AUTHOFxITIES OP MOSULMAN LAW. 481 



this also fail, they allow the validity of reason, restricted 

 by analogy, ihyas) in applying, by inference, the ge- 

 neral principles of law and justice, to the various trans- 

 actions and circumstances of the changeful scene of 

 human Hfe ; which, as they could not be all foreseeri, 

 it was impossible they should be completely and ex- 

 pressly provided for. This is so clearly stated, with 

 the origin of the principal Soonec sects, who agree in 

 matters of faith, [akaeed,) but differ on points of prac- 

 tical jurisprudence, { fikh^] in a section of the Mokhtusur 

 00 dovuul (compendium of dynasties) of Gregorius 

 Aboo'l Furuj, translated {into Latin) by Pocock, 

 in his Specimen HisloricS Arahwn\ that the following 

 English version will not, it is persumcd, be unaccept- 

 able ; especially as both the Arabic orignal and Latin 

 translation^ are little known in India *. 



" Op the sects {Muzdhih) which differ upon the 

 branches, or derivative parts of the law, concerning 

 rules of jurisprudence, and cases of disquisizion, four 

 are the most celebrated : viz. those of M'alik bin-i 



AnS ; ofMoHUMMUD BIN-I IdREES,6o' Sh^'aPI^IEE; 



of Ahmud bfn I HuNBUL ; and of Aboo Huneefah 

 Naoma'n bin-i Tha'bit. The fundamentaK>rounds 

 of disquisition {Ijiihad) are also four; the scripture 



* Aboo'l Furuj was a Christian, born at M.ilathm in AladuUa, 

 or Armenia minor, AC. 1226. Bui he wrote iti Arabic, iuv.\ app/ars 

 to have been well versed in the relij^ion and law, as wil as in the 

 history, oi Araoia. V. Pocock's Sbrcimen Historiie Arahim, coin- 

 pri:>ing an extract from the dynasties of Abool Furuj, which. 

 Gibbon observes, '• form a classic -.md origina' work on the Arabian 

 antiqaities." Published at Oxford, in ]6oO. Alsj the conplete 

 Latin version of the original work, by Pococ-., published in 

 l663. Gibbon has added, upon this, however, that " it is more 

 useful for the literary than the civil history ©f the East." Cap. 

 LI. n. 13. 



u 



