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.

所谓的esip-tabal合同是一种特殊类型的农业交易，从汉谟拉比法典和在苏萨发现的阿卡德法律文本中得知。阿卡德语短语esip-tabal是田地所有者向另一方（通常理解为租户）所作的陈述。现代学术首先将这种契约解释为租约。后来它被认为是一种敌对贷款，即债权人接管债务人的农田作为抵押的贷款。然而，这种契约在长期的法律史上的地位仍然未知，学者们也没有对其他法律文化进行类比。使用比较法律史的方法，特别是借鉴伊斯兰法，本文对esip-tabal合同作为未来作物的销售。然后，本文讨论了合同背后的基本原理及其可能延续到以后的时期。