11G 



tion, and the like, for which no owner is known, and 

 situated at such a distance from all populated 

 places, that the sound of the voice of man cannot 

 reach its borders. Whoso cultivateth such land, is 

 the owner thereof, provided he hath done so with the 

 permission of the Soltan.* Should he have made a 

 fence round it, he may hold it for three years. At 

 the expiration of that time, should he not have 

 brought it into cultivation, the Soltan may take it 

 away from him, and give it to another. Whoso 

 shall have dug a well in waste land, with permis- 

 sion as aforesaid, for him is a circuit of forty 

 cubits on all sides ; and whoso shall have opened a 

 spring, for him are similarly five hundred cubits. 

 It shall be lawful for the owner to prohibit any 

 other person from doing the like within this circuit ; 

 and if any person shall dig a well or open a spring 

 on the border of the circuit of him who shall have 

 first dug a well or opened a spring, for him is an 

 enclosure, only on three sides thereof, &c." 



QODOORI (apud the Hidayah). " And the Set- 

 tler, though of another religion, acquires property, 

 in the land he shall have cultivated, equally with 

 the Moslim ; because it is by the cultivation of waste 

 land that property is acquired therein always as- 

 suming the permission of the Soltan, which in the 



* In the original the words I have rendered 'owner thereof 

 are malaka-ho^ on which the Commentator says, i. e. he shall 

 acquire property in the land he shall have cultivated no more. 

 The word also I have translated Soltan, is I?nam, which means, 

 a Leader, or the highest legally coDstituted authority. 



