Chapter on the Maintenance of Relatives and Slaves

It is incumbent¹ upon a person to support his relatives—providing them with maintenance, clothing, and lodging according to accepted custom—when three conditions are met:

First: that the relatives are poor, possessing neither property nor the ability to earn.

Second: that the provider is well-off, whether through assets or income, and that he has a surplus beyond the sustenance of himself, his wife², and his slaves for one day and night.

Third: that he stands to inherit from them, either by fixed share or by agnatic succession. Ascendants and descendants are excepted, for maintenance is absolutely due to them and from them in all cases.³

If the indigent person has heirs other than the father, his upkeep is apportioned among them in proportion to their prospective shares of inheritance; a solvent heir is not obliged—simply because another is insolvent—to bear more than the amount corresponding to his own share.

Anyone capable of earning a livelihood is compelled to do so in order to maintain those for whom maintenance is obligatory, whether relative or wife. Should his means be insufficient for all of them, he gives precedence to himself, then his wife, then his slaves, then his child, then his father, then his mother, then his grandson, then his grandfather, then his brother, and thereafter to the next closest relative in order of proximity.

A person entitled to maintenance may, if the one responsible refuses to provide it, take from that person’s property an amount sufficient for his own support without seeking his permission.⁴