Discover the meaning of the term Al-ktaba (كتابة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIt is said, in the literati's usage, for composing prose, as nathr (prose) is said for composing verse; the apparent is that this is what is meant here, not penmanship.
The manumission of the slave, his hand at once and his neck at the term, such that the owner has no way against his earnings.
In language: one of its meanings is, in Persian, 'neveshtan' (writing). In the Sharia: the freeing of the slave as to hand and disposal at once, and as to neck upon payment of the wealth. This contract was named kitaba because it means joining; in the mukataba the hand's freedom is joined to the person's freedom, or because in it is a joining between two stars and more, or because each of the contractors, that is, the owner and the slave, customarily writes the document
In language: joining and gathering; from it 'al-katiba' for the great army, and 'al-kutub' for the gathering of letters in writing. In law: freeing the slave, his hand at once and his neck at the term: meaning upon payment of the substitute; from it: 'the slave's manumission for a determined sum.' The kitaba is more specific than itq (manumission), for it is manumission for wealth, its meaning: that a man write to a man: 'I have sold you a horse, for instance, with such a description, for such an amount'; the letter reaches the one written to, who says in his gathering: 'I bought,' and the sale occurs, for addressing the absent is writing, as though he were present in person; and it is more specific than tabligh; from it 'kataba al-mizad' when its two sides are joined by the beads, and 'al-kutub' the place of the beads; its plural: kutub. Dhu al-Rumma said: 'and scabbards of Ghurfa whose beads crumble, tattered-sided, between which are the stitches.' (Bada'i' al-Sana'i', 5/138; al-Nazm al-Musta'dhab, 2/111; al-Matla', p. 316; al-Rawd al-Murbi' of al-Bahuti, p. 376; al-Thamar al-Dani, p. 454; Fath al-Wahhab, 2/242; al-Ta'rifat, p. 161; Mu'jam al-Mughni, 10/333, 12/338; al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya, 1/116, 29/265).
The attachment of manumission to the payment of a determined sum.
In law: it is the manumission of the slave, his hand at once and his neck at the term, until the owner has no way upon him; when he pays the kitaba's substitute he is freed at the term, and upon inability it reverts to slavery.