Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/367

 5°. The male descendants in male line of those included in 4°, following the same rule as 3°.

This list of collateral relatives on the father's side may be continued by the reader at his pleasure from the rules just given. Only where the bride has no agnates who fulfil the requirements of the law, another class presents itself, which we need only cursorily mention since it now no longer exists owing to the abolition of slavery, viz.

6°. The male patron (liberator) of the woman, and in case of his decease his agnates in the order in which they inherit.

In each special case the wali indicated by the law is he who stands closest to the woman in accordance with the above classification. A more nearly related class is replaced by one more distant only where the former does not exist or where its members are morally and physically incapable of discharging the functions of wali. Thus for example the grandfather takes the place of the father when the latter is dead or insane, and the stepbrother on the father's side of the full brother when the latter is incorrigibly godless or unbelieving. Where, however, a wali of the next class is absent or is unwilling to be a party to an unexceptionable marriage desired by a woman of mature age, the succeeding class does not take its place, but that which we shall here call the 7$th$ viz.:

7°. The Civil Authority. By this we must understand in the first place the head of the Mohammedan Community or those who govern Moslim countries as his representatives. As a rule, however, the duty of acting as wali for women who have none, or whose proper guardians are absent or unwilling to act, devolves upon the qadhis or their deputies, sometimes on separate officials specially appointed to deal with marriage contracts.