OF MUHAMMADAN JURISPRUDENCE 203

the Prophet were put into circulation, mostly in Medina, to the effect that 'if someone brings uncultivated land under cultivation, it belongs to him,' implying that no grant was necessary.¹ Mālik shows himself influenced by them when he adds 'and this is our practice,' but he specifies (Mud. xv. 195) that they apply only to desert tracts, not to land near cultivated country—or, as Ibn Qāsim adds on the authority of Mālik, not to land that has been granted as tribal quarters (khiṭaṭ). On the Iraqian side, Abū Yūsuf recognized the right of the [ʿAbbāsid] administration to the control and grant of titles, but on account of the traditions accepted the validity of the title of the cultivator without a grant, and Shaibānī followed him in this.

Connected with fiscal policy was the currency reform of the Umaiyad Caliph 'Abdalmalik. He fixed the official exchange ratio of gold to silver at 1 : 14, struck silver dirhams of 'standard seven', that is, weighing seven-tenths of one gold dīnār, and accordingly made 20 dirhams equivalent in value to one dīnār.² It is not surprising that in determining the amounts of weregeld in gold and silver, the ancient schools of law, for once, reflect an earlier stage. The Iraqians fixed it at 1,000 dīnār or 10,000 dirham, the Medinese at 1,000 dīnār or 12,000 dirham.³ Both schools projected their tariffs back to 'Umar.⁴

But in the details of their doctrine, the ancient Iraqians presuppose 'Abdalmalik's reform. They specify that the dirhams must be of 'standard seven' which was introduced by 'Abdalmalik and which Shaibānī even calls 'the standard of Islam'. They further explain the different tariff of the Medinese by the artificial theory that the dirhams in this case must be of 'standard six', that is, weigh six-tenths of one dīnār. This kind of dirham never existed, but the reckoning results in approximately the same amount of silver for one dinar;⁵ this again presupposes