OF MUHAMMADAN JURISPRUDENCE 201

Prophet, transmitted by Ḥākim b. Ḥizām.¹ The objection prevailed only in the generation preceding Mālik; the Kūfan ʿUthmān Baṭṭī (d. A.H. 143) still allowed re-selling of all objects before one had taken possession (Zurqānī, iii. 118).

A vivid picture of the levying of tolls under Umayyad administration is given in the following tradition (Muw. ii. 51):

Mālik relates on the authority of Yahyā b. Saʿīd that Zuraiq [or Ruzaiq] b. Ḥaiyān, the director of the toll-gates of Egypt under the Umaiyad Caliphs Walīd, Sulaimān, and ʿUmar b. ʿAbdalʿAzīz, was instructed by ʿUmar b. ʿAbdalʿAzīz to levy the appropriate amounts from Muslims and non-Muslims—nothing if the value of their merchandise was under the prescribed minimum by a third of a dīnār or more—and to give a receipt valid for one year. Whereas no reliance can be placed on the individual reference to ʿUmar b. ʿAbdalʿAzīz, the description of the procedure is certainly correct in the essentials.

The third of a dīnār within which the exemption from toll does not become effective is an authentic feature;² it was disregarded by both the Iraqians and the Medinese.³ For the rest, the Iraqians uphold the concession that the payment of toll frees the goods from further toll duties for a year;⁴ the Medinese, however, subject them to toll duty every time they pass a toll-gate.⁵

It is possible that the restriction of legacies to one third of the estate, which is of Umaiyad origin, was connected with a fiscal interest.⁶ The estate of a person who leaves no legal heirs falls to the treasury, and a restriction of legacies would therefore tend to increase its share. Whereas this is suggested only as a possible explanation, the Umaiyad origin of the restriction of legacies to one-third of the estate is explicitly stated in the following tradition (Muw. iii. 245):

Mālik—Rabī'a—a man on his death-bed, when Abān b. 'Uthmān was governor [of Medina], set free the six slaves who