J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

96 riiELIMINART DISCOURSE. 5bct. vi.
if divorced by her husband, unless she has been guilty of impuLlicity, or
notorious disobedience.*
"When a woman is divorced, she is obliged, by the dii-ection of the KorUn,
to wait till she hath had her courses thrice, or, if there be a doubt whether
she be subjected to them or not, by reason of her age, three months, before
she many another ; after which time expired, in case she be found not with
child, she is at full liberty to dis]iose of herself as she pleases ; but if she
prove with child, she must wait till she be delivered : and during her whole
term of waiting, she may continue in the husband's house, and is to be
maintaiueii at his expense ; it being forbidden to turn a woman out before
the expiration of the term, unless she be guilty of dishonesty.' Where a
man divorces a woman before consummation, she is not obliged to wait
any particular time;^ nor is he obliged to give her more than one-half of
her dower.' If the divorced woman have a young child, she is to suckle it
till it be two yeai's old ; the father, in the mean time, maintaining her in all
respects : a widow is also obliged to do the same, and to wait foiu- months
and ten days before slie marry again.*
These rules are also copied from those of the Jews, according to whom a
divorced woman, or a widow, cannot maiiy another man till ninety days be
past, after the divorce or death of the husband :* and she who gives suck is
to be maintained for two years, to be computed from the bii'th of the child ;
within which time she must not many, unless the child die, or her milk
be dried up.*
Whoredom, in single women as well as married, was, in the beginning of
Mohammedism, veiy severely punished ; such being ordered to be shut up
in prison till they died : but aftei-wards it was ordained by the Souna, that
an adidteress should be stoned,' and an unmarried woman guilty of forni-
cation scourged with an himdred stripes, and banished for a year.^ A she-
riave, if convicted of adultery, is to suffer but half the punishment of a free
woman,' viz. fifty stripes, and banishment for six months ; but is not to be
put to death. To convict a woman of adultery, so as to make it capital, four
witnesses are expressly required,' and those, as the commentators say,
oufht to be men : and if a man falsely accuse a woman of reputation of
whoredom of any kind, and is not able to support the charge by that num-
ber of witnesses, he is to i-eceive fourscore stripes, and his testimony is to be
held invalid for the futiu'e.* Fornication, in either sex, is by the sentence
of the Koran to be pimished ^Yith an hundred stripes.'
If a man accuse his ^vife of infidelity, and is not able to prove it by suf-
ficient e\'idence, and will swear four times tliat it is true, and the fifth time
imprecate God's vengeance on him if it be false, she is to be looked on as
convicted, unless she will take the like oaths, and make the like impreca-
tion, in testimony of her innocency ; which if she do, she is free from
punishment, though the maniage ought to be dissolved*
Busbeq. Ep. 3, p. 1S4. Smith, Je Morib. ac Instit. Turcar. Ep. 2, p. 52, and Chardin,
Voy. do Terse, torn. 1, p. 169. * Koran, chap. 4, p. 62, 63. i Idem, cliap. 2, p.
26. and 27, and chap. 65. * Ibid. chap. 33. s ibij. ehap. 2, p. 27. * Ibid. chap.
2, p. '27, and chap. 65. * Mishna, tit. Yabimoth, c. 4. Gemar. Babyl. ad eund.
tit. Maimon. in Halach. Girushin, Shylhan Aruch, part 3. « Mishna, and Gemara,
and Maimon. ubi supra. Gem. Babyl. ad tit. Cetuboth, c. 5. and Jos. Karo, in
Shylhan Aruch, c. 50, sect. 2. Vide Seldeni Ux. Hebr. lib. 2, c. 11, and lib. 3, c.
10 in fin. ' And the adulterer also, according to a passage once extant in the
Koran, and still in force as some suppose. See the notes to Kor. chap. 3, p. 37,
and the Prel. Disc. p. 48. ^Kor. chap. 4, p. 61, 62. See the notes there.
» Ibid. p. 63. 1 Ker. chap. 4, p. 61, 62. See notes there. ^ Kor. chap. 2-1. « Ibid.
This law relates not to married people, as Selden supposes ; Ux. Heb. lib. 3, c. 12.
* Ibid. See the notes there.