AUTHORITIES OF ^lOSULMAN LAW. 401 



©pinion of Aboo Hunf.efah, because he was one of 

 the immediate followers, and contemporaries, of the 

 companions, and opposed ti.em in the futvcas. So it 

 is in the Moheet of Surukhsee*. 



" If no precedent be found from AboO Huneepah 

 and his disciples, and the case ha?e been determined 

 by subsequent lawyers, the Kazee is to abide by the 

 judgment of the latter; unless there be a difference in 

 their decisions, in which event the preference is left to 

 his discretion. If not even a modern precedent be 

 forthcoming, the Kazee may exercise his own reason and 

 judgment; provided he be conversant with jurispru- 

 dence, and have consulted with sages of the law. In 

 the commentary of Taha'vee'(-; it is stated, that if 

 the Kazee pa.ss sentence on his own judgment, in op- 

 poMtion to the manifest letter of the law fj^ussj^ such 

 sentence is not valid. But if the sentence be not con- 

 trary to the clear letter of tlie law, and the Kazee, after 

 passmg it, should change his opinion, his former judg- 

 ment is, nevertheless, valid : though his future adjudi- 



*The author ot' this work, which is extant, atid he'd in high es- 

 timation, is stated, in the Kus//f oo Zmiwoti, to be Shums ool aim- 

 \\Mi, Aboo Bukr Mohummup, of Sinuklu, menti ned in a Jiormer 

 note. T\\e Mohtet-i Bcoihan^e, cri]\^osf.d by Boorhan oo' dbbn- 

 Mahmood bin-i Ahmud, is also noticed in the Kuhj oo Zunoon ; 

 but without any other particulas of the aut lor. He is mentioned 

 by D'Hekbelot, und^r the title of Szrnkhii, as having been born 

 at Surti.khs ; and having gone from hence into S/yria, where he su- 

 periptended a C liege at /Uehfo', and died at Damascus, A. H. 5yi. 

 His Moheet is known in hului : ;v.id an incomplete c0'>y is possessed 

 by the court of JVizamut Adulut ; bat it is less esteemed than that of 

 Shums ool Airimah 



t Ima'm Aboo Jafur Amud ein-i Mohummltd, of 7a^a(a town 

 in Upper EgnptJ is one among t!:e nunierons commentators of the Ja~ 

 tna-i Sugheer of Ujam IVIohummud. He also wrote an abridgement 

 of the doctrine of Aboo Huneefah, and his two disciples, intitled 

 Mokhtusur-t Tahavee. Both works art often quoted, as authorities, 

 but are not known to be now extant. He is stated in the Kuahfoq 

 Zunoon, tp haye died A. H. 371. 



