518 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
immovable properties, all was desert, and the properties consisted of movable. When a man died ..................
Mr. Tajamul Husain (Bihar: Muslim): On a point of information, may I ask this. The honourable Member says that in Arabia there was no immoveable property. What about the houses ?
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : The question is needless. I will ask the honourable member to read a very learned book of Von. Kremer, a German authority, on “The Orient Under the Caliphs”. That book will give the desired information. There is a translation of it by the Late Mr. Khuda Baksh. It is the only book on the subject. It has dealt the entire subject from a specialist’s point of view. I will humbly ask my honourable friend to read that book for further elucidation, but I am not concerned with giving the entire details of it in the House because that is not quite relevant.
I was submitting that my learned friend’s question as to there being absence of immovable properly does not really arise. Arabia consisted, certainly, of immovable property also but most people had no immovable property. ( Interruption ) . No further interruption. I have been asked by the honourable the Speaker not to mind interruptions but it is difficult to close one’s ears to what is happening.
An Honourable Member : Close your mouth.
Mr. Naziruddin Ahmad : I shall as soon as I feel satisfied that I have discharged my duty and as soon as I feel that the majority do not want to hear me. I shall certainly do it.
Sir, in that book the whole history has been given. When a man died. He left a bedstead or some clothing or a horse or camel and things of that sort, and according to old Arabian customs they were divided among the near relatives. No trouble arose. The Qoran does not give any specific share to each individual. The present system of inheritence is a growth of the old Arab custom and amended and changed by Muslim doctors, especially by that great authority on Muslim Law, Abu Hanifa and others. I need not go into that. All that I was concerned in saying was that the Muslim approach is a matter of history. Whether good or bad is not to the point, and the fact that I oppose the share of the Hindu daughter is not because I am unwilling to give my Hindu sisters what I would give to my Muslim sisters. If what is good to a Muslim depends upon ancient customs and sentiments what is good to a Hindu should also depend upon the ancient customs and sentiments of the Hindus. When the Arabs conquered the areas surrounding the