374 Hints to Students of Arabic. 



and Kunz-ood-duJcaek are the others ; but they are but copies of the 

 former with the change of style or phraseology I have mentioned. 

 Then comes the Shurhus or Commentaries on these. The Hedayah is 

 a Shurhu of the Kudooree, with an amplified text, but the whole of 

 Kudoorees text verbatim et literatim is found in the Hedayah. This 

 the Kazees and Mooftees and Moulavees in Calcutta were not till lately 

 acquainted with. Captain Galloway, who has translated, but not pre- 

 pared for publication the Kudooree, found part and explained it to 

 them. 



The Hedayah is an invaluable work, but then it is full of disquisition 

 and subtilty of argument which would not be much to the taste of a 

 beginner, and this has given rise to fifty different Hasheeah or annota- 

 tions on the Hedayah. There is a commentary on the Kudooree, the 

 Suraj-ool Wuhavj ^J\ £Lr*> but that is also a voluminous work. 

 The Shurh Wukayah, a common work, is a good one. There are indeed 

 several Shurhus on that text, all easy and good, by Abool Mukarum 

 Birgundee, &c. and the Jaeemeea-ooz-Rumooz. Of the Kunz-ood Du- 

 kaek, the Aeenee is a good and easy shurh and a good book for a 

 beginner, as well as the three last mentioned. Then there are the 

 Futawahs, or collections of supposed cases and the opinions of the 

 lawyers on them. These puzzle a beginner because he seldom finds 

 a decided preference expressed for any opinion ; but this wears off by 

 a little acquaintance with the books and the celebrity of the lawyers who 

 have expressed the conflicting opinions, and the increasing strength of 

 the reader's own judgment ; and if after all he find the opinions heavily 

 balanced, he knows he may then adopt whichever his own mature judg- 

 ment may think most suitable to the equity of the case. This is 

 supposing him to be a Judge and that he had to decide a case in real life. 

 The style however, of those Futawahs is quite simple, as well indeed 

 as of all the Law Books, like that of books of science in all languages. 

 Technical phrases are to be learnt of course. In short, the dryness of 

 the subject is the only difficulty a student of Mahommedan law has 

 to fear, but the Hajee will encounter the Desert. Let there be a 

 motive and the task will be overcome. C. should read Harrington's 

 chapter on Mahommedan Law in the 1st volume of the Analysis, and 

 provide himself with Hamilton's Hedayah. 



