State document: T-S NS 145.22

Description

State document. Response to endorsement of a petition written by Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth (a Christian), who referred the case to the office of al-Afḍal. Dated: 504 AH (1115 CE). There are four hands on this fragment (lines 1–2, 3, 4–5 and 6–7) Lines 4–5 are presumably in the hand of Yuḥannā himself. On verso there is vocalized Hebrew piyyuṭ (Yehuda ibn Balʿam בזכרי משכבי). There are many joins for the Hebrew with different Arabic texts on recto; all should be looked at together. Khan cites copious sources on Abū l-Barakāt Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth, the head of the Diwān al-Taḥqīq (aka Dīwān al-Majlis), 501–27 AH: "Al-Afḍal established an office known as dīwān al-taḥqīq in the year 501 AH and appointed as its head the Christian Abu al-Barakāt Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth. Yuḥannā remained in this appointment until he was removed in 527 AH and was killed in 528 AH (Ibn Muyassar, Akhbār Miṣr, 77, 108, al-Nuwayri, Nihāyat al-'arab XXVI, 81; al-Maqrīzī, ltti'āẓ al-ḥunafāʾ III, 39, 43, 75, 126, 148, Khiṭaṭ I 441, 488 [= Ibn al-Maʾmūn, Akhbār Miṣr, 21, 11]). The dīwān al-taḥqīq regulated the activities of the other government offices. According to Ibn al-Maʾmūn the office that was instituted in 501 AH and headed by Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth was the dīwān al-majlis (aI-MaqrlzI, Khiṭaț I, 401; Ibn aI-Ma'mūn, Akhbār Miṣr, 9). This appears to be the same office. Some sources, in fact, refer to the office as dīwān al-taḥqīq wa-l-majlis, e.g. aI-Shayyāl, Majmūʿat al-wathāʾiq al-Fāṭimiyya, 325:14. Elsewhere Ibn aI-Maʾmūn refers to Yuḥannā as mutawallī dīwān al-majlis wa-l-khaṣṣ (aI-Maqrlzi, Khiṭaṭ I, 412:3-4, Ibn aI-Ma'mūn, Akhbār Miṣr, 53:1)." The partial reconstruction of the top line does not appear in Khan's edition; it is by Marina Rustow.