117 



case of a Settler as aforesaid, is, in the opinion of all 

 the Doctors, essential." 



" Some Lawgivers hold/' says the Commentator, 

 " that in the case of a Moslim, the permission of the 

 Soltan is not essential to the acquirement of property : 

 but Aboo Haneefah is of a contrary opinion, and his 

 opinion has been given the preference by Qazee 

 Khan, an 4 is approved." 



And in the Fatarca-i Alamgeeri * it is thus 

 written. 



" The Soltan hath power to bestow waste land.f 

 And if he shall have made a grant of such land to 

 any one, he shall let him alone for three years; 

 when, should the grantee not have cultivated it, it 

 returns to him (the Soltan) and he may give it to 

 another, for property in waste land is acquired only 

 by cultivation" 



The English Rules of Proceedure, the only Law 

 at present on the subject, differ more or less, in 

 every Province in India. The demand, however, 



* This is a collection of legal opinions and precepts in six 

 large quarto vols. prepared by order of the Emperor Alamgeer. 

 In India, and indeed also in Egypt, Arabia, and Turkey, an in- 

 disputable authority. 



f But he has no power to give away cultivated land, which 

 is the property of the cultivator, or the person in whose posses- 

 sion it was when the country was conquered, or originally 

 settled. The King can dispose only of his own right in the 

 soil, and that right consists solely in ushur (a tenth) with mos- 

 lims, and Khiraj (revenue that may be fixed), with others. 

 And this he cannot remit, except in favour of the ahl-i mdsdraf 

 (the Ulema, the devotees, the poor, maimed, halt, blind, &c.) 

 All grants of rent-free land made except in accordance with 

 this rule, are illegal. January, 1867. 



