al-Bara' bin Azib bin al-Harith · The Chapters on Pawning

“If one of us did not need his land, he would give it (to someone else to cultivate) in return for one third, or one half of the yield , and he would stipulate (that the should receive) the produce grows on the banks of three streams, and the grains that remain in the ear after threshing, and the produce irrigated by a stream. Life at that time was hard, and he would work (the land) with iron and whatever…