ثيقة شرعيّة: II Firk. Arab. 1

الوصف

Deed of sale in Arabic script. It "records on its recto the purchase of a portion of a house in Cairo (referred to as al-Muʿizziyyah al-Qāhirah) in 553 AH / 1158 CE. On its verso there are two documents recording the subsequent transfer of its ownership in 555 AH / 1160 CE and 572 AH / 1176 CE respectively. The document II Firk. Arab. 3 (PGPID 40147) records the purchase of the same house in 638 AH / 1241 CE. Richards (1972, 108–112) reports discovering a document in the possession of the Karaite community in Cairo that records the later fate of this same house. According to his description of the document (he does not publish the whole text), it records on its recto the transfer of the ownership of the house in 658 AH / 1260 CE. On its verso various transactions are recorded. There were transfers of ownership in 663 AH /1265 CE and 664 AH / 1266 CE. A deed of waqf indicates that it was established as a pious foundation in 673 AH /1274 CE for poor Karaites of Cairo and Fusṭāṭ. Further deeds of waqf dated 724 AH / 1324 CE indicate the extension of the range of beneficiaries of the waqf. On the verso of the document published here, II Firk. Arab. 1, there is a note in a late (post-15th century) Hebrew hand and late Judaeo-Arabic orthography that reads אצל וקפייא קדים ʾaṣl waqfiyya qadīm. This can be paraphrased as ‘old certificate of sale relating to what has been established as a pious foundation.’" (Information from Geoffrey Khan's edition.)