وثيقة رسميّة: ENA NS 18.26

الوصف

Response to a letter of complaint concerning taxation of the Jews of Tiberias. The letter refers to a sijill mukarram (noble decree) of the caliph in response to a petition from Sibāʿ b. Faraj the Jew in which he explained that in the past, some have paid a capitation tax (jizya) of 5 dirhams in regular installments (bi-rasm thābit), some have paid 10, and some have been exempt as Khaybarī Jews. The Jews of Tiberias have the receipts (baraʾāt) to prove this. But now someone mentioned in the missing upper portion of the petition, presumably a tax-collector or other local official, has shown "greed toward us" and "strengthened his hand in oppressing us and demanding of us extreme humiliation (or rather: seeking our harm [adhāʾ]) in overcharging jizya payments." Sibāʿ b. Faraj may be Hillel b. Yeshuʿa (Gil). This document is the middle part of three sheets that were attached. Dating: ca. 1030 CE (Gil), or at least ca. 1020–50, since it was reused by Efrayim b. Shemarya. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 453–54, #249, and from Marina Rustow)