Chapter on Usurpation⦗1⦘

Usurpation (ghasb) is the forcible, unjust seizure of another person’s right, whether in real estate or movable property.

If someone usurps a dog that may lawfully be kept, or the wine of a dhimmī, he must return them; he is not, however, required to return the hide of a carcass. Destroying any of these three entails no liability.

Should he seize a free person, he is not liable for the person himself, but if he coerces him into labor or confines him, he must pay the applicable wages.

The usurped item must be returned together with any increase it has acquired, even if this costs the usurper many times its value. If he builds on the land or plants in it, he is obliged to remove what he placed there, pay for the diminution in value, level the ground⦗2⦘, and settle the rent.

If he usurps a trained hunting animal—or a slave—or hunting equipment, and game is thereby taken, that game belongs to the owner⦗3⦘.

If he hammers wrought metal into a new form, weaves spun yarn, shortens a garment, forges⦗4⦘ a plank, planes wood⦗5⦘, or the like; or if grain becomes a crop, an egg hatches into a chick, or a date-stone grows into a sapling, he must return the item along with compensation for any deficiency. The usurper gains nothing from his labor and must make good every loss.

If he castrates an enslaved person, he must return him and pay both his full value and whatever diminution the castration caused. He is not liable for a mere drop in market price, nor for an illness from which the slave has fully recovered. If the lost value is restored only because the slave learned a craft, the usurper remains liable for the deficiency. Should the slave acquire skills or grow fat so that his value rises, then later forget those skills or grow thin so that his value falls, the usurper must reimburse that lost increase, just as if