Chapter on Reviving Mawāt (unclaimed dead land)

Mawāt is land that is free of any private right or the ownership of a protected person. Whoever revives it becomes its owner—Muslim or non-Muslim alike—whether or not he has the ruler’s permission, and this holds both inside the Abode of Islam and elsewhere; land taken by force of arms¹ is subject to the same rule.

Revival likewise confers ownership of any nearby tract adjoining inhabited land, so long as no public interest is affected. Whoever encloses a stretch of mawāt, or digs a well until he reaches water, or channels water to it from a spring or the like, or dams the water in order to cultivate, has indeed revived it.

He also owns the protective zone (ḥarīm) of the ʿādiyya well—fifty cubits in every direction—whereas the protective zone of the bidiyya well² is half that.

The imam may grant concessions over mawāt to someone who intends to revive it; such a grant does not itself confer ownership. He may likewise authorize the right to sit in