State document: Bodl. MS heb. d 81/21 + Bodl. MS heb. d 81/20 + Bodl. MS heb. d 81/19 + Bodl. MS heb. d 81/22

Description

Decree, in Arabic script. 6 lines of a chancery document chopped into pieces and then reused to form quires. The line on fol. 19a has been outlined/copied in places and is surrounded by Arabic annotations that may be drafts of formulae. There is also one red line of Hebrew script, the beginning of a ketubba. The other folios were reused for Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic literary text (fol. 21a is headed "a sermon I composed for mourners"). One of the reuses is a poem by Avraham Ibn ʿEzra (d. 1164–67). The decree itself appears to be a rescript/order issued to two inferior officials in response to a petition from a group of foreigners. It reads approximately as follows: "… execution of their affairs, facilitation of their needs, and zeal in all of their dealings, together with assuring them that they will continue in accordance with their habit with bestowing justice upon them and gazing at them with the eye of mercy, so they can be happy of spirit and increase in assurance and stability, for this is the period of their travel and their return to their land[s]. So: know (dual imperative) this and act on it, if God the exalted wills."