he recovers it before the division is made has the stronger claim to it and may take it without paying anything. If the owner is absent, the article is set aside for him provided it is clearly identified and its owner is known. Anything whose owner cannot be identified with certainty is divided; should its owner later appear and produce proof, he may reclaim it for its value, God willing.

The ruling for the property of dhimmīs is identical to that for Muslim property in this matter. If an umm walad (a concubine who has borne her master a child) falls into the lots of distribution, her master is compelled to ransom her; if he is unable to do so, the imam ransoms her from the one-fifth share. The person in whose lot she falls may not treat her as lawful for intercourse, and must instead pursue her master for her value as an outstanding debt if the latter is insolvent. If anyone buys another man’s umm walad from the enemy, her master may reclaim her from the purchaser for the price he paid, even if that price is many times her ordinary value.

Al-Mughīra and ʿAbd al-Malik said: the master takes her for whichever is less—either her assessed value or the amount paid to ransom her. Any slave who, during the course of distribution, is lost to the owners through manumission, or any female slave by reason of childbirth, cannot be returned to bondage.

It has also been said that the owner may recover such a slave by paying its value and that the manumission is thereby revoked; likewise, if the slave had been sold or pledged, the sale, gift, or pledge is annulled. The first view, however—the irrevocability of the manumission—is the established position of the school and is upheld by the majority of Mālik’s companions.

If a free Muslim woman, a free dhimmī woman, or a Muslim slave girl is taken captive, bears a child in enemy territory, and is later recaptured by the Muslims together with her child, then the free woman and her child remain free; the slave girl and her child revert to slavery under her master; and the dhimmī woman is returned to her protected status, and the same applies to her minor children. Any of those children who have reached puberty and are capable of fighting are treated as booty (fay). This ruling is narrated by Muṭarrif from Mālik and was likewise stated by Ibn Wahb and Ibn al-Qāsim, except that Ibn al-Qāsim holds that the adult sons of the free woman are to be treated like the adult sons of the slave woman. ʿAbd al-Malik maintained that the children of all these women, whether minors or adults, are booty for the Muslims.

If someone from the enemy ranks embraces Islam and then campaigns alongside the Muslims, and the Muslims subsequently capture his family and children, he is shown them, but they are considered booty for the Muslims.