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A petition to the Fāṭimid caliph al-'Āmir

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The document which is published here comes from the Michaelides Collection, formerly belonging to G. A. Michaelides and now in the possession of Cambridge University Library. In addition to a substantial number of Arabic papyri this collection also contains Arabic paper documents. The paper documents are very varying in date, ranging from the Fāṭimid to the Ottoman periods. The present document is a petition from the Fāṭimid period. Some Fāṭimid documents of this type have already been published. Several unpublishedFāṭimid petitions have come to my attention. Most of these are from the Cairo Genizah and will be published as part of a corpus of Arabic Genizah documents. I am publishing the present document from the Michaelides collection separately.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1990

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References

1 Stern, S. M., “Three petitions from the Fāṭimid period”, Oriens XV (1962), pp. 172209Google Scholar, idem, “A petition to the Fāṭimid caliph al-Mustanṣir concerning a conflict within the Jewish community”, Revue des Études Juives CXXVIII (1969), pp. 203–22, Richards, D. S., “A Fāṭimid petition and ‘small decree’ from Sinai”, Israel Oriental Studies III (1973), pp. 140–58Google Scholar, Gil, M., Palestine during the first Muslim period (Tel Aviv, 1983)Google Scholar, II, document nos. 196, 197 [published previously by Stern, , Revue des Études Juives CXXVIIIGoogle Scholar, see above], 249 [published previously by Gil, , Israel Oriental Studies X (1980), pp. 32–3Google Scholar and idem. Zion XLV (1979–80), pp. 284–5], 312 [published previously by Goitein, S. D.,.Jewish Quarterly Review XLIV (1954), pp. 301–2]Google Scholar.

2 G. Khan, Arabic Documents from the Cairo Genizah (forthcoming).

3 Goitein, S. D., A Mediterranean Society, III (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1971), p. 364Google Scholar.

4 E.g. Taylor-Schechter Collection, Cambridge University Library (henceforth T–S) Ar. 51.107 [ed. Stern, , Oriens XV, 182–3]Google Scholar, T-S 28.8* (second document) [unpublished Genizah documents which are marked by a star will be edited in my book Arabic Documents from the Cairo Genizah].

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

6 Little, D. P., A Catalogue of the Islamic Documents from al-Ḥaram aš-Ṡarīf in Jerusalem (Beirut, 1984), pp. 188ff.Google Scholar

7 Little, ibid., pp. 12–13.

8 In addition to those already published I would like to refer the reader to a large number of Genizah documents containing this blessing which I have prepared for publication (to appear shortly in a volume entitled Arabic Documents from the Cairo Genizah).

9 Cf. Goitein, S. D., “Prayers from the Geniza for Fatimid caliphs, the head of the Jerusalem Yeshiva, the Jewish community and the local congregation”, Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica presented to Leon Nemoy on his Eightieth Birthday (Bar-Ilan, 1982), p. 57Google Scholar.

10 Cf. Khan, , “The historical development of the structure of the medieval Arabic petitionBSOAS LII (1990) pp. 830CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Cf. Al-Qalqašandī, , Ṣubḥ al-'A'šā, VI (Cairo, 1914), pp. 186–7, 203Google Scholar.

12 Cf. Khan, , BSOAS XLIX, p. 449Google Scholar.

13 Cf. Al-Qalqašandī, , Ṣubḥ, VI, p. 203Google Scholar; al-Jayš, Ibn Nāẓir, Kitāb taