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(an extract from Prof. Mamaikhan Aglarov's The Andi – A Mountain People of the Caucasus, Makhachkala, Iupiter, 2002)
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1. FIRST CHAPTER – MURDER
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1.1 For any murder – whether premeditated or accidental, and wherever it may have been committed – the Law states that the murderer has to pay a diyat [fine] of 100 rubles to the relatives of the deceased. [Note: At the time of writing, a sheep seems to have cost 2 rubles; an ox – 10; etc.] Of these, 50 must be paid when the relatives of the murderer visit those of the deceased accompanied by the village dibir [a delegation of respected villagers] and an ox [whose sacrifice is necessary for the reconciliation of the two parties], and 50 following the verdict of the village tribunal. Until the two parties are reconciled, the murderer may not plough his land, make hay, or freely use his property; he has the right to remain in his home or in the village, but the relatives of the deceased have the right to purse him [to prosecute a blood feud].
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1.2. In cases of accidental murder [manslaughter] or the murder of a thief, the murderer is subject to the same laws, and must pay the same diyat.
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1.3. Should a husband kill both his wife and her lover, he is not deemed responsible for their deaths. Should he only kill his wife's lover, however, his act is considered as murder.
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1.4. The testimony of a dying victim of murder – even if this person points to or accuses a known enemy of his – is accepted as proof of that person's guilt.
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1.5. If the relatives of a victim of murder accuse someone of his death, this accusation is accepted as proof without oath.
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1.6. A person who confesses to a murder is considered guilty if he confesses on the day of the crime and if he has a permanent abode, "a house and property, the house having at least 7 cross-beams". If two people should confess to a murder, only one of them is considered guilty, at the discretion of the victim's relatives. The confession of a youth is considered equal to that of an adult; the confession of a woman is only accepted as such if it is confirmed by a number of witnesses.
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1.7. A person accused of murder by the victim or his relatives becomes their mortal enemy.
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1.8. If both murderer and victim fight and die of their wounds, their deaths are considered as "blood for blood", as if they had died natural deaths. If, following a fight, one party is merely wounded and the other unharmed, intermediaries agree upon a masliat [a compromise] and the first 50 rubles [see 1.1] are not to be paid until the matter is cleared up. Even if the wounded party recovers, and lives, the other is accused of his murder.
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1.9. A father cannot be held responsible for the murder of his own son. Should a man kill his own brother, he must leave the village and live as an outlaw [as a kanly or, more commonly, as an abrek], according to the wishes of his brother's children.
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1.10. Should a son kill his own father [parricide], he is deprived of his inheritance, and must leave the village and live as an outlaw. He is deemed responsible for his father's blood before his paternal uncles.
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1.11. Should a man kill his konak [his honorary kinsman and host from another village, tribe, or people], he must pay his konak's house's new host and master 100 rubles, and his konak's relatives become his mortal enemies. If the identity of the murderer is unknown. the relatives of the deceased may accuse anyone without swearing an oath, and this person will become their mortal enemy.
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1.12. Should a husband kill his wife, or a wife kill her husband, the one who remains becomes the mortal enemy of the relatives of the deceased.
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1.13. Should any person harbour, protect, or hide a murderer in his home, this person becomes a mortal enemy of the relatives of the deceased.
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1.14. Should a child kill or wound anyone, it will be tried as an adult.
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1.15. Should any animal – whose bad character was known to its owner, and if the latter did nothing to restrain it – kill anyone, the animal's owner must answer for the murder as if he had done it himself.
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2. SECOND CHAPTER – WOUNDS
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2.1. Should a person wound another in a fight, and no one has confessed or otherwise claimed responsibility, the person the victim will accuse will be considered responsible for the crime.
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2.2. If no one confesses and the victim accuses a person of the crime, the victim may not point to anyone else but this first person.
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2.3. A person wounded in several places may only accuse one person of the crime, and this person is deemed solely responsible.
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2.4. Should a person be wounded during an argument, or wounded by accident, the guilty party answers for the crime as for wounding in general. However, if the victim was deliberately wounded, the guilty party must also present the victim's family with an ox [see 1.1]. If a thief is wounded, the guilty party must answer as for wounding in general, but the thief's relatives must present the latter with an ox.
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2.5. Money may be substituted for oxen.
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2.6. Doctors treat the wounded at the guilty party's expense. Should the village of the wounded person be too remote for a doctor to be called for, the wounded may choose a substitute for the doctor, who will treat him at the guilty party's expense.
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2.7. For severing or disabling an arm, hand, or foot, the guilty party must pay 150 rubles; for severing or disabling a finger, the guilty party must pay a fine which decreases from 50 rubles for a thumb down to 10 rubles for a little finger.
