State document: Bodl. MS heb. b 18/23
State document Bodl. MS heb. b 18/23Tags
Description
Petition to the Fatimid ruler Sitt al-Mulk. Dating (Rustow): 411–14/1021–24. In which an official of a congregational mosque, perhaps the chief khaṭīb, complains about delayed payments to the deputy khaṭīb Mūsā b. Azhar. The tenants of the pious foundation (ḥabs) of the mosque have fallen in arrears and owe about ten dinars for the period ending Rajab 415 AH (September 1024). He requests that a decree (manshūr, line 11: literally, an open letter, a decree without a seal) be issued to the governor (ʿāmil) and administrator (mutawallī) of the district that housed the mosque asking them to help the deputy, Mūsā b. Azhar, by supporting his efforts to extract payment from the tenants; by sending him money directly; and by generally enforcing the terms of the trust. The scribe who copied the biblical passages has glued this petition to another petition to Sitt al-Mulk, ENA 3974.3 (PGPID 19304), to form a single rotulus. This fact suggests that the two petitions may have survived together in an archive (Rustow). A small triangle of the Bodleian petition has remained attached to the JTS petition. (Information from Marina Rustow's analysis and edition.) A note on images: The FGP image of the Arabic side acquired from the Bodleian has cut off a few lines of the Arabic text and needs to be replaced. The image in Rustow, BSOAS 2010, is complete, but in black and white. The fragment was later rephotographed in color for Rustow, "The Fatimid Petition," Jewish History 2019. The FGP photo of the Hebrew-script side is complete. MR
Edition: Rustow, Marina
Translation: Rustow, Marina (in English)
Bodl. MS heb. b 18/23 23 recto
Transcription
Marina Rustow, "A Petition to a Woman at the Fatimid Court (1022–23 CE)," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 73, no. 1 (n.p.: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 1-27.Translation
Marina Rustow, "A Petition to a Woman at the Fatimid Court (1022–23 CE)," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 73, no. 1 (n.p.: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 1-27.Bodl. MS heb. b 18/23 23 verso
Verso
- بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
- لمولاتنا السيدة الكريمة خلد الله ملـ[ـكها وحرس عـ]ـزها وادام عـ[ـلاها]
- وكبت اعداها في اصطناع المعروف وفعل الخير
- عواىد الله سبحانه ينشر لها شكرها ويذخر لها اجرها وملفوفة
- الجارية في ديوانها لا زال مأمولا بدوام سلطانها مسجد جماعة
- وله احباس تصرف منها عشرون دينارا في كل سنة لمن يخطب ويقيم الدعوة العالية
- ويصرف فاضلها في مصالح المسجد واجرة قيّمه ومُوذنه ولعبدها
- خليفة على الخطابة بها يعرف بموسى بن ازهر وحضر في هذا
- الوقت فشكى تاخر جارى الخطابة واستحكام طمع السكان في المداعفة به
- واختلال هذا الحبس وذكر ان الباقي عند السكان الى سلخ رجب سنة خمس عشرة واربع ماىة
- نحو من عشرة دنانير وعبدها يسل الانعام بمنشور من حضرتها
- المحروسة الى عامل الناحية ومتولي حمايتها بالاشد على يد هذا المذكور
- في استخراج هذه الاحباس فيما يسلف ويستأنف وتقوية امره ومعاضدته
- وموازرته والعناية به في جميع ما يعود بمصالح المسجد الجامع
- ولامنع من اعيانه ومدافعته او تطرّق خلل على هذا الحبس لتكثر الدعا
- لَها في هذه الايام الشريفة ولها الرأي العالي في ذلك ان شا الله
- [وا]لحمد لله وصلواته على محمد النبي واله الطاهرين وابناء عترته الائمة المهتدين وسلم تسليما
verso
- (Iftitāḥ: protokoll) In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.
- To our mistress, the noble lady, may God make her dominion eternal, secure her high rank, perpetuate her loftiness
- and crush her enemies. In (return for) the bestowal of a benefaction and the rendering of a benefit
- the beneficence of God, transcendence be to Him – may her thanks be disseminated for her and her reward stored up for her.
- (Matn or baʾdiyya: expositio) Included in what is administered in her dīwān – may it continue to be filled with the perpetuity of her reign – is a communal mosque
- with pious foundations from which twenty dīnārs are distributed annually to the person who preaches and upholds the lofty daʿwa.
- Their remainder (i.e. of the income from the foundations) is distributed for the repair of the mosque and the salary of its superintendent and its mu’adhdhin. And her slave
- has a deputy charged with the office of preaching it (i.e. the daʿwa), known as Mūsā ibn Azhar. Recently he presented himself
- and complained about the delay of the income for the office of preacher and about the strong desire of the tenants to defer it
- and dissolve this foundation. And he mentioned that the debt owed by those living there until the end of Rajab in the year 415 is
- about ten dīnārs. (Qiṣṣa or ruqʿa: petitio) Her slave asks for a benefaction in the form of a decree (manshūr) from her Presence,
- may she be preserved, to the governor of the district and the administrator of its jurisdiction, strengthening the hand of the aforementioned (preacher)
- in extracting (income) from these foundations according to what came before and what will resume, strengthening his affair, assisting him,
- aiding him, and being solicitous towards him in everything that occurs regarding the repairs of the congregational mosque,
- protecting its property and defending it, or in any occurrence of injury to this foundation, so that prayers for her may be abundant
- during these days of (her) illustriousness. (Ḥukm or marsūm: dispositio) The exalted resolution in this matter belongs to her, if God wills.
- (Khawātim: eschatokoll, including ḥamdala and taṣliya) Praise be to God and His prayers be upon Muḥammad the prophet and his pure family, and the sons of the Prophet’s descendants, the rightly guided imāms, and save them.
