Legal document: T-S Ar.41.77

Description

Bottom of a legal document. Dated: Dhū l-Ḥijja 504 AH = June/July 1111 CE. Appears to be a conversion certificate for a Jewish man and woman converting to Islam: اليهودية من اهل الجزيرة المذكورة على دين ابويهما دين اليهودية . . . ويسلما باختيارهما بال . . . الشريفة ال . . . . والهداية ال . . . لاسلام عملا . . ذلك ووفا بموجب . . . . . . . . في صدر الاسلام . . . . موافقة ذلك لمذهبه ومعتقده . . . . الكتاب المعظم ايات الائمة . . . . افضل الصلاة والسلام . . . . The date and ḥasbala are written in large characters toward the bottom. Much of the scholarship on legal certificates of conversion to Islam has focused on formularies rather than actual documents. E.g., see Linda Jones, "Notarial Forms for the Conversion of Non-Muslims to Islam, by Ibn al-ʿAttār (d. 399/1008)," in Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age (ed. Nimrod Hurvitz), University of California Press 2020. This document merits further examination. ASE