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CHAPTER LI, IO-LII, 4.
1
wheat, thus: 'I give this to thee as an instalment (bôn-ae) of five bushels of wheat at the end of a month; and during the month, and at its end, those five bushels of wheat become five times the price; would they authorisedly seize the five bushels of wheat when winnowed (pêk htŏ kardo) by him, through that instalment which he handed over, or not?
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2. The reply is this, that when they who shall take his dirham have to intrust the five bushels of wheat, unsuspiciously and by their own will, to him to winnow, even so as they are advisedly and unsuspiciously winnowed by him they should take them just as winnowed; this is the decision authorisedly given. 3. But when it is winnowed by him on account of very grievous necessity for payment, it is more suitable for the soul to beg the giver of the money, who is the purchasing payer', for some of that excess of undivided (apâr) profit. 4. For he has to consider the profit of his successors as among the profit of money on the spot 3-when more than
gold. It is safer, however, to rely upon the average weight of the Sasanian dirham coins, which, according to Dr. Mordtmann's statement in ZDMG. vol. xii, pp. 44, 45, is about 63 grains, or 5% annas' worth of silver; so that the stîr would be 252 grains or 22 annas. But the actual value of such coins of former times can be ascertained only from the quantity of corn, or other well-defined necessary of life, which they would purchase.
1 K35 has vaban twice in this sentence, but bôn in § 4. M14 alters this word and others, so as to make the chapter unintelligible. The money is supposed to be given merely as a deposit, in acknowledgment of a bargain to be carried out after the corn is ready for delivery.
2 Reading zednunand dûkhtâr, but, perhaps, this is a corruption of zednûnînîdâr, a causer of purchase, a broker.'
That is, 'ready money.'
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