وثيقة رسميّة: T-S Ar.7.38

الوصف

Fatimid petition. Dating: 422–23/1031–32. Second half of a petition to the caliph al-Ẓāhir requesting the return of a church that had been confiscated by decree of al-Ḥākim to the Christians from whom it was taken. Requests that a decree be issued to the dīwān al-iqṭāʿāt al-murtajaʿa (office of reclaimed fiefs) ordering the payment of a sum of 24 dinars in yearly installments of 6 dinars. Cf. T-S Ar.34.241 (PGPID 20537) and Stern, Fāṭimid decrees, no. 3, a decree issued by al-Ḥāfiẓ in 524H mentioning the dīwān al-istiftāʾ ʿalā al-iqṭāʿāt al-murtajaʿa wa-l-ribāʿ wa-l-ajinna al-sulṭāniyya (office of the inspection of the reclaimed fiefs and government estates and gardens); al-Qalqashandī's reproduction of a document of appointment of the director of the dīwān al-murtajāʿ datable to the same period (Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā 10:357–59); al-Makhzūmī's reference to an office in the Fatimid administration called dīwān al-iqṭāʿāt (the office of fiefs, Kitāb al-minhāj, 70). The scribe has used ihmāl (small letters beneath undotted letters such as hā’ and ‘ayn to indicate that they are undotted) on lines 1, 3, 7, 8, and 15. Ihmāl also appears in T-S Ar. 20.92 (copy of a decree of al-Ḥākim, ed. Khan, ALAD, doc. 115). On verso there are biblical verses with a Hebrew commentary relating the verses to recent historical events such as the Arab conquest. (Information from Khan, ALAD, p. 322, and from Marina Rustow)