- The breeding male: that is, the sheep share a single breeding male.
For goats, the breeding male is called a billy goat; for sheep, a ram; for camels, a camel bull; and for cattle, a bull.
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The grazing departure: that is, they are taken out to graze together and brought back together. One person’s sheep should not be taken out on Sunday and the other’s on Monday.
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The pasture: that is, they share the same grazing land. Thus, one person’s sheep are not in the eastern branch of the valley while the other’s are in the western branch.
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The milking place: that is, they are milked in one place. Your sheep should not be milked there while mine are milked here.
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The night enclosure, meaning the place where they spend the night: they must share the same enclosure, such that my sheep do not have an enclosure of their own and your sheep another of their own.
The poet has combined these characteristics in the following lines:
The sharing of a breeding male, grazing departure, and pasture,
Of milking place and night enclosure, is undoubtedly commingling.
If they share these five matters, this is commingling of characteristics, which makes the two holdings like a single holding.
These five characteristics were derived from Arab custom: when livestock shared these characteristics, they were regarded as though they belonged to one man.
For commingling to be effective, it must continue for the entire year, or for most of it, just as in the case of free-grazing livestock. Know that commingling is broader in scope than partnership: two owners may have commingled property without being partners.
If someone were to say: As for the first type of commingling, there is no difficulty in it, because it is property jointly owned by two people.