Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Calendars
- List of abbreviations
- Maps
- Chapter 1 Introduction and historical framework
- Chapter 2 The historical development of the form, content, and administration of legal documents
- Chapter 3 The languages of law
- Chapter 4 The family
- Chapter 5 Capital
- Chapter 6 Sale
- Chapter 7 Leases
- Chapter 8 Labor
- Chapter 9 Slavery in Greco-Roman Egypt
- Chapter 10 The judicial system in theory and practice
- Concordance
- Suggested reading for introductions to papyrology in English
- Glossary of technical terms
- Works cited
Chapter 6 - Sale
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Calendars
- List of abbreviations
- Maps
- Chapter 1 Introduction and historical framework
- Chapter 2 The historical development of the form, content, and administration of legal documents
- Chapter 3 The languages of law
- Chapter 4 The family
- Chapter 5 Capital
- Chapter 6 Sale
- Chapter 7 Leases
- Chapter 8 Labor
- Chapter 9 Slavery in Greco-Roman Egypt
- Chapter 10 The judicial system in theory and practice
- Concordance
- Suggested reading for introductions to papyrology in English
- Glossary of technical terms
- Works cited
Summary
Introduction
In the Egyptian legal tradition the private conveyance by sale was conceived of as an oral agreement between two parties, or two groups of parties, in the presence of witnesses. Property rights were well developed in ancient Egypt before the Ptolemaic period. In order for a person to convey title to a piece of property, an equivalent value had to be exchanged. Thus the Demotic “sale contract” was termed a “document in exchange for silver” (above, 2.2). This basic idea was valid for other types of conveyances, and was at times merely fictional, i.e., an actual exchange of property for an equivalent value did not always occur.
This basic principle of Egyptian law, “notwendige Entgeltlichkeit” (“necessary remuneration”), is paralleled in other ancient Near Eastern traditions. If the surviving record is any guide, there was considerable evolution in the formalities of the written sale in ancient Egypt and, over time, an increase in the use of written instruments of sale. Most conveyances were probably accomplished orally and therefore without need of a document. Before the first millennium bc, most sales recorded in writing simple memorialized oral agreements and were rudimentary.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law and Legal Practice in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab ConquestA Selection of Papyrological Sources in Translation, with Introductions and Commentary, pp. 276 - 338Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014