State document: Bodl. MS Heb. d 66/13

Description

State document, probably a letter of official correspondence, in Arabic script. Sent by an official with the title ʿĀzim al-Dawla. An order from al-Ḥaḍra al-Majīdiyya (probably al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Majīd) granted the sender an exemption (?) from customs tax (maks) for the goods arriving on a royal Nile boat "al-ʿushārī al-malik/al-malikī" on government business (shaʾn al-dawāwīn). The addressee didn't honor the order and hence the sender rebukes him the rebuke of friends "fa-aʿtibhu ʿatb al-aṣdiqāʾ". The last two lines are difficult to contextualize but an attempted interpretation could be - with the command of the overseer of his business/accounts, someone wrote from the dīwān regarding what is obligatory on the different types of taxes. YU. Reused for Arabo-Hebrew jottings of the Hebrew Psalms, as well as Ezra 1:9. (For more on transcribing Hebrew Bible into Arabic script, see Geoffrey Khan, Karaite Bible Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah: Cambridge University Press, 1990). On verso there is a text in Hebrew with (Masoretic?) "traditions and mnemonics" (מוסרות וסימנות) written by Shemuel b. Sahl the teacher for Saʿadya b. Shelomo. Multiple different hands (likely of both teacher and student).