two witnesses to the testimony of two earlier witnesses. Both of them must jointly attest to the testimony of each member of the original pair. It is invalid for one of them to attest to the testimony of one of the first witnesses while the other attests to the second, for the testimony of a single person on behalf of one—or even several—others is not accepted unless someone else joins him.

The same rule applies when two men attest to the testimony of one man. By contrast, it is impermissible for two women to attest to the testimony of a single woman or of two women, because two women together are counted as the equivalent of one man. Hence women may not convey (secondary) testimony unless a man accompanies them, whether they are transmitting the testimony of a man or of a woman; no matter how many women there are, they are still reckoned as one witness. No oath is administered alongside their testimony, and their testimony together with that of a man is inadmissible for transmitting the testimony of another man in any matter for which an oath may not supplement a single witness.

Likewise, in all cases where women’s testimony is altogether inadmissible, they may neither be used to convey the testimony of others nor to transmit their own testimony, whether or not a man is present with them. If, however, a man does accompany them, their joint testimony becomes acceptable concerning a man, concerning two women, and in every matter where the law allows the testimony of one man together with two women.

This represents the distilled position of Mālik according to his followers. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam and others also relate from Mālik that women may convey one another’s testimony in every matter in which women’s testimony is accepted alongside that of men. As for those issues in which women testify alone out of necessity, without male witnesses—such as defects specific to women, the newborn’s first cry, and the like—their testimony may be transmitted only by men, because the state of necessity has been removed. Judgment is therefore rendered on the basis of women’s testimony alone only in those strictly necessary situations for which they were singled out.

The testimony of one man with respect to the testimony of two men counts as half a testimony; the testimony of two men with respect to the testimony of one man counts as a full testimony; and the testimony of two men with respect to the testimony of one woman carries the same weight as a woman’s testimony.