وثيقة رسميّة: T-S H2.83

الوصف

Official report addressed to a Fatimid vizier. The addressee's titles (sayyid al-wuzarāʾ tāj al-aṣfiyāʾ qāḍī l-quḍāt dāʿī [l-duʿāt ʿalam al-majd] khalīl amīr al-muʾminīn wa-khāliṣatuhū) are attested by al-Maqrīzī as titles of the vizier al-Yāzūrī (r. 1050–58 CE) (see https://shamela.ws/book/176/580 and see al-Imad, The Fatimid Vizierate, 181–83). The sender confirms receipt of the addressee's letter dated 28 Rabīʿ I which arrived together with the letter from al-Amīr al-Muʾayyad ʿUddat al-Imām Muṣṭafā al-Mulk Muʿtazz al-Dawla regarding "the Damascene appointment" (al-tawẓīf al-dimashqī); the same phrase appears in Moss. II,230 (PGPID 35521). This al-Amīr al-Muʾayyad is Abū l-Mukarram Ḥaydara Muʿtazz al-Dawla b. ʿAḍb al-Dawla b. (al-)Ḥusayn b. Mufliḥ, who ruled as amīr of Damascus under al-Mustanṣir 441–50 AH (1050–58 CE) and again for a second term 453–55 AH (1061–63). (Some sources provide his laqab as Muʿīn al-Dawla or Muʿizz al-Dawla instead of Muʿtazz al-Dawla, however this document confirms that Ibn al-Qalānisī's Muʿtazz al-Dawla is the correct version. Some sources provide his kunya as Abū l-Karam. Finally, some sources report Ḥusayn as the name of his father rather than that of his grandfather.) Ibn al-Qalānisī states that al-Muʾayyad arrived in Damascus with the decree of appointment at the beginning of Rajab 441 AH = Nov/Dec 1049 CE, but that he did not assume power (tasallama al-wilāya) until 442 AH, which began in May 1050 CE (see https://shamela.ws/book/22799/165). Given that al-Muʾayyad appears in this document together with a vizier who is most likely al-Yāzūrī in the context of official documents confirming an appointment in Damascus, it is probably not coincidental that his assumption of power coincided with al-Yāzūrī's assumption of power as vizier in Cairo in Muḥarram 442 AH = May/June 1050 CE. Based on these deductions, the letter (or decree or rescript) from the vizier mentioned in l. 5 was likely dated 28 Rabīʿ I 442 AH = 20 August 1050 CE. The rise of this al-Muʾayyad Ḥaydara to the governorship of Damascus is mentioned also in T-S 13J26.13 (PGPID 1076), as discussed in Gil, History of Palestine, 406n57 and Rustow, Lost Archive, 255n22. On verso there is Hebrew text in a rudimentary hand (possibly the same reuser as T-S Misc.22.300 (PGPID 35960)).