up to the proper dower—while another opinion declares the contract void altogether.

If a prodigal person marries without his guardian’s permission, the contract is invalid. Should he consummate it, nothing becomes binding on him; another view obliges him to a dower equal to that of her peers, and yet another obliges him to pay the smallest amount that is legally regarded as property.

A man interdicted for insolvency may contract marriage validly, but the expenses that follow are to be met from his current earnings, not from the property already in his possession.

A male slave’s marriage without his master’s consent is void; with that consent it is valid. The master may give an open-ended permission or may restrict it to a specific woman, clan, or locality, and the slave must not exceed what he was authorised to do. The sounder opinion is that the master has no right to force his male slave to marry, nor can the slave compel the master to arrange a marriage for him.

The master may, however, compel any of his female slaves to marry. If the slave-girl herself requests marriage, he is not obliged to comply—though another view states that, once she has become forbidden to him, he must. When he does marry her off, the preferred opinion is that he does so by virtue of ownership, not guardianship; therefore a Muslim may marry off his non-Muslim slave-girl, and even an openly immoral owner or one under a manumission contract may do likewise. The guardian of a minor male slave may not give that slave in marriage, but—according to the sounder view—he may marry off the female slave belonging to that minor.