State document: BL OR 5552.2–2a

Description

Fragment of a Fatimid state document. Reporting that an official document belonging to an unnamed person (the -hū of kitābuhū) and dated 4 Rajab 523 AH = 23 June 1129 CE was presented somewhere, but it needed to be verified, so two trustworthy witnesses ratified it, presumably in Alexandria. Contains a registration mark at upper right (al-ḥamdu li-llāh ʿalā niʿamih). The ratified document was then sent to a chancery where our writer recorded its contents, and equally importantly, registered the names of the two witnesses who had vouched for its authenticity. One of their names has been preserved: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b Ḥātim b. Ṣadaqa b. ʿUmar. This is a bifolio(?) register destined for the central Fatimid archives. Without more information on person X, and on the nature of this kitāb (was it a receipt, a legal deed, a rescript?), the document remains tantalizing and opaque, but useful as evidence of registration and archiving. Reused on verso for the fihrist (index to the writings) of Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni Gaʾon (one fragment) and for Bava Meṣiʿa 49b (the other fragment: someone buying wine learned that Parzak the vizier was going to confiscate it, so he tried to renege before taking possession of the wine. R. Hisda approved: "just as they instituted 'pulling' with regard to sellers, so did they institute 'pulling' with regard to buyers"). MR/ASE