We have ascertained from different sources that in Mesopotamia and Osdroena, offences are committed which are clearly unworthy of Our time, for serfs attached to different land are in the habit of contracting marriage with one another. For this reason, the owners of the said lands compel them to dissolve the marriages which they have contracted, and deprive them of their children, and in consequence, the condition of the entire country is rendered wretched, when, on the one hand, serfs are separated from their wives, and, on the other, their children are taken from them. Wherefore, Our efforts must be directed to the correction of this abuse.

  Hence, We order that, for the future, the owners of estates shall keep their serfs in any way they may wish, but that no one shall separate them from the women whom they have married in accordance with ancient customs, compel them to live on his own land, and deprive them of their children, under the pretext that they are of servile condition. Where, however, any acts of this kind have already been committed, Your Highness will take measures to remedy them, whether the children have been taken from their parents, or female serfs have been separated from their husbands, and anyone who hereafter presumes to do anything of this kind will run the risk of being deprived of his land. Therefore serfs need no longer apprehend the dissolution of their marriages, and they shall retain their children through the benefit of the present law, and, on the other hand, the owners of lands shall no longer seek technical reasons for breaking the union which their serfs have contracted, and depriving them of their offspring, for whoever ventures to act in this manner will run the risk of losing his property, which will be transferred to him who endeavored to claim the serfs.

  Therefore, Your Magnificence will take measures to see that the provisions which it has pleased Us to decree by this Imperial Pragmatic Sanction are carried into effect, and he who, at any time, attempts to violate them, shall be liable to a fine of three pounds of gold.