218 COMMON ANCIENT DOCTRINE

jected back into the time of ʿAbdalmalik’s governor Hishām b. Ismāʿīl, and further ascribed to Shuraiḥ, Ibn Masʿūd, and Zaid b. Thābit. Within the pre-literary period, however, the Iraqians took objection to this breach in the system and taught that all fractions of the weregeld of the woman ought to be half of the corresponding fractions of the weregeld of the man. They adduced ʿUmar and ʿAlī as authorities, and made Ibrāhīm Nakhaʿī 'prefer the doctrine of ʿAlī to that of Ibn Masʿūd, Zaid b. Thābit, and Shuraiḥ'. But this last, the common ancient doctrine, was in the time of Ibrāhīm only on the point of being projected back into the period of Hishām b. Ismāʿīl, on the authority of the same Ibrāhīm. Ibrāhīm’s alleged statement of doctrine is therefore spurious, and the systematized and secondary stage of the Iraqian doctrine later than his time.

Weregeld of the slave. See below, p. 281 f.

Evidence

Oath of the plaintiff. See above, pp. 167 ff., 187 f.

Evidence of minors. The common ancient doctrine admitted the evidence of minors regarding wounds inflicted by minors on one another.¹ This was obviously inspired by practical necessity, but it was abandoned first in Iraq by Abū Ḥanīfa and Abū Yūsuf, and in Hijaz by some disciples of Mālik, for systematic reasons and in strict interpretation of the Koranic requirements of witnesses. Both opinions were projected back to Companions.

Occasionally, the common element consists of an abstract principle rather than of a positive doctrine, such as the principle that conversion to Islam gives a good title to all property held at the time,² the principle that the punishment by ta'zīr, at the discretion of the judge, ought to remain within the limits set by the fixed ḥadd punishments,³ and the principle, referred to above, that the minor for purposes of penal law cannot act intentionally.

B. EARLY CROSS-REFERENCES AND CROSS-INFLUENCES

There are numerous cross-references from one school of law to the doctrine of another, over the whole of the pre-literary period. These references are usually expressed in counter-