he can convey it to the town where his second witness lives; there the witness testifies on his behalf, after which he brings a letter from that town’s judge to the judge before whom the first witness had testified. The cost of maintaining the slave is borne by the claimant, for he is its guarantor.

If the claimant acknowledges the slave as his property but has no local witness, he is not given custody of the slave. Instead, he must travel to the town where his witnesses reside; they testify—describing the slave in detail—that he owns the slave. He then returns with a letter from the judge who heard their testimony to the judge of the present town, and upon arrival he swears that the slave now before the court is the very one to which the testimony referred. This, Ismāʿīl relates, and Abū al-Faraj likewise reports: when the claimant arrives with the letter he must take that oath confirming the slave’s identity.

After he has deposited the slave’s value, he is given possession and takes the slave to his witnesses so that they may acknowledge that this indeed is the slave about whom they testified. He then secures another letter from their judge to the judge before whom the slave has acknowledged that he is the same slave mentioned in the testimony, so that judgment may be rendered in favor of the rightful owner once he swears by God that he has neither sold the slave, nor given him away, nor otherwise alienated him. At that point he recovers the sum he deposited as the slave’s value.

If he lacks even a single witness for his claim and brings no judge’s letter containing testimony that describes the slave, he is not given custody of the slave, even though he may have deposited its value.

Should the person in whose hands the slave presently remains wish to compel the claimant—whom he had made swear—to travel with him to another town, alleging that he bought the slave from him there, he has no right to do so, nor is the claimant obliged to accompany him. It suffices for the claimant to bring the descriptive testimony we have mentioned, to deposit the slave’s value, and then to take the slave wherever he hopes to establish his right against the buyer.

Whoever finds an animal, a male slave, or a female slave in someone else’s possession and establishes a right to it may similarly deposit its value with a trustworthy custodian and take it to the seller’s town so that the witnesses can testify to that very item.