at the very price for which it was sold on the day of the transaction, and it is then re-appraised with the new defect as though that flaw had existed when he first purchased it. Should the supervening defect amount to one-sixth, one-fifth, or one-tenth of the article’s value, the purchaser is entitled to reclaim one-sixth, one-fifth, or one-tenth of whatever remains of the price after deducting the portion already reduced for the earlier defect the seller had concealed. This procedure applies in every case in this chapter, whether the amount be large or small.

If a person buys two slaves in a single sale and one of them is later awarded to a third party—because he is found to be free or for some other reason—the status of the claimed slave is examined. If he was the principal object of the purchase, or the reason the pair was bought, the buyer must return the remaining slave as well. Otherwise, the buyer is liable only for that slave’s proportion of the price, calculated as though he had in fact been a slave.

Suppose the purchaser has already taken possession of the two slaves and, within the three-day liability period, one of them dies. The buyer claims that the deceased was the finer and more valuable of the two, while the seller insists he was the cheaper. According to Ibn al-Qāsim, the seller’s word prevails—provided he has already received the payment—because the money came out of his hands. Ashhab maintains that the seller’s statement is accepted whether or not he has yet received the price, for the right is already established in his favor and the purchaser is the claimant. Asbagh reported both opinions. Ashhab’s view is preferable to me, and it is the one I adopt.

Any income or earnings of the slave belong to the buyer, as do the revenues from palm trees and all other real estate. If the transfer was a gift and the palm trees are later claimed while in the donee’s possession, their fruits belong to the rightful claimant.

Whoever purchases a matched pair of items—such as two leather socks, the two leaves of a door, a saddlebag, a pair of stockings, and the like—and then discovers a defect in only one of them may not split the seller’s transaction. The buyer has no right to return the defective piece alone; he must either return both items together or keep them both.

And if someone buys a female slave in exchange for a male slave and then impregnates her