وثيقة رسميّة: PUL Garrett Additional 20.12

الوصف

Tax guarantor contract (kafāla wājiba "binding guarantee" or "obligatory surety," line 6). Dated: Dhū l-Ḥijja 431 AH (1040 CE). Two individuals, ʿĪsā ibn Ḥajjāj and Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad, agree to pay the land-tax of a farmer named Ḥifāẓ ibn Ramaḍān in estates (ḍiyāʿ) the name of which have not yet been deciphered. The guarantors ensure that the farmer will appear before the authorities whenever they demand to see him and agree to pay his arrears should he flee, disappear, or fail to meet his tax obligations. The tax year is 429 AH. The document contains standard legal formulae affirming that the guarantors are acting voluntarily, are of sound mind and body, and are not coerced. It also includes a joint liability clause (each guarantor is responsible for the other). There are three witness attestations, including Ramaḍān ibn Ṣubḥ al-Muʾadhdhin (the muezzin). Since the contract is conceptualized as an agreement between the guarantors and the state, the caliph al-Mustanṣir bi-Allāh (r. 1036–1094 CE) appears in the document. The document reflects the Fatimid state's system for ensuring the collection of taxes from agricultural estates by using local intermediaries and guarantors to manage tenant farmers. Item 9 in DPUL (link to image:https://dpul.princeton.edu/catalog/fb494d242).