conditioning his emancipation on serving the master for one further month is not lawful: the emancipation itself takes effect, while the service clause is void. If, however, the manumission is deferred until the service is first rendered, that is permissible.

Likewise, there is no objection to stipulating that the mukātab erect a building or perform a particular task whose value is then offset against one of his instalments. Beyond the terms written in the kitābah, the master has no claim whatsoever upon the mukātab; he may take nothing else from the latter’s property. All that the mukātab earns belongs to him alone, and the master may not restrict his commercial dealings—sale, purchase, silent partnership, or the like—nor may he seize any part of his assets. The mukātab is responsible for his own maintenance and every expense is to be met from his own earnings; the master bears none of it.

That said, the mukātab is not allowed to squander his wealth, give it away, show undue favour in disposing of it, or spend except in a manner befitting someone of his station. He may neither marry nor travel without his master’s permission, and any manumission, gift, or charity he undertakes is invalid unless the master approves. This first opinion is the sound one and the established doctrine. Should the master ratify such transactions, they become effective and the walaʾ (patronage) of the person freed reverts to the master whenever emancipation occurs. If the mukātab fails to attain freedom before that emancipated slave dies, the estate of the latter goes to the mukātab’s master.

If the mukātab sets one of his own slaves free without the master’s leave, and the master remains unaware until the mukātab himself wins freedom, the manumission is upheld. But if the master learns of it and revokes it, and the mukātab later completes his payments, he is not obliged to free that slave.

A mukātab may not grant a kitābah to his own slave unless it clearly serves his own interest and strengthens his ability to pay off his contract. Should he do so and then default, the lower mukātab must pay what he owes directly to the upper master; he is then emancipated and his walaʾ belongs to that upper master. If, after defaulting, the upper mukātab later gains his freedom, he has no claim upon his former master for the sums already paid by the lower mukātab.

If a mukātab draws up a kitābah for his slave and the upper master dies, leaving children who were themselves born under the same kitābah, and the father’s mukātab pays his instalments to those children, he is freed, yet his walaʾ belongs to their father’s master, not to them—whether the manumission