Scholarship on State document: St. Catherine, Atiya no. 962, Stern doc. 8

1. In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
2. This is an open decree, the order for the writing of which was given by the servant of our master
3. and lord the Imam al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh,
4. Commander of the Faithful (God’s blessings upon him),
5. his pure ancestors and expected descendants),
6. the Most Excellent Lord, the Pious King, Helper of the Imams,
7. Averter of Misfortune, Commander of the Armies, Sword of Islam,
8. Succour of Mankind, Protector of the Kadis of the Muslims,
9. Guide of the Dāʿīs of the Believers, Abū ʾl-Ghārāt
10. Ṭalāʾiʿ al-Fāʾizī; and [he ordered] to include in it as follows:
11. Whereas it is part of our noble qualities to remove innovations
12. and obliterate their traces, prevent their continuance
13. and insist on prohibiting them, to guard those of
14. the People of Protection who are included in the zone of our kingdom
15. and so to treat them as to cover them with the cloak
16. of compassion and mercy—
17. so that great and small have equal share of our justice
18. and be encompassed by our care
19. which eases all difficult and hard pursuits; and whereas it has been reported
20. in our presence that Anthony, bishop
21. of Mount Sinai, complains of the oppression of the governors
22. and their tyrannical actions
23. and of their demanding of him a newly-invented tax,
24. to wit ten dinārs and two carpets,
25. and that this harms him and the monks who are with him,
26. and that the insistence upon it oppresses them;
27. we were displeased with those who perpetrated such things and blamed
28. such behaviour, and our order was issued that
29. this open decree contain a command about the total abolition of this tax
30. and that it should not be demanded and exacted from this bishop,
31. and that he be granted protection,
32. care, and help, and be treated with extreme
33. honour and all his business eased;
34. and that neither he nor any of his monks be charged with fines
35. or damage, and that he be dealt with according to the rules of fairness
36. and the best of arrangements.
37. Let all amīrs, the governors
38. in the fortresses of al-Ṭūr (may God prolong their glory)
39. who read this or to whom this is read, act accordingly
40. and follow its ruling and beware of transgressing it.
41. Let it be kept by him who delivers it as evidence for its contents,
42. if God wills. Written in the month of Rabīʿ the Second,
43. in the year Five-hundred Fifty-one.

44. Praise be to God alone and may God bless our lord Muhammad and his family and may He give them peace.

     

45. God is sufficient for us; how excellent a Keeper is He!

Registration marks between lines 41 and 42

1. Let it be copied in the auspicious Fāʾizian Office if the Chamber, if God wills.
2. It has been copied; praise be to God - the praise of those who are grateful to Him.