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2.8. For inflicting a wound above the elbow, as the result of which the victim can no longer move the elbow-joint, the guilty party must pay 50 rubles.
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2.9. For disabling his victim's leg, the guilty party must pay 150 rubles.
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2.10. For severing a toe, the guilty party must pay a fine which decreases from 10 rubles for a big toe down to 6 rubles for a little toe.
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2.11. For injuring his victim's tongue, as a result of which the latter can no longer speak or has difficulty speaking, the guilty party must pay 50 rubles.
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2.12. For disfiguring his victim's nose, the guilty party must pay 150 rubles.
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2.13. For inflicting injury to his victim's penis or otherwise depriving the latter of the ability to have sexual intercourse, the guilty party must pay 100 rubles.
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2.14. For knocking out his victim's teeth, the guilty party must pay at least 10 rubles per tooth.
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2.15. For blinding his victim's eyes, the guilty party must pay 100 rubles for one eye, and 400 rubles for both eyes.
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2.16. For depriving his victim of hearing, and if real deafness is established, the guilty party must pay 50 rubles for one ear, and 100 for both ears. If, over time, the victim recovers his hearing, the money is returned.
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2.17. For severing even a third of one of his victim's ears, the guilty party must pay 35 rubles, as he would for any wound to the face.
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2.18. The guilty party must provide his victim with food, and with anything the doctor deems necessary for the victim's treatment. A close relative of the guilty party must accompany the doctor and carry the doctor's bag, and must remain present during the entire treatment. Following treatment, when the victim has recovered, the guilty party must bring him a sheep or 2 rubles and three measures of flour, and must invite the victim and twelve other guests to a feast and thus reconcile the two parties.
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2.19. Should any person be wounded to the head and suffer broken bones, in addition to the required penalty the guilty party must pay the victim 10 rubles on the day of reconciliation.
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2.20. Should a person's inner organs be wounded, the injury must be established by a doctor in the presence of two or three witnesses and judges.
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3. THIRD CHAPTER – ADULTERY
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3.1. Any woman or girl who has been attacked by a man intent upon raping her must shout at once and inform every person she meets of the fact, most particularly her husband and their relatives. If she does so, her statement is accepted without her having to swear an oath; should she omit this rule, and delay her declaration until the following day, then her statement will not be considered valid.
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3.2. If the offended woman or girl declares and proves her statement, the accused must marry her and pay 40 rubles to her closest relatives. However, if the woman's relatives disagree with her marrying the accused, the latter must not answer for anything.
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3.3. The offended woman or girl may stay with her relatives, but she must inform the authorities, and may not stay with her relatives for more than half a day.
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3.4. For insulting his divorced wife, a man answers as for insulting any other woman. Should the offended woman wish to marry him, she must first marry another, and then marry him. Should she not wish to marry him, the man answers for nothing.
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3.5. Insulting a girl engaged to be married is considered equivalent to insulting a married woman.
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3.6. If a woman or girl has extramarital relations with a man of her own free will, the woman or girl is held responsible, and the man is not fined.
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3.7. Any one, who has cut off a woman's plait of hair, must pay her 15 rubles for each plait, in addition to the penalty called for insulting her.
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3.8. Those deemed to have been accomplices in the kidnapping of a girl, a widow, or any other woman are fined 10 rubles each, and the same sum must be paid by the owner of the house who received the fugitives, but only if the latter was at home.
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3.9. If a woman or girl did not declare a case of adultery and later becomes pregnant and accuses the man responsible, her declaration is not considered valid, but the man she accused must clear himself of the charge by an oath of twelve character witnesses, as for a theft; if he doesn't, he must marry the woman or girl after the child is born, and recognize the child as his.
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3.10. If, during the insulting or kidnapping of a woman or girl, a man is wounded by her relatives, the latter cannot be held responsible, but the insult or kidnapping must be proved by witnesses. If the man was wounded after having insulted or kidnapped a woman or girl, or if he was wounded whilst under the protection of any house, the guilty party must answer as for any other instance of injury.
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3.11. If a woman having concealed a case of adultery later becomes pregnant and gives birth, she is fined as well as the man for the adultery.
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4. FOURTH CHAPTER – ENGAGEMENT
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4.1. If two people were engaged in the presence or with the agreement of the village court, and the girl or her relatives later refuse to marry her to the man she was engaged to, the girl's parents must return all the gifts presented and repay all the expenses incurred by her fiancé, and pay an additional fine of 50 rubles.
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4.2. Should there be an argument concerning expenses, the fiancé must declare the amount by swearing an oath with character witnesses; if this is not done, the father of the girl or the girl herself must declare the value of the gifts she received at the engagement ceremony by swearing an oath with witnesses, and this sum will be exacted as expenses.
