary or easy access; whence it follows, that a man who steals in the house of a near relation is not subject to this punishment; nor is a slave who robs the house of his master. For the second offence, the left foot is to be cut off; for the third, according to the Sháfe’ee law, the left hand; for the fourth, the right foot; and for further offences of the same kind, the culprit is to be flogged or beaten; or, by the Hanafee code, for the third and subsequent offences, the criminal is to be punished by a long imprisonment. A man may steal a free-born infant without offending against the law, because it is not property; but not a slave; and the hand is not to be cut off for stealing any article of food that is quickly perishable, because it may have been taken to supply the immediate demands of hunger. There are also some other cases in which the thief is exempt from the punishments above mentioned. In Egypt, of late years, these punishments have not been inflicted. Beating and hard labour have been substituted for the first, second, or third offence, and frequently death for the fourth. Most petty offences are usually punished by beating with the “kurbág” (a thong or whip of hippopotamus’ hide, hammered into a round form), or with a stick, generally on the soles of the feet.[199]
Adultery is most severely visited: but to establish a charge of this crime against a wife, four eye-witnessses are necessary.[200] If convicted thus, she is to be put to death by stoning.[201] I need scarcely say that cases of this kind have very seldom occurred, from the difficulty of obtaining such testimony.[202] Further laws on this subject, 96and still more favourable to the women, are given in the Kur-án[203] in the following words:—“But [as to] those who accuse women of reputation [of fornication or adultery], and produce not four witnesses [of the fact], scourge them with eighty stripes, and receive not their testimony for ever; for such are infamous prevaricators, excepting those who shall afterwards repent; for God is gracious and merciful. They who shall accuse their wives [of adultery], and shall have no witnesses [thereof] besides themselves, the testimony [which shall be required] of one of them, [shall be] that he swear four times by God that he speaketh the truth, and the fifth [time that he imprecate] the curse of God on him if he be a liar; and it shall avert the punishment [of the wife] if she sware four times by God that he is a liar, and if the fifth [time she imprecate] the wrath of God on her if he speak the truth.” The commentators and lawyers have agreed that, under these circumstances, the marriage must be dissolved. In the chapter from which the above quotation is made, it is ordained (in verse 2) that unmarried persons convicted of fornication shall be punished by scourging, with a hundred stripes; and a Sunneh law renders them obnoxious to the further punishment of banishment for a whole year.[204] Of the punishment of women convicted of incontinence in Cairo, I shall speak in the next chapter, as it is an arbitrary act of the government, not founded on the laws of the Kur-án, or the Traditions.[205]
Drunkenness was punished by the Prophet by flogging, and is still in Cairo, though not often. The “hadd,” or number of stripes for this offence, is eighty in the case of a free man, and forty in that of a slave.
Apostacy from the faith of El-Islám is considered a most heinous sin, and must be punished with death, unless the apostate will recant on being thrice warned. I once saw a woman paraded through the streets of Cairo, and afterwards taken down to the Nile to be drowned, for having apostatized from the faith of Mohammad, and having married a Christian. Unfortunately, she 97had tattooed a blue cross on her arm, which led to her detection by one of her former friends in a bath. She was mounted upon a high-saddled ass, such as ladies in Egypt usually ride, and very respectably dressed, attended by soldiers, and surrounded by a rabble, who, instead of commiserating, uttered loud imprecations against her. The Kádee who passed sentence upon her, exhorted her in vain to return to her former faith. Her own father was her accuser! She was taken in a boat into the midst of the river, stripped nearly naked, strangled, and then thrown into the stream.[206] The Europeans residing in Cairo regretted that the Básha was then at Alexandria, as they might have prevailed upon him to pardon her. Once before, they interceded with him for a woman who had been condemned for apostacy. The Básha ordered that she should be brought before him; he exhorted her to recant; but finding her resolute, reproved her for her folly, and sent her home, commanding that no injury should be done to her.
Still more severe is the law with respect to blasphemy. The person who utters blasphemy against God, or Mohammad, or Christ, or Moses, or any prophet, is to be put to death without delay, even though he profess himself repentant; repentance for such a sin being deemed impossible. Apostacy or infidelity is occasioned by misjudgment; but blasphemy is the result of utter depravity.
A few words may here be added respecting the sect of the “Wahhábees,” also called “Wahabees,” which was founded less than a century ago, by Mohammad Ibn-’Abd-El-Wahháb, a pious and learned sheykh of the province of En-Nejd, in Central Arabia. About the middle of the last century, he had the good fortune to convert to his creed a powerful chief of Ed-Dir’eeyeh, the capital of En-Nejd. This chief, Mohammad Ibn-So’ood, became the sovereign of the new sect—their religious and political head—and under him and his successors the Wahhábee doctrines were spread throughout the greater part of Arabia. He was first succeeded by his son, ’Abd-El-’Azeez; next, by So’ood, the son of the latter, and the greatest of the Wahhábee leaders; and lastly, by ’Abd-Allah, the son of this So’ood, who, after an arduous warfare with the armies of Mohammad ’Alee, surrendered himself to his victorious enemies, was sent to Egypt, thence to Constantinople, and there beheaded. The wars which Mohammad ’Alee carried on 98against the Wahhábees, had for their chief object the destruction of the political power of the new sect. Their religious tenets are still professed by many of the Arabs, and allowed to be orthodox by the most learned of the ’Ulama of Egypt. The Wahhábees are merely reformers, who believe all the fundamental points of El-Islám, and all the accessory doctrines of the Kur-án and the Traditions of the Prophet: in short, their tenets are those of the primitive Muslims. They disapprove of gorgeous sepulchres, and domes erected over tombs; such they invariably destroy when in their power. They also condemn, as idolaters, those who pay peculiar veneration to deceased saints; and even declare all other Muslims to be heretics, for the extravagant respect which they pay to the Prophet. They forbid the wearing of silk and gold ornaments, and all costly apparel, and also the practice of smoking tobacco. For the want of this last luxury, they console themselves in some degree by an immoderate use of coffee.[207] There are many learned men among them, and they have collected many valuable books (chiefly historical) from various parts of Arabia, and from Egypt.