State document: T-S Ar.42.177

State document T-S Ar.42.177

Metadata

Shelfmark
T-S Ar.42.177
Primary Language
Arabic

What's in the PGP

  • Image
  • 1 Transcription
  • 1 Translation

Description

State document. Petition to a Fatimid ruler in which the writer asks to be exempted from the payment of his capitation tax (of 1 + 1/3 + 1/4 dinars and a dirham), since lost his sight as a consequence of an eye illness and is now unable to perform his job, while the tax collectors are increasingly pressing. The writer also states that in the past he had been able to pay his capitation tax only thanks to the charitable intervention of the community. Dating: 12th century. On verso there is Hebrew text, possibly liturgical. (Information in part from CUDL.)

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Additional metadata

Collection
Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter
Historical shelfmarks
TS Arabic Box 42, f. 177; TS Arabic Box 42, fol. 177
Input date
In PGP since 2018
Image
Transcription
Translation

T-S Ar.42.177 1r

1r
Geoffrey Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Recto

  1. ويقوم بالجزية الواجبة عليه ومبلغها فى السنة دينار واحد وثلث وربع ودرهم

  2. وفي اكثر اوقاته يتعذر عليه تغليقها الى ان يتصدق له من اليهود اهل طائفته

  3. ما يعينوه به على تغليقها ولما كان الان لحق المملوك مرض فى عينيه فاتلف بصره 

  4. ولم بيق يهتدى على نظر الدنيا ولا التصرف وهلك هو وعايلته جوعا 

  5. وجباة الجزية بمصر ملازميه بالطلب وقد اضر ذلك بحال المملوك وادي الي

  6. تسجينه وهلاكه وعايلته جوعا وانقطاعا خوفا من مطالبة بما لا تصل يده

  7. اليه وحاشي عدل هذه الايام الزاهرة من ان يكون مكفوف البصر صفر

  8. اليدين يلتمس به القيام بالجزية مع استهانته بها بين الطالبين والمملوك

  9. يجدد تقبيل الارض ويسل ويضرع فى خروج التوقيع العالى زاده الله نفاذا

Geoffrey Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

  1. He pays the poll tax that he is liable for, the annual amount of which is one dīnār, a third and a quarter, and one dirham.

  2. At most times it is difficult for him to pay the full amount until Jews of his sect charitably

  3. help him to do so. Recently the slave was afflicted with a disease in his eyes and he lost his sight.

  4. He has no longer been able to look after his wordly affairs nor conduct his profession. He and his family are dying of hunger,

  5. but the collectors of the poll tax in Fusṭāṭ are pressing him for payment. This has caused suffering to the slave and led to

  6. his imprisonment and the wasting away of himself and of his family through hunger and isolation, through fear of being demanded to pay what he cannot

  7. afford. Far be it from these glorious days that an impecunious, blind man

  8. should be required to pay the poll tax and be treated with contempt by the tax-collectors. The slave

  9. kisses the ground again and, humbly asks for the issuing of an exalted rescript, may God increase its efficacy, ...

T-S Ar.42.177 1v

1v
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    Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter, T-S Ar.42.177. Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/18562/, accessed April 20, 2025.
    https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/18562/