Legal document: AIU XII.173
Legal document AIU XII.173Description
Recto: Long, calligraphic legal document in Arabic, from Cairo (مصر المحروسة), dated October 1649 CE (7 Shawwal 1059 AH). It bears seven signatures along the side, a seal at the top, and perhaps the scribe's name at top left (الامر كما ذكر فيه حرره الفقير اليه سبحانه احمد ال . . .). The seal may be that of the Ottoman governor in Fustat/Cairo (Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha?): (. . . بين يدي متوليها سيدنا ومولانا الحاكم الشرعي الذي سيقع خطه الكريم اعلاه). The main protagonists are (1) al-Amīr Yūsuf b. (the late) Muḥammad, the provincial governor/inspector of the vilayet of Gaza (the word for provincial governor is kāshif—see Michael Winter, "Re-emergence of the Mamluks," in "The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society," p. 92); (2) a certain Abū Turābī; and (3) al-Muʿallim Muṣliḥ b. Binyamil (i.e. Binyamin) al-Yahūdī al-Rabbān al-Ṣarrāf [...] bi-l-Dīwān al-ʿĀlī. The document addressed numerous matters, chiefly financial; it requires deeper examination. Verso: There is a legend in Judaeo-Arabic on the outermost fold of the folded document (חוגת אלאמיר יוסף. . . ). There are also several Arabic supplements to the document on recto, at least the upper two referring to al-Muʿallim Muṣliḥ al-Yahūdī.