THE INTRODUCTION, IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD! PRAISE be to GOD, the Lord of all worlds; the praise of those who give Him thanks! And His bleffing on the best of created beings, MUHAMMED, and his excellent family! The Prophet of GOD (on whom be his bleffing and peace!) faid: "Learn the laws of inheritance, " and teach them to the people; for they are "one half of useful knowledge." Our learned in the law (to whom GOD be merciful!) fay: "There belong to the property of perfon deceased four fucceffive duties to "be performed by the magiftrate: first, his fune"ral ceremony and burial without fuperfluity "of expenfe, yet without deficiency; next, the 66 a They "discharge of his juft debts from the whole of "his remaining effects; then the payment of "his legacies out of a third of what remains "after his debts are paid; and, laftly, the diftri"bution of the refidue among his fucceffors, ac❝cording to the Divine Book, to the Traditions, "and to the Affent of the Learned." begin with the perfons entitled to shares, who are fuch as have each a specifick share allotted to them in the book of Almighty GOD; then they proceed to the refiduary heirs by relation, and they are all fuch as take what remains of the inheritance, after those who are entitled to fhares; and, if there be only refiduaries, they take the whole property: next to refiduaries for special cause, as the master of an enfranchised Пlave and his male refiduary heirs; then they return to thofe entitled to shares according to their respective rights of confanguinity; then to the more diftant kindred; then to the fucceffor by contract; then to him who was acknowledged as a kinfman through another, fo as not to prove his confanguinity, provided the deceafed perfifted in that acknowledgement even till he died; then to the perfon, to whom the whole property was left by will; and laftly to the publick treasury. On Impediments to Succeffion. IMPEDIMENTS to fucceffion are four; 1, fervitude, whether it be perfect or imperfect; 2, homicide, whether punishable by retaliation, or expiable; 3, difference of religion; and 4, difference of country, either actual, as between an alien enemy and an alien tributary; or qualified, between a fugitive and a tributary, or between two fugitive enemies from two different ftates: now a ftate differs from another by having different forces and fovereigns, there being no community of protection between them. as On the Doctrine of Shares, and the Perfons entitled to them. THE furud, or shares, appointed in the book of Almighty GOD, are fix: a moiety, a quarter, an eighth, two thirds, one third, and a fixth, fome formed by doubling, and some by halving. Now thofe entitled to these shares are twelve perfons; four males, who are the father and the true grandfather or other male ancestor, how high foever in the paternal line, the brother by the fame mother, and the husband; and eight |