State document: Moss. IV,210

State document Moss. IV,210

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In PGP since 2023

Description

Fiscal document, Ayyubid. Bifolio. There are holes in various configurations indicating where the thread for the binding used to be. Three of the four pages consist of the Arabic document, while the fourth contains a Hebrew poem by Yehuda ha-Levi. The date appears at the upper left corner of the first page: 5 Ṣafar 570 AH = 5 September 1174 CE. There are four discrete entries on this page and 6 entries on the next page. All or almost all begin with a name, then specify the rent for specific properties, often followed by "al-murājaʿ ʿan {another name}." The epithet "al-Ismāʿīlī" appears several times, and "the neighborhood of the Ismāʿīlīs" (ḥārat al-ismāʿīliyya) at least once. All the entries have an elongated mīm to the left. The final page appears to give the sum (al-jumla) of the entries on the preceding pages. The document is reminiscent of some of the accounts of the (Jewish) Qodesh in this period, which similarly tally rental income; perhaps this kind of document was the model the Jewish communal clerks were following. Needs further examination.