The works on Jurisprudence (Fiqh) also, even the best, are as a rule very unreadable to a non-Muslim. What is taught Jurisprudence (fiqh). in English universities as “Muhammadan Law” is, of course, only a portion of the subject as understood in the Lands of Islám. The Sharí'at, or Holy Law, includes not only Civil and Criminal Law, but such personal religious obligations as Prayer and the Purifications necessary for its due performance; Alms; Fasting; Pilgrimage; and the Holy War (Jihád), which subjects, with their innumerable ramifications and the hair­splitting casuistry applied to all sorts of contingencies arising from them, constitute perhaps one half of the whole. It is curious that, in spite of the neglect of Shí'a theology by European Orientalists, one of the best European books on Muhammadan Jurisprudence treats of Shí'a Law. This is M. Amédée Querry's Droit Musulman: Recueil de Lois concernant les Musulmans Schyites; * and the European reader who wishes to form an idea of the subject, with all its intricate, and, to the non-Muslim mind, puerile and even disgusting details, cannot do better than consult this monu­mental work, which is based on the Sharáyi'u'l-Islám fi masá'ili'l-Ḥalál wa'l-Ḥarám * of the celebrated Shí'a doctor Najmu'd-Dín Abu'l-Qásim Ja'far ibn al-Ḥasan…al-Ḥillí, commonly called al-Muḥaqqiq al-Awwal (“the First Verifier” or “Investigator”), who died in 676/1277-8. Other works of authority, enumerated in the Preface (vol. i, p. vii) were also consulted, as well as leading contemporary Persian jurists, by M. Querry, whose twenty-five years' so­journ in Turkey and Persia, where he occupied important official positions, such as counsellor of the French Legation at Ṭihrán, singularly fitted him for the arduous task which he so ably accomplished. An excellent Index of Arabic technical terms explained in the course of the book greatly enhances its value.

Mention should be made in this connection of a Persian catechism on problems of jurisprudence (fiqh) entitled Su'ál u Jawáb. Su'ál u Jawáb (“Question and Answer”), by the eminent mujtahid Ḥájji Sayyid Muḥammad Báqir, whose severity in enforcing the death-penalty in cases where it is enacted by the Ecclesiastical Law has been already mentioned. * This work, composed subsequently to 1236/1820, was very beautifully printed in 1247/1832, apparently at Iṣfahán, under the supervision of Mírzá Zaynu'l-'Ábidín of Tabríz, “the introducer of this art into Persia.” It comprises 162 ff. of 29.6 × 20.5 c. and 28 lines, and the letters <text in Arabic script omitted> (su'ál, “question”) and <text in Arabic script omitted> (jawáb, “answer”) are throughout inserted by hand in red. I possess only one volume, which was to have been followed by a second, but whether this was ever completed I do not know. * The topics are arranged in the usual order, beginning with the personal obligations of purification, prayer, alms, fasting and pilgrimage, and ending with the Kitábu'l-Wadí'at, dealing with objects deposited in trust in the hands of another. An Introduction on “Principles” (Uṣúl) is pre­fixed to the whole, and in each book, or section, various problems connected with the topic in question are pro­pounded, with the author's decisions, the whole in the form of dialogue. Thus the Introduction begins abruptly, with­out any doxology, with the following question:

Q. “If a person follows the opinions of one of the muj-tahids (may God increase the like of them!) during the life of that mujtahid, is it lawful after his death for that person to continue to follow him and act according to his sayings, or not?”

The answer, which fills nearly a page, is to the effect that it is not lawful so to do, and that the person in question should transfer his allegiance to some other mujtahid. Numerous authorities are cited in support of this view, amongst them Muḥammad Báqir (presumably al-Majlisí), Sayyid Muḥammad Mahdí, the “Second Martyr” (ash-Shahídu'th-Thání ), and the “Second Verifier” or “In­vestigator” (al-Muḥaqqiqu'th-Thání).

The “books,” or sections, are of very unequal length, that on Prayer occupying nearly 70 ff., and other “books,” including the last, on Trusts, only half a page. Of the latter, which contains only two questions and their answers, the full translation is as follows:

Q.—“Zayd * sends an article in trust to a trustee, bidding him give it to So-and-so. After the arrival of the article, the trustee learns for certain that the article entrusted to him belongs to 'Amr, * and that the hand of the sender, etc., is the hand of borrowing and usurpation. Moreover 'Amr lays claim to the trust, saying, ‘This trust committed to thee is my property.’ The trustee also admits the validity of his claim to the property, but says, ‘He sent it to me to give it to So-and-so; I will not give it to thee.’ Has 'Amr legally power to assume possession of the property and take it from the trustee, or not? And to whom should the trustee surrender the trust, so that he may be cleared of all further responsibility?”

A.—“If what has been penned actually corresponds with the facts of the case, that is to say, if the trustee knows that the property be­longs to 'Amr, and that the hand of the sender of it is the hand of usurpation and violence, it is incumbent on the said trustee to sur­render such property to its owner, whether the sender gives permission for such surrender or not. For such trustee to say to 'Amr, having knowledge of the fact that the said property really belongs to him, ‘I will not give it to thee, in view of the fact that the sender of it bade me give it to So-and-so, not to thee,’ is incompatible with the functions of a trustee, and is not conformable to the Holy Law.”

Q.—“If Zayd shall have deposited an article in trust with 'Amr, and if nearly seventeen years shall have passed, and if, notwithstanding 'Amr's urgent insistance with Zayd that he should remove the said article, he neglects to do so, and the said article, without any excess or defect of action * [on 'Amr's part], perishes, is 'Amr liable to any penalty, or not?”

A.—“Provided the details as set forth in writing correspond with the facts, there will be no penalty.”

This sample of Shí'a jurisprudence must suffice, but such as desire a further illustration of the matters which pre­occupy the minds of these jurisconsults and doctors may with profit read the narrative of the trial of the Báb at Tabríz for heresy about A.D. 1848, of which an account, based on the principal Persian narratives, will be found in vol. ii of my Traveller's Narrative, pp. 277-90.

We turn now to the more interesting subject of Shí'a theology, which has hitherto hardly attracted the attention Popular theological doctrine. it deserves from European Orientalists, and can only receive brief and inadequate treatment here. It must suffice to sketch in outline the current popular creed, without considering its evolution from early times, and to mention a few of the chief doctrinal works written in Persian during or since the Ṣafawí period. For the purpose of this outline, however, I choose not one of the larger, more authoritative and more famous books like the Ḥaqqu'l-Yaqín (“Certain Truth”) of Mullá Muḥammad 'Aqá'idu'sh. Shí'a. Báqir-i-Majlisí, but a little manual entitled 'Aqá'idu'sh-Shí'a (“Beliefs of the Shí'a”) com­posed during the reign of Muḥammad Sháh Qájár (before the middle of the nineteenth century of our era) by a certain 'Alí Aṣghar ibn 'Alí Akbar, and litho­graphed in Persia without indication of place or date. This work, comprising 438 (unnumbered) pages, consists of an Introduction (Muqaddama), five sections called Mishkát, and a Conclusion (Khátima). The contents are briefly as follows: