of slavery, piracy and constant war against the unbelievers. To return to Abu Hanifa. He admitted very few Traditions as authoritative in his system, which claims to be a logical development from the Quran. "The merit of logical fearlessness cannot be denied to it. The wants and wishes of men, the previous history of a country--all those considerations, in fact, which are held in the West to be the governing principles of legislation, are set aside by the legists of Irak as being of no account whatever. Legislation is not a science inductive and experimental, but logical and deductive."[25] Imam Ibn Malik was born at Madina (A.H. 93) and his system of jurisprudence is founded, as might be expected from his connection with the sacred city, on the "Customs of Madina." His business was to arrange and systematize the Traditions current in Madina, and to form out of them and the "Customs" a system of jurisprudence embracing the whole sphere of life. The treatise composed by him was called the "Muwatta" or "The Beaten Path." The greater part of its contents are legal maxims and opinions {21} delivered by the Companions. His system of jurisprudence, therefore, has been described as historical and traditional. In an elegy on his death by Abu Muhammad Ja'far it is said: "His Traditions were of the greatest authority; his gravity was impressive; and when he delivered them, all his auditors were plunged in admiration."[26] The Traditions were his great delight. "I delight," said he, "in testifying my profound respect for the sayings of the Prophet of God, and I never repeat one unless I feel myself in a state of perfect purity,"[27] (_i.e._, after performing a legal ablution.) As death approached, his one fear was lest he should have exercised his private judgment in delivering any legal opinion. In his last illness a friend went to visit him, and enquiring why he wept, received the following answer: "Why should I not weep, and who has more right to weep than I? By Allah! I wish I had been flogged and reflogged for every question of law on which I pronounced an opinion founded on my own private judgment."[28]