Welcome to the Middle Ages

Arab News reports on an age old element of sharia law (that's a new one on me):

JEDDAH: Judiciary authorities in Saudi Arabia have started checking the prices of camels all over the Kingdom to determine a more accurate value for blood money (diyyah).

The Supreme Judiciary Council’s value for blood money, which is paid after a conviction for semi-intentional (SR110,000) and unintentional murder (SR100,000), was last fixed in 1980.

The move to re-evaluate these figures has come in the wake of huge rises in camel prices in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Some breeds cost millions of riyals.

According to Islamic tradition, blood money is calculated on the basis of the market value of camels as the Shariah stipulates that a victim’s family must be compensated by giving them 100 camels — 80 female and 20 male. The male camels should be no more than one year old, while the females should be split into four of groups of 20. The age of the animals in the first female group should be one year, the second group two years, and so forth.

Members of the General Commission of the Riyadh High Court will check the prices of camels in various parts of the Kingdom with the help of chief auctioneers at livestock markets.

A number of camel owners told Arab News prices range from SR3,000 for young camels to SR20,000 for old camels, depending on the breed and gender. Rare breeds can fetch millions of riyals, they said.

Suwailam bin Jary, who is chief auctioneer for camels at the livestock market in Jeddah, said rare breeds, usually owned by rich people, are never sold in open markets but privately.

“I have been working in the livestock market for more than 25 years and have never seen a rare breed camel being sold there,” he said.

He added camels sold at the market are designated for slaughter, breeding or trade.

“These are the camels specified for the payment of diyyah,” he explained...

You know the "gold standard"? I guess you could call this the "camel standard."