Chapter: Maintenance of Relatives, Slaves, and Livestock1

Maintenance—or its remaining part2—is obligatory for one’s two parents, however high their lineage, and for one’s children, however low theirs, even for womb-relatives among them, whether or not they are excluded from inheritance by an insolvent heir. It is likewise due to every person who would inherit from him by fixed share or by agnatic succession, not merely through uterine kinship, apart from his direct line of ascent and descent. This holds whether that other person would, in turn, inherit from him—such as a brother—or would not, like a paternal aunt or a freed slave. The maintenance must be given in a manner consistent with accepted custom, provided the recipient is poor and unable to earn a living, and provided the payer has a surplus after meeting the needs of himself, his wife, and his slaves for one day and night, together with their clothing and housing, out of his earnings or what he acquires—never out of his capital, the price of property, or the tools of his trade.

If a needy person has heirs other than a father, their liability for his maintenance is divided in proportion to the shares they would inherit: the mother bears one-third and the grandfather two-thirds; if a grandmother is present, she bears one-sixth and the remainder falls on the brother. The father alone is responsible for the maintenance of his child.3

Should someone have a son who is poor and a brother who is wealthy, he is entitled to maintenance from neither of them. If his mother is indigent while his grandmother is affluent, the obligation rests with the grandmother. Whoever is liable for Zayd’s maintenance is likewise liable for the support of the woman who nurses him, in her capacity as a wet-nurse, for two complete years.