THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL REASONING 279

(D) This opinion was, however, open to the objection: 'What of the husband's stock-in-trade if it consists of articles used by women?' Under the influence of this objection, Abū Yūsuf (and 'others' as Shaibānī informs us) went some way back towards opinion (A).

(E) A systematic progress was achieved with the decision to divide those chattels which do not typically belong to men or to women, equally between husband and wife, on the strength of their joint possession; this doctrine grew out of opinion (C); it is attested for Zufar and others, was also ascribed to Ibrāhīm Nakha'ī, and was taken over by the Zaidī Shiites who attributed it to 'Alī.

(F) Other Iraqians, finally, extended this consideration to all chattels, whatever their nature; they were followed by Shāfi'ī who supplied excellent systematic reasoning.

The Koran says in Sura xxiv. 33: 'And those in your possession who desire a writing, write it for them if you know any good in them, and give them of the wealth of Allah which He has given you.' The hearers were supposed to know the details of the legal transaction referred to, and a strict interpretation of the passage suggests that it was not identical with the contract of mukātaba which Muhammadan law, from the early second century A.H. onwards, found outlined here.¹ Under a mukātaba contract, the master allowed his slave to purchase his freedom by his own earnings in instalments; this slave was called mukātab. The ancient lawyers were concerned with embodying the commendation of the mukātaba contract, as they found it in the Koran, in positive legal norms.

Their earliest efforts were arbitrary, such as the decision that the mukātab becomes free as soon as he has paid half the stipulated amount,² or the decision, attributed to 'Aṭā' and probably authentic, that he becomes free as soon as he has paid three-quarters.³ Presumably authentic, too, is the information that 'Aṭā' considered it obligatory on the master to conclude a mukātaba contract with his deserving slave, although 'Aṭā'