Juz fi Bay al-Ummahat al-Awlad
- Author died
- 774 AH
- Editions
- مؤسسة الرسالة
Juz' fi Bay' Ummahat al-Awlad (Treatise on the Sale of the Mothers of Children) is a specialized legal treatise by the Damascene Shafi'i scholar and historian Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE) examining the juridical and hadith evidence surrounding the sale of ummahat al-awlad (enslaved women who have borne children to their masters) .
Background and Composition
Ibn Kathir composed the work in two distinct redactions (ibrazatan): an earlier abridged version and an expanded, final version . In compiling the treatise, he was preceded by the Andalusian scholar Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Sayyid al-Nas al-Ya'mari (d. 659 AH), who had written a separate volume arguing for the permissibility of selling ummahat al-awlad . Ibn Kathir did not cite Ibn Sayyid al-Nas's monograph in the main text of his first draft; however, upon examining it later, he added marginal notes to his manuscript and subsequently integrated citations and praise of Ibn Sayyid al-Nas's research into the final draft, while offering critical remarks on some of his evaluations of narrators .
Structure and Legal Content
The treatise investigates the conflicting opinions, prophetic traditions, and reports from the Companions regarding whether an umm walad may be bought or sold . Ibn Kathir notes that scholars agreed that an enslaved mother of a child is not automatically emancipated during the lifetime of her master simply by bearing his child, but differed as to her sale :
- In the first redaction, Ibn Kathir enumerated five initial positions: complete impermissibility of sale; unconditional permissibility; sale allowed only to pay off the deceased master's debts; sale counted against the child's inheritance share; and permissibility during the master's lifetime followed by emancipation upon his death .
- In the final, expanded redaction, he structured the treatise around eight distinct scholarly positions, adding conditional sale stipulating manumission, permissibility restricted to cases of corruption or apostasy, and withholding judgment (waqf) . He also referenced this count of eight opinions when mentioning the treatise in his later work Musnad al-Faruq .
The text analyzes the historical practice during the era of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the subsequent prohibition instituted by Umar ibn al-Khattab, and the narrations transmitted from Companions such as Ali ibn Abi Talib and Jabir ibn Abd Allah .
Transmission and Preservation
Both redactions survived through their inclusion in al-Kawakib al-Darari, a major hadith compilation arranged by the Hanbali scholar Ibn Urwah (Ali ibn Husayn ibn Urwah, d. 837 AH) . Ibn Urwah studied under Ibn Kathir late in the latter's life and preserved the text along with Ibn Kathir's marginal annotations, including an ijaza granted by Ibn Kathir for an athar of Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib placed at the conclusion of the text . Both versions were later edited from the al-Kawakib al-Darari manuscript tradition and published together by Umar ibn Sulayman al-Hufyan .
Answer updated