PROGRESS OF ISLAMIC SCIENCE 509 



This is shown most plainly in the attitude to the old pre-Islamic 

 institutions of religion and law. Even the canonical Islamic sys- 

 tem has assimilated many elements from the native systems of the 

 conquered countries. Many a principle of method, as well as many a 

 detail of Islamic law, has been borrowed from the Roman law, as we 

 have just observed, and hence has become canonical law in Islam. 



Yet it is not this that I wish to develop here further, but rather 

 a manifestation of provincial individuality in the Muhammadan 

 practice, still perceptible in our days. In complete independence of 

 the main stream of canonical law Islam tolerates in many chapters 

 of civil and criminal law native law-customs, which are often directly 

 opposed to the theologically fixed law. Therein the ethnographical 

 individualities put themselves forth with^their national traditions. 

 These provincial customs are called the 'Addt. As Arabic philology 

 attaches more importance now to scientific inquiry into popular 

 dialects besides the classical language than it did four decades ago, 

 in like manner the 'Adat have been made a subject for collection and 

 historical consideration within the period whose scientific progress 

 forms the topic of this paper. But for our knowledge of them, our 

 information about living institutions would be utterly deficient. 



And as there is no observation more fascinating in the history of 

 the human mind than that of the close tie uniting the present state 

 of nations with the traditions of their past, notwithstanding all the 

 historical changes undergone by them, in like manner there lies, 

 in this kind of facts, an elevating perception that traditions which 

 have lasted for thousands of years are reflected in these 'Adat, over 

 which the flood of history has been flowing, without sweeping them 

 away. Even Islam, that overwhelming power, which, sword in hand, 

 stormed the nations, could not destroy them. 



In the customary laws of the present Muslim Kabyles of Northern 

 Africa you will find characteristic elements in disharmony with legal 

 Islam, which are identical with or at least kin to the customs and laws 

 mentioned in antiquity in connection with the Numidians and Mauri- 

 tanians. Those people are quite aware of their opposition to Islamic 

 ordinances, which extends even to Koranic commands as if the Koran 

 had not been revealed to them at all. According to the Kabyle 

 legislation the feminine sex is entirely excluded from the capability 

 of partaking in any inheritance; women are deprived of all rights as 

 regards private law. As to the civil law of the Koran these Kabyles 

 opine that its prescriptions were made for a country quite different 

 from theirs, for a nation that had a different manner of life from their 

 own. 1 But nevertheless they are partakers in the community of 

 Islam and look for the Paradise of Believers. 



We can therefore welcome as one of the most gratifying advances in 



1 Cf.ZDMG, vol. 41, p. 38 ff. 



