when he could plant the trees on it. Another view is that rent is due from the day he planted the trees there. This is Ibn al-Qāsim’s position in Yahyā’s transmitted reports from him. In my view, this means from the day he could have planted them there. On this interpretation, Yahyā’s report does not contradict ‘Īsā’s, contrary to the interpretation of the scholarly authorities, who regarded the two reports as conflicting. We have explained this point further in al-Bayān, in the section entitled “Ista’dhana” within ‘Īsā’s transmitted reports in the Book of Tree-Planting Contracts. Another view is that rent is due from the day the trees began bearing fruit. This is his position in the reports transmitted by Abū Zayd and Husayn ibn ‘Āsim. All the yield belongs to the planter, and the landowner must return whatever he has taken of it: the measured quantity, if known, or its estimated quantity, if unknown. The planter must uproot his trees unless the landowner wishes to take them at their value when uprooted. Another view is that the planter is entitled to their value as standing trees. Yahyā stated this in his transmitted reports in the Book of Dams and Rivers, concerning an invalid arrangement for building mills; there is no difference between the two cases.

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Those who reason that the planted trees belong to the landowner treat the arrangement as an invalid contract of hire. It is as though the landowner had hired the planter to plant this land for him in return for half its fruit, or half the trees once they reach the stipulated stage. The ruling is that the landowner owes the planter the value of his trees, assessed as uprooted on the day he planted them, together with the customary remuneration for planting and tending them. All the yield belongs to the landowner, and the planter must return whatever he has taken of it: the measured quantity, if known, or its estimated quantity, if unknown.

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As for cases where the planter is allotted a share of the land on terms impermissible in a tree-planting contract—for example, where the landowner says to him, “Plant this land and tend the trees for so many years, or until they reach such and such a stage,” stipulating a single term before whose expiry the trees begin bearing fruit; or says to him, “Plant it and tend the trees until