State document: T-S Misc.22.286

Description

Petition opening to a vizier of al-Ḥāfiẓ. Dating: 531–33/1137–39. Al-Ḥāfiẓ had three viziers: the general Yānis (for nine months in 526/1132), Bahrām (529–31/1135–37 and Riḍwān (531–33/1137–39) (see Ibn Muyassar, Akhbār Miṣr, 117–31, Ibn Ẓāfir, Akhbār al-duwal al-munqaṭiʿa, 98–99). Khan believes the vizier addressed in the petition is likely Riḍwān ibn Walakhshī because the titles correspond to the ones bestowed on him by al-Ḥāfiẓ in a document copied by al-Qalqashandī (Ṣubḥ VIII, 345): al-sayyid al-ajall al-afḍal amīr al-juyūsh sayf al-islām nāṣir al-ānām kāfil quḍāt al-muslimīn wa-hādī duʿāt al-muʾminīn. The title of Bahrām, attested in no. 5 of Stern’s corpus of Fāṭimid decrees, was al-sayyid al-ajall amīr al-juyūsh sayf al-islām nāṣir al-imām ghiyāṯ al-ānām. The phrases kāfil quḍāt al-muslimīn wa-hādī duʿāt al-muʾminīn were omitted from his titulature, probably because he was Christian. The titulature of the ephemeral Yānis was no doubt similar. Al-Maqrīzī (Ḵiṭāṭ II, 16) records his title as amīr al-juyūsh sayf al-islām. Ibn Muyassar (Aḵbār Miṣr, 117) and Ibn al-Qalānisī (Dhayl tārīkh Dimashq, 229) describe him as amīr al-juyūsh. On verso there is a Hebrew liturgical text. (Information from Khan.)