As for the issue under discussion, it concerns a performative statement, as when someone bequeaths many dirhams to another. The stronger view in such cases is that recourse should be had to the speaker’s customary usage. Whatever a person of his standing would call “many,” his unqualified words should be construed according to the least amount they can bear (1).

If a caliph says “many dirhams” in a vow he has made, his customary usage in such a matter would not refer to one hundred dirhams or thereabouts. Rather, he would consider that a small amount, not a large one. Indeed, construing [his words] (2) as the amount of the blood money—twelve thousand dirhams—would be more appropriate than construing them as anything less. The expression could bear an amount greater than that, but this is the value assigned to a Muslim life in Sacred Law, and the compensation payable for a Muslim can only be considerable.

When the word “many” is used by a caliph, it is construed as an amount for which it would not be construed when used by an ordinary individual. Thus, if someone possessing one thousand dirhams were to say, “Give this person many dirhams,” this could mean ten, twenty, or a similar amount (3), according to his circumstances. The meanings of “few” and “many” are relative and comparative, like “great” and “insignificant”; they vary according to the people concerned. Each person’s words should therefore be construed in the manner appropriate to his circumstances (4) in that particular context.

The account he cited from al-Masūdī has a disconnected chain of transmission. [Al-Masūdī’s History contains more falsehoods than none but Allah Most High can enumerate; how, then, can an account with a disconnected chain of transmission be trusted] (5) when it appears in a book notorious for its many falsehoods? (6) even though it contains no