ABSTRACT

The case which interests us here is recorded in folio 2 of the Rabat manuscript. Around 894/1488-89, a question was sent to Tlemcen by a man from alAndalus. This man had a daughter who had not yet reached her seventh year and was born to a slave girl of Christian origin (min bandt al-Rüm). The father feared that the place where this part of his family lived might fall into Christian hands. If this were to happen, both mother and daughter were in danger of being removed to enemy territory. It was the Christian custom in those days, the father explained, when Christians seized a place, to take away with them Christian female slaves and their children, even when the safety of the inhabitants and their possesions had been previously guaranteed. Moreover, the Christians did not accept any ransom for these women and their children. The father continued to explain that he was unable to travel to the other side of the Straits (barr al-cidwa, i.e. the Maghrib), nor could he despatch the mother and daughter together since something else prevented him from sending the mother abroad. On the other hand, the man had relatives in North Africa who would be able to care for the girl. So the question this worried father sought an answer to was: whether or not he had the right to separate the mother from her still very young daughter and send the girl to the safety of her relatives outside al-Andalus.