State document: Moss. IXa,2.37

Description

State document, in Arabic script. The perfumers/druggists (ʿaṭṭārīn) of Fustat petition the Ayyubid sultan al-Malik al-Ṣālīḥ (Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb, r. 1240–49) about the injustice of the notables (ʿurafāʾ) who are associated with the construction of "the garden of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ." [According to al-Maqrīzī, al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ purchased the garden of the amīr Ḥiṣn al-Dīn Ibn Thaʿlab in Rajab 643 AH = Nov–Dec 1245 for 3000 dinars and converted it into the maydān al-Ṣāliḥī with belvederes over the Nile, one of whose gates was Bāb al-Lūq; see al-Khiṭaṭ, III, p. 212 (https://shamela.ws/book/11566/1253) and p. 346 (https://shamela.ws/book/11566/1253).] In the petition, the perfumers complain that their trade has been affected, and their money has been unfairly confiscated: “The slaves, druggists/perfumers of Fusṭāṭ, are oppressed by the injustice of the ʿurafā (notables) in the construction of the garden of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ, may God glorify him, and they have been affected in indescribable magnitude by the voiding/disrupting of business arrangements (qaṭʿ al-muṣālaḥāt). They demand from us a raṭl for the sake of [or: "of something"]... 20 raṭls, and they go and sell it... al-Dīn 3000 dīnārs. There remained neither Jew nor Christian..." Although "qaṭʿ al-muṣālaḥāt" provides a plausible reading, and the letter read as lām is indeed very tall, the letter read as nūn would be better read as ʿayn, suggesting that the scribe intended to write قطع المصانعات. This would mean "the extorting of payoffs" (or protection money?) as appears verbatim in T-S Ar.41.49 (PGPID 8278), another perfumers' petition. Several other attestations of the stock phrase قطع المصانعات are listed in the description for T-S 13J6.30 (PGPID 1179). It is notable that the sum of 3000 dinars mentioned in the final line is exactly the sum which al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ paid for the purchase of this bustān from Ibn Thaʿlab according to al-Maqrīzī. Perhaps he had tasked the ʿurafāʾ with raising the funds from the perfumers of Fustat, who resented this. Otherwise, it's unclear why the perfumers of Fustat should have anything to do with this garden in Cairo, as they were not particularly close in geographical terms. Two additional documents shed light on the background here: ENA 3971.6 (PGPID 10772) and ENA 3968.12 (PGPID 10670) are orders issued by al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ to the ʿarīf of the perfumers, ordering specified weights of commodities "for the bustān of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ." All three document merit further study. ASE