and one-tenth of her value if it is enslaved. A free woman is assessed as though she were an enslaved woman.

If an enslaved person commits an unintentional or deliberate offense for which there is no retaliation, or an offense subject to retaliation but for which financial compensation is chosen, or if he destroys property without his master’s permission, the liability attaches to his person. His master then has the choice between ransoming him by paying the assessed compensation for his offense, surrendering him to the aggrieved party, who then becomes his owner, or selling him and handing over his price.

His statement, “and one-tenth of her value if it is enslaved”: this is based on the view that the blood-money of an enslaved person is his value. Thus, if the fetus is enslaved, its compensation is one-tenth of her value. A fetus is owned when its mother is an enslaved woman and it belongs to someone other than her master; but if its mother is enslaved and it belongs to her master, then it is free.

Likewise, if its mother is an enslaved woman and a free man has intercourse with her under a mistaken belief of legality, the child is free.

Likewise, if its mother is an enslaved woman and it was stipulated to her owner that her children would be free, then the child is free.

Accordingly, the child of an enslaved woman is free in three cases:

First: if it is fathered by her master.

Second: if it results from intercourse under a mistaken belief of legality by a free man.

Third: if it was stipulated that it would be free.

If the fetus is enslaved, its compensation is one-tenth of its mother’s blood-money—that is, one-tenth of her value. For example, if the woman whose fetus was killed is worth ten thousand riyals, then the compensation for her fetus is one thousand riyals.

Some scholars held that the compensation for the fetus of an enslaved woman is the amount by which it diminished her value. That is, she is assessed both while pregnant and while not pregnant, and the difference between the two valuations is the compensation for the fetus.

This view is closer to analogy. For if someone injures a pregnant animal and it miscarries, then, in the case of a sheep for example, it is assessed while pregnant and while not pregnant, and the difference between the two valuations is the value of the fetus.

This view is also closer to the author’s wording when he said concerning compensation for the wounds of an enslaved person: “whatever diminution remains after recovery.”

His statement, “A free woman is assessed as though she were an enslaved woman,” means that if we were to suppose that a free woman were