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An Arabic legal document from the Umayyad period*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Geoffrey Khan
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Extract

The number of Arabic papyri from the first two Islamic centuries that have been preserved is relatively small. Papyri from the third century A.H. are far more numerous and constitute the bulk of most collections. In this paper I publish an Arabic legal document from A.H. 77 (A.D. 707), which is in the Michaelides collection of papyri at Cambridge University Library. It is one of the earliest extant Arabic legal papyri. The document is a quittance (barā’a) drawn up by a certain Sa‘īd ibn Qays al-Dallālī to certify that Jamīla, the freedwoman of ’Umm Hunayda, is cleared of obligation to him after the payment of a sum of seven dīnārs. This sum was delivered as payment for a portion of a house.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 1994 , pp. 357 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1994

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Footnotes

*

Abbreviations: ABPH = W. Diem, Arabische Briefe auf Papyrus und Papier aus der Heidelberger Papyrus-Sammlung (Wiesbaden, 1991); ALAD = G. Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections (Cambridge, 1993); APEL = A. Grohmann, Arabic Papyri in the Egyptian Library, 6 vols. (Cairo, 1934–74); APK = G. Khan, Arabic Papyri of the 7th to 10th Centuries (Oxford, 1993); BAU = Aegyptische Urkunden aus den koeniglichen Museen zu Berlin, herausgegeben von der Generalverwaltung, Arabische Urkunden [ed. L.Abel] (Berlin, 1896–1900); CP A = A. Grohmann and R. G. Khoury, Chrestomathie de papyrologie arabe, préparée par Adolf Grohmann, retravailleé et élargie par Raif Georges Khoury (Leiden-New York-Köln) 1993; DJD II = P. Benoit, J. T. Milik and R. De Vaux, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert II; Les Grottes de Murabba‘ât (Oxford, 1961); EN III = C. J. Kraemer Jr., Excavations at Nessana. Vol. III. Non-literary Texts (Princeton, 1958); JESHO = Journal ofthe Economic and Social History ofthe Orient; Michaelides P. = Papyri formerly in the collection of G. Michaelides, now in the possession of Cambridge University Library; P. Mich. = P. J. Sijpesteijn, The Aphrodite Papyri in the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection (P. Mich. XIII) (Zutphen, 1977); SAPKC = G. Khan, Arabic Papyri. Selected Material from the Khalili Collection (Oxford, 1992); SGEA = S. Hopkins, Studies in the Grammar of Early Arabic, Based upon Papyri Datable to before 300 A.H./912 A.D. (Oxford, 1984).

References

1 I am grateful to the syndics of Cambridge University Library for granting me permission to publish this manuscript.

2 In later documents (from the third century A.H. onwards) the term used for a portion of a house is usually ḥiṣṣa or sahm (literally “share”); cf. al-Ṭaḥāwī, , Kitāb al-ŝurūt al-kabīr, ed. Wakin, in The Function of Documents in Islamic Law (Albany, 1972), text pp. 52–9Google Scholar, Ibn al-Sayrafī, in al-Nuwayrī, , Nihāyat al-’arab fī funūn al-’adab ix (Cairo, 1931), p. 24.Google Scholar The word qiṭ‘a corresponds more closely to the terms used in Byzantine Greek μ⋯ργς and Jewish Aramaic (ḥwlq’) formularies; cf. Mich, P.. pp. 662:18, 665:9Google Scholar, Assaf, S., The Book of Shetaroth of R. Hai Gaon (Jerusalem, 1930), pp. 37–8.Google Scholar Some later Arabic formularies, however, still retain the term qit‘a, e.g. al-Fatāwā al-‘Ālamgīriyya, ed. Calcutta, (1835), vi, p. 427.Google Scholar

3 I.e. the seven dīnārs.

4 June—July A.D. 707.

5 Al-Sam‘ānī, , Kitāb al-’ansāb (Hyderabad, 1962ff), xiii, p. 483Google Scholar; al-Kalbī, , Jamharat al-nasab i, p. 278, ii, p. 589. The vocalization Yaḥṣub is found in some sources.Google Scholar

6 Al-Sam‘ānī, vii, p. 169, xi, pp. 186–90Google Scholar; al-Kalbī, i, p. 277, ii, pp. 236, 518.Google Scholar

7 Al-Kalbī, , jamharat al-nasab, i, p. 176, ii, p. 375Google Scholar; Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, article “Lakhm”

8 Al-Maqrīzī, , Kitāb al-mawā‘ịz wa-l-i’tibār (Būlāq, 1853), i, pp. 297–8Google Scholar; al-Qalqaŝandī, , Kitāb ṣubh al-’a‘ŝā (Cairo, 1903–18), pp. 331–2.Google Scholar

9 SAPKC 9 (A.H. 104), David-Weill, JESHO, XXI, no. 24 (A.H. 123), CPA no. 49 (185). [For abbreviations see the beginning of the article.]Google Scholar

10 The reading of David-Weill must be corrected to faqad bari'a minhā…’ilā.

11 These documents are in the possession of a private collector.

12 Torrey, C. C., “An Arabic papyrus dated 205 A.H.”, JAOS, LVI (1956), pp. 288–92.Google Scholar

13 Cited by al-Ṭaḥawī, , Kitāb al-ŝurūṭ al-kabu, ed. Wakin, , text, p. 15.Google Scholar

14 Ed. Wakin, , text, pp. 3, 15–6.Google Scholar

15 Frantz-Murphy, G., “ A comparison of Arabic and earlier Egyptian contract formularies, Part IV: Quittance formulas”, JNES, XLVII (1988), pp. 269–271Google Scholar, ALAD, p. 24.Google Scholar

16 ALAD, p. 203Google Scholar; al-Ṭaḥāwī, , Kitāb al-šurūṭ al-kabīr ed. Schacht, J., Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 4. Abhandlung (Heidelberg, 1927), p. 31:13.Google Scholar One of the earliest examples from extant documents is found in Michaelides P. B 386 (A.H. 260). See also below. Some documents from the Ottoman period include among the closing formulae the phrase qābiluhu ‘alā nafsihi fulān: “so-and-so accepts it as binding” (see Ebied, R. Y. and Young, M. J. L., Some Arabic Legal Documents of the Ottoman Period [Leiden, 1976], pp. 13, 14).Google Scholar

17 According to the reading of Yadin, , Israel Oriental Journal, XII, p. 254.Google Scholar

18 Goldstein, J. A., “The Syriac bill of sale from Dura-Europos”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, XXV (1966), pp. 3, 7.Google Scholar

19 Cited by Greenfield, J. in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, XV (1992), pp. 11–12, 17.Google Scholar

20 See G. Khan, “T h e pre-Islamic background of Muslim legal formularies”, forthcoming in Aram.

21 The Greek version of this bilingual document, by contrast, does have an autograph witness clause. This is clear evidence that the Arabic legal formularies had a considerable independence from the Greek formulary traditions at this early period; cf. G. Khan, “ T h e pre-Islamic background of Muslim legal formularies”.

22 Al-Ṭaḥawī, , Kitāb al-šurūt al-kabīr, in Wakin, J., The Function of Documents in Islamic Law (Albany, 1972), text, p. 7.Google Scholar

23 Ed. Calcutta, (1835) vi, p. 422.Google Scholar

24 This is n ow in the possession of a private collector in London.

25 E.g. APEL 89 (A.H. 209), APK 187 ( A.H. 210), APEL 126 (A.H. 225), APEL 98 (A.H. 236), APEL 56 (A.H. 239), APEL 114 (A.H. 241), APEL 127 ( A.H. 247), APEL 93 (A.H. 251), Michaelides P.B 601 (A.H. 262), APEL 39 (A.H. 264), Michaelides P.B 287 (A.H. 264), APEL 128 (A.H. 270), APEL 124 (A.H. 271), APEL 129 (A.H. 272), Michaelides P.B 1410 (A.H. 272), APEL 52 (A.H. 274), APEL 41 (A.H. 279), Michaelides P.B 134 (A.H. 280), Michaelides P.B 152 ( A.H. 283), APEL 100 ( A.H. 284), APEL 121 (A.H. 284), APEL 142 (A.H. 298), APEL 143 (A.H. 298).

26 See Meyer, P., Juristische Papyri: Erklärung von Urkunden zur Einführung in die juristische Papyruskunde (Berlin, 1920), pp. 108, 112–13.Google Scholar

27 ‘Iqrārāt are first referred to in the witness formulae of documents from Egypt at the beginning of the third century A.H.: Torrey, , JAOS, LVIGoogle Scholar (a.h. 205, šahida ‘alā ‘iqrā⟨r⟩ fulān, read so!), Michaelides P.B 599 (A.H. 225, šahida fulān ‘alā’ iqrār fulān). The first ’iqrār documents date from the middle of the third century, e.g. APEL 114 (A.H. 241).

28 Kitāb al-šurūṭ al-kabīr, ed. Wakin, , text, p. 7.Google Scholar

29 Some documents have: ‘inda šuhūd hāḏā al-kitāb, see ALAD, 203.Google Scholar

30 ALAD nos. 140–159.