they stipulate it1 for only one of the two parties, it is valid. If the term is set as “until tomorrow” or “until the night,” the option lapses at the very beginning of that period. Whichever party holds the option may annul the contract even if the other is absent or resentful.

Throughout either of these option periods, ownership remains with the buyer, who is entitled to every detached increase and any earnings the article produces. It is unlawful—and the transaction is void—for either party to dispose of the sold property, or of the designated consideration, during the option period without the other’s permission, apart from merely trying out the goods. An exception is the buyer’s manumission of a slave, which is allowed; any other disposal by the buyer counts as a cancellation of his own option. Should either party die, his option is extinguished.

Third: the option based on excessive overcharging, when the price disparity exceeds what is customary, whether caused by a price-booster (nājjish) or by taking advantage of an uninformed buyer (mustarsil).

Fourth: the option arising from deceit, such as dyeing a bondwoman’s hair black and curling it, or storing water in the mill’s trough and releasing it when showing the property.

Fifth: the option of defect—that is, anything that diminishes the value of the item sold, such as illness, loss2 or addition of a limb or tooth, an abnormal increase in a slave’s weight, his theft, absconding, or bed-wetting. On discovering a defect, the buyer may either keep the item and take an allowance (arsh)—the proportionate difference between its sound value and its defective value—or return it and recover the price. If the item has perished, or the slave has been set free3, only the allowance is due. And if he purchased something whose defect cannot be known without breaking it, like a coconut4 or an ostrich egg, then broke it and found it spoiled—