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5. FIFTH CHAPTER – THEFT
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5.1. The victim of theft must declare the theft by swearing an oath along with one of his closest relatives not involved in the matter.
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5.2. If a stolen animal is later found, its value before and after its theft is established; its value before its theft is declared by its owner under oath, and its value after its theft is established by the court or by people appointed by the court; should the owner of the stolen animal not be satisfied with the value, he may demand compensation equivalent to the expense of searching for the animal; this compensation will be exacted from the thief, but only if he has been proven to be guilty.
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5.3. If something has been stolen from a house, the guilty party must pay the victim at last 10 rubles or present the victim with an ox [see 1.1.] in addition to the fine called for by law.
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5.4. If something has been stolen from a house, the accused must clear himself by swearing an oath along with twelve character witnesses.
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5.5. For any theft outside a house, the number of character witnesses required to swear an oath in support of the accused are as follows: For a horse – 6 people; for a cow – 5 people; for every sheep – 2 people; and for any other property the village court will appoint the number of witnesses required according to the value of the things stolen.
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5.6. Character witnesses are appointed by the victim, but may not include close relatives of his such as a brother, a son, a cousin, a brother-in-law, a father-in-law, or those who are mortal enemies of the accused.
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5.7. If something was stolen from a guest, the latter and his host must obtain satisfaction.
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5.8. On the day of his lodging a complaint, the victim of theft has the right to accuse seven suspects of the crime, but following this he no longer has the right to accuse anyone else.
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5.9. If a victim of theft declared the theft in court and later finds some of the stolen things in somebody's house, the victim has the right to demand the restitution of the remaining stolen things from this person. If a thief who has confessed to a crime names his accomplices, the victim has the right to accuse them, too.
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5.10. If a thief has not the means with which to compensate his victim, then compensation will be exacted from the person the thief lives with, regardless of this person being a relation of his or not.
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5.11. If a shepherd, a servant, or a guest is known to be a thief, and if the village authorities have informed the host of this fact, and if – despite having been warned – the host does not turn him out of his house and allows him to remain there for at least three days more, then any theft the aforementioned person may commit will be deemed to be his host's responsibility.
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5.12. A declaration of theft is no longer deemed valid, if after one year none of the stolen things have been found among the possessions of the accused.
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5.13. People previously condemned for theft or bribe-taking cannot be chosen as character witnesses for clearing a suspect of theft.
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5.14. If stolen items are found in a person's house, then this person is found guilty and fined accordingly, even if this person was not accused by the victim in the first place.
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5.15. Any theft committed by children under age (younger than 10) is not regarded as a crime.
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5.16. Women are allowed to clear themselves of an accusation by the swearing of an oath by other women. It is deemed impossible to establish the rightful owner of the following goods: wool; bourkas [felt cloaks] (except those which have been worn); cloth; meat; iron; and money. The property of clothes, animals, animal skins, etc. can be identified.
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5.17. Counter-accusations of theft may not be brought sooner than in a year's time from the date of the original accusation.
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6. SIXTH CHAPTER – CONCERNING THE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SHEPHERDS AND HORSE-HERDS.
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6.1. A shepherd must always be near his flock and do his best to watch over them and to ensure that they are not stolen by wild animals or thieves. If a wolf injures or steals a sheep in the presence of the shepherd, then the latter must bring the owner some part of the injured or stolen sheep – the head or ear, etc. – otherwise the owner can declare under oath that the injury or theft of the sheep was the shepherd's fault or for his benefit, or he can demand that the shepherd swear under oath that he was not to blame and end the matter there and then.
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6.2. The village is responsible for the safety of the shepherds and horse-herds it hires. Everyone may bring his animals to the herd himself or under the care of someone else, even of a child. If animals on their way to the herd should be stolen, and the herder declared that he never received the animals in question, then the owner can exact from the party found guilty a fine equivalent to that exacted for the crime of not returning the amanat [any sort of property given to someone for safe-keeping]. Should the herder confess that he did receive the animals, but declare that he was not to blame for their being stolen, he must nonetheless pay the owner half of the value of the stolen animals.
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6.3. Should shepherds or horse-herds allow their herd to pasture on land which has been declared prohibited for pasturing and animals fall down a steep slope or into a deep ravine, if the herders do not slaughter the latter [to bring back the valuable meat], then the value of the lost animals is exacted from the herders, value which is fixed in court according to the declaration under oath of neighbours who knew the cattle.
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6.4. Should animals be driven to pasture on land which has been declared prohibited for pasturing and animals fall down a steep slope or into a deep ravine, if the herder was able to climb down and slaughter the latter, but didn't, he must compensate the owner for the loss of the meat; if he did, he may go free. He may also go free if the slope was so steep that he could not reach the lost animals.
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6.5. Herders must inform the owner of an animal being ill. If the illness worsens and the owner does not come, the herder has the right to slaughter the animal.
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7. SEVENTH CHAPTER – CONCERNING THE KILLING OF DOGS
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7.1. For killing a dog within the bounds of someone's mulke [the territory of someone's house] or in someone's field, the guilty party must pay the owner 5 rubles. If a dog tears someone's clothes, the dog's owner must compensate the victim.
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7.2. For cutting off a dog's ear or the ear of any other animal, the guilty party must pay the owner the price of the animal as fixed by witnesses, or give him a similar animal. The guilty party may keep the injured animal, at the discretion of the court.
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7.3. For injuring a dog, if the dog does not die, the guilty party may go free.
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7.4. Killing cattle is considered as theft.
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8. EIGHTH CHAPTER – CONCERNING THE CUTTING DOWN OF TREES
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8.1. If someone has cut down a tree without permission, this is considered as theft; the guilty party will be fined, and must return the wood to the owner.
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9. NINTH CHAPTER – CONCERNING PROPERTY SHARED BY A COUPLE
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9.1. If a husband and wife have an argument concerning property which they bought together when they got married, the case is investigated according to shariat [Islamic law].
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10. TENTH CHAPTER – CONCERNING DAMAGE CAUSED TO A FIELD
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10.1. The victim whose field was damaged must make a declaration to the village court. The court will send two people to investigate, and if they confirm the damage claimed, the owner of the damaged field will be compensated.
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11. ELEVENTH CHAPTER – ARSON
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11.1. If something is damaged or destroyed by fire within the bounds of someone's mulke [see 7.1], the suspect must be cleared of the accusation by twelve character witnesses under oath. However, if the owner of the burnt property is known to be a dishonest man or a thief, and if he accuses a person known to be honest, three of his relatives must prove that the arson was not committed by the owner himself.
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11.2. If something is damaged or destroyed by fire not in someone's mulke, in another place, the suspect must be cleared of the accusation by six character witnesses under oath. If in the first or the second case [11.1 or 11.2] the suspect is not able to clear himself of the accusation, he must compensate the owner for the damage caused.
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11.3. If it is established that arson within the bounds of someone's mulke was committed by several people, then each must present the victim with an ox [see 1.1] in addition to compensation for the burnt property.
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The following is a translation of the text of a kharadge, an agreement regarding the payment of tribute, in this case imposed by the Andis upon the [eponymous] inhabitants of the village of Tindis.
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"The tukhum [extended family] of Makhmutilav is to render 7 k'ali [measures] of grain. [Note: 1 k'ali = 13kg]
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The tukhum of Surakat is to render 6 k'ali, one k'ali of which is to be paid by the mother of Surakat herself.
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The tukhum of Umar, son of Ismail, is to render 12 k'ali.
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The tukhum of Kadir is to render 11 k'ali.
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The tukhum of Ayub is to render 4 k'ali.
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The sons of Albilib are to render 7 k'ali.
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Sabat-Mukhamed, son of Zabid, is to render 7 k'ali.
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The house or tukhum of Usman is to pay 30 k'ali.
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Ali, son of Ibrahim, is to render 2 k'ali.
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Mukhamadamin, son of Jamalalilav, is to render 7 k'ali.
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The [Andi] tukhum of Dadilal is to transfer the land known as Khankab and the meadow which surrounds it to the people of Tindis, on the condition that the inhabitants of Tindis will contribute 100 k'ali of barley grain annually. One end of the land known as Khankab, which the tukhum of Dadilal is to transfer to the people of Tindis, stretches up to the land where the basin known as Bakhalab is situated, in the gorge, where there is a river. The other end of the land known as Khankab stretches up to the highest place, that lies in the direction of the mountain edge.
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The Tindis are to render this kharadge unto the Andis even if a battle or war occurs between the two parties.
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The witnesses of this agreement are: Kamash Kadi [a judge, versed in the shariat Islamic law] Ali of Ansalta; two Andis: Jamal, son of Alibek, and Alkhas, son of Shamyl; two men of Ansalta: Makhmud, son of Hadji, and Gazimukhamad, son of Ali."
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(Extract from Prof. Mamaikhan Aglarov's The Andi – A Mountain People of the Caucasus, Makhachkala, Iupiter, 2002; originally published in Khristomatia po istorii prava i gosudarstva Daghestana, vv. VIII-XIX, p.82, Makhachkala, 1999)
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