246 



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 

 cuhits 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 cir- 

 cuit ; 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 Settler, 

 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 thnt 

 property is acquired therein always assuming the 

 permission of the Soltan, which in the case of a 

 Settler as aforsaid, is, in the opinion of all the 

 Doctors, essential." 



e 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 pre- 

 ference by Qazee Khap, and is approved," 



