If these surface mines were assigned as iqtāʿs, the assignment would have no legal effect. The person who had devoted himself to working them and everyone else would have equal rights in them, and all who came to them would share in them equally. If the grantee prevented them from accessing the mines, he would be transgressing by preventing them, while owning whatever he had extracted, since his transgression lay in the prevention, not in the extraction. He would therefore be made to cease preventing others and removed from continued exploitation, lest this validate the assignment as a lawful iqtāʿ or cause it to acquire the status of established property.

As for subterranean mines, they are those whose substance lies concealed beneath the earth and can be reached only through labor, such as mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron. These and similar mines are subterranean, regardless of whether what is extracted from them requires smelting, refining, and purification or not. They may not be assigned as iqtāʿs, just like surface mines, and all people have equal rights to them. If someone reclaimed barren land, whether through an iqtāʿ or otherwise, and a surface or subterranean mine appeared there as a result of that reclamation, he would own it permanently, just as he owns what he extracts from springs and what he digs from wells.

As for subterranean mines, they are those whose substance lies concealed beneath the earth and can be reached only through labor, such as mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron. These and similar mines are subterranean, regardless of whether what is extracted from them requires smelting, refining, and purification or not. They may not be assigned as iqtāʿs, just like surface mines, and all people have equal rights to them. If someone reclaimed barren land, whether through an iqtāʿ or otherwise, and a surface or subterranean mine appeared there as a result of that reclamation, he would own it permanently, just as he owns what he extracts from springs and what he digs from wells.

A Chapter on Establishing the Dīwān and Its Regulations

The Dīwān is established to record matters connected with the rights of the sultanate, including its activities and funds, as well as those who undertake them, namely the armies and officials.