Chapter on Qasāmah (the Prescribed Oaths in Homicide Cases)

Qasāmah is a series of repeated oaths taken when a protected life has allegedly been wrongfully killed. One of its conditions is the presence of lūth ⦗1⦘—manifest hostility, such as that found between tribes who seek vengeance against each other. If a person is accused of homicide in the absence of lūth, he clears himself by taking a single oath. The procedure begins with the male heirs entitled to the blood claim: they must swear fifty oaths. If the heirs refuse, or if they are all women, the defendant then takes fifty oaths and is acquitted.