selling, buying, and collecting debts until the heirs dismiss him. Asbagh said that the agency terminates upon the principal’s death, and that the agent may neither conduct litigation nor carry out any of his former duties until the heir appoints him as agent. In Asbagh’s recorded transmission in the Book of Merchandise and Agency, he states that the agency terminates upon the principal’s death if the principal was the seller, and the agent may not collect the price unless appointed by the heirs. If, however, the principal was not the seller and the agent himself conducted the sale, the agent retains his authority to collect the price of what he sold until the heirs dismiss him. Yet I know of no disagreement among them that a judge’s appointment does not lapse upon the death of the ruler who appointed him, and that he remains in office until dismissed by the ruler who succeeds him. Consider, then, what distinguishes the two cases.

Section

If the principal dies—according to the view that his death terminates the agency—and the agent is unaware of his death, or if the agent is dismissed without knowing it, there are three opinions as to whether the death or dismissal itself terminates his authority:

The first is that his authority terminates by the death or dismissal itself. This is Ibn al-Qāsim’s position in the Book of Partnership in al-Mudawwanah, concerning a principal who revokes his agent’s authority, after which the agent collects payments from the principal’s debtors while they are unaware of his dismissal: their payment to him does not discharge their debts, even if he himself is unaware of his dismissal. This is the apparent meaning of his statement, and this is how the scholarly authorities understood it. Abū Ishāq al-Tūnisī likewise interpreted it this way. If payment to him does not discharge the debtors, he too is not absolved of liability, and the debtors may seek reimbursement from him if the money is lost while in his possession, because he acted mistakenly in dealing with another person’s property. This makes clear that the agency terminates, both in relation to the agent himself and to anyone who transacts with him or pays him, by the death or dismissal itself.

The second is that his authority does not terminate in relation to any party until that party learns of the death or dismissal. Thus, it terminates in relation to the agent when he learns of it, and in relation to anyone who pays him or transacts a sale with him when that person learns of it. This is Mālik’s position—may Allah have mercy on him—at the beginning of the Book of Agency in al-Mudawwanah: the heirs are bound by whatever the agent sells or buys after the principal’s death, before learning of it, just as they are bound by whatever he bought or sold before the principal’s death. Likewise, by analogy with their position, anyone who pays him without knowing of the principal’s death is discharged of the debt.