4 - Paramonar manumission as tadbīr

Summary

Manumission documents are poorly represented in the Islamic no less than in the Greek papyri (cf. above, Chapter 5, note 16). Only three Arabic manumission documents have turned up so far, and only two of these are complete (cf. A. Grohmann, ‘Arabische Papyri aus den staatlichen Museen zu Berlin’, Der Islam 1935, p. 28; the claim that P. Cair. B. E tarīkh no. 1900 is a kitāba is not correct). None of them dates from the formative period of Islamic law, but P. Berlin 13,002 (a.d. 916), published by Grohmann, ibid., pp. 19ff, is nonetheless of considerable interest. The crucial lines are reproduced as follows in Grohmann's publication (p. 19):

1. 4 innī a ‘taqtuka ‘an dursatī bi-khidmatī mā ‘ishtu

2. 5 fa-idhā muttu mā ha[yyān] Mubārak ḥurr li-wajh Allāh wa'l-dār al-ākhira, lā sabīl ‘alayka iliā sabīl

3. 6 al-walā', fa-inna walā' aka lī wa-liman varithuhu ‘annī…

If we follow Grohmann (pp. 24f), this means:

1. 4 If have freed you from my discipline in my service as long as I live.

2. 5 If I die while [you are al]ive, [you] Mubārak shall be free for the sake of God and the hereafter. Nobody shall have any claims on you except by way of

3. 6 walā'; for your walā' belongs to me and whoever inherits it from me…

In fact, however, neither the transliteration nor the translation can be entirely right.