inherit from anyone, nor does anyone inherit from him during that period, for his status is doubtful, and inheritance cannot be established on the basis of doubt.

The same ruling applies to a man who disappears in enemy territory or is captured between the two battle-lines—this is the third type of missing person. His wife may never remarry until so many years have passed that it is known he has died, for captivity in enemy lands cannot be ruled out. His case is treated like that of the captive mentioned earlier, and both are granted the same presumed lifespan, from seventy to eighty years. This is the most equitable of the reported opinions.

The fourth type is the man who vanishes amid civil strife within Muslim lands. He is lost in the thick of the turmoil, and news of his disappearance reaches his wife. Here the imam exercises ijtihād: he waits only a brief time—long enough for someone who fled or retreated to return—then, after investigating the man’s situation, the judge and the imam decide according to what they deem most probable. If they conclude that he has perished, they permit his wife to marry again once she has completed the ʿidda, and his estate is divided, for only one of two things can explain his absence: death or being killed, since he has not left Muslim territory.

If, however, the fighting took place far from the missing man’s own region in the lands of Islam, his wife and the rest of his heirs must wait about a year, or thereabouts, before his property is distributed.

When a man is absent but his whereabouts are known, and his wife complains to the authorities, the ruler writes to him, ordering him either to return to her, to bring her to where he is, or to divorce her—just as ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz did with the men who had gone to Khurāsān and left their wives behind. Mālik said, “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz struck the matter exactly right in this.” If the husband does none of the three, the judge pronounces divorce on his behalf.

If word of a man’s death reaches his wife in circumstances other than Muslim civil strife and she seeks dissolution, her request is disregarded; no time-limit is set for her, and no separation is decreed unless testimony establishes his death or