Arabic (مكاتب) for a slave (abd) whose mater agreed to set him/her free by setting a deadline to pay for his/her freedom (in a process known as mukatabah). Historically, mukatib 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. Otherwise, the salve would keep his/her status as a slave as long as he/she owed his/her master even a single dirham.