196 UMAIYAD PRACTICE AS THE STARTING-POINT

ing to this common doctrine, the first and the second divorce pronounced by a husband over his wife are revocable and become definite only at the end of a waiting period ('idda);¹ the third divorce, however, is at once irrevocable and definite. By divorcing with batta the husband renounced his right to revoke the divorce and made it definite at once; it must therefore have been single but definite. This can safely be considered as part of the practice under the Umaiyads.² It was recognized by the Iraqians: they allow a single, definite divorce which is pronounced by using the word batta or similar expressions.³

Because divorce with batta did not fit well into the clear-cut scheme of the common doctrine, efforts were made in both Iraq and Medina to make it either single and revocable, or triple and definite, and the traditions quoted above reflect these efforts. They were successful in Medina, where Mālik preferred the second alternative (Muw. iii. 36).

When the old meaning of divorce with batta was no longer understood in Hijaz, the problem of its legal effects was conceived in terms of the single or triple validity of a triple divorce pronounced in one session. The memory of the old practice was harmonized with current doctrine by the fictitious statement that a triple divorce pronounced in one session counted only as a single divorce in the time of the Prophet, of Abū Bakr and the first three years of the caliphate of 'Umar, with the implication that 'Umar gave it triple validity (Ikh. 310). This statement, attributed to Ibn 'Abbās, can be dated immediately before Mālik; while a formal tradition through Ibn 'Abbās from the Prophet, to the effect that such a divorce counts as single and