Arabic (عبد مكاتب) for a slave (abd) who earned his/ her freedom after having agreed to make a future payment to the master. That is, the freed slave usually entered into a sort of agreement with the master so that a specific amount of money was to be paid by the former to the latter during a specific period of time at the end of which the former was finally freed from slavery.

This was usually done by installment, and in some cases the master forewent payment on the last installment, totally or partially.