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

100 rilELIMINARY DlSCOUliS sect. vi.
Jews, wlio seem to have been no less addicted to revenge tban their neigh-
bours, the manslayer who had escaped to a city of refuge was obliged
to keep himself within that city, and to al)ide there till the death of the
person who was high priest at the time the fact was committed, that his
abi^ence and time might cool the passion and mitigate the resentment of the
friends of the deceased; but if he quitted his asylum before that time, the
revenger of blood, if he found him, might kill him without guilt;* nor
could any satisfaction be made for the slayer to return home before the pre-
scribed time.^
Theft is ordered to be punished by cutting off the offending part, the
hand ;* which, at first sight, seems just enough : but the law of Justinian,
forbidding a thief to be maimed," is more reasonable; because stealing
being generally the effect of indigence, to cut off that limb would be to de-
prive him of the means of getting his livelihood in an honest manner.' The
Sonna forbids the inflicting of this punishment, unless the thing stolen be
of a certain value. I have mentioned in another place the further penalties
which those incur who continue to steal, and of those who rob or assault
people on the road.'
As to injuries done to men in their persons, the law of retaliation which
was ordained by the law of INIoses,^ is also proved by the Koran:* but
this law, which seems to have been allowed by jNIohammed to his Arabians
for the same reason as it was to the Jews, viz. to prevent particular
revenges, to which both nations were extremely addicted,* being neither
strictly just, nor practicable in many cases, is seldom put in execution, the
punishment being generally turned into a mulct or fine, which is paid
to the party injured.* Or rather Mohammed designed the works of the
Koran relating thereto should be understood in the same manner as those
of the Pentateuch most probably ought to be ; that is, not of an actual re-
taliation, according to the strict literal meaning, but of a retril)ution propor-
tionable to the injury : for a criminal had not his eyes put out, nor was a
man mutilated, according to the law of Moses, which, besides, condemned
those who had wounded any person, where death did not ensue, to pay a
fine only ;' the expression eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, being only a ])ro-
verbial manner of speaking, the sense whereof amounts to this. That every
one shall be punished by the judges, according to the heinousness of the fact.^
In injuries and crimes of an inferior nature, where no particular punish-
ment is provided by the Koran, and where a pecuniary couipensation will
not do, the Mohammedans, according to the practice of the Jews in the like
case, have recourse to stripes ov drubbing,^ the most common chastisement
used in the east at this day, as well as formerly ; the cudgel, which, for its
virtue and efficacy in keeping the people in good order, and within the
bounds of duty, they say came down from heaven, being the instrument
wherewith the judge's sentence is generally executed.'
Notwithstanding the Koran is by the Mohammedans in general regarded
as the fundamental part of their civil law, and the decisions of the Sonna,
8 See Numb. xxxv. 26, 27, 28. ' ibid. ver. 32. 8 Kor. c. .5, p. 86. » Novell.
134. c. 13. 1 Vide Puffeudorf, de Jure Nat. et. Gent. lib. viii. c. 3. sect. 26.
=* See tlie notes to c. 5. p. 86. 3 Exod. xxi. 24, &c. Lev. xxiv. 20. Deut. xix.
21. * Chap. 5, p. 88. « Vide Grotium, de Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. i. c. 2.
sect. 3. ® Vide Chardin, t. ii. p. 299. 1 he talio, likewise established among the
old Romans by the laws of the twelve tables, was not to be inflicted, unless the di^-
linquent could not agree with the person injured. Vide A. Gell. Noct. Attic, lib.
XX. c. 1. and Festum, in voce talio. ' See Exod. xxi. 18, 19. and 22. ^Bar-
beyrac, in Grot, ubi sup. Vide Cleric, in Exod. xxi. 24, and Deut. xix. 21.. » See
Deut. XXV. 2, 3. ^ Vide Grelot, Voy. de Constant, p. 220, and Chardin, ubi sup. p. 302.