Codex Hammurabi 49–52 and the esip-tabal Contracts from Susa

Abstract

The so-called esip-tabal contract is a particular type of agricultural transaction known from Codex Hammurabi and the Akkadian legal texts found in Susa. The Akkadian phrase esip-tabal is a statement made by the owner of the field to the other party, which is commonly understood to be a tenant. Modern scholarship first interpreted this contract as a lease. Later it was considered an antichretic loan, a loan in which the creditor takes over the debtor’s agricultural land as security. However, the place of this contract in the long-term history of law is still unknown and scholars have not made any analogies from other legal cultures. Using the methodology of comparative legal history, and drawing especially on Islamic law, this essay offers a new interpretation of the esip-tabal contract as a sale of future crops. The essay then discusses the rationale behind the contract and its possible continuity into later periods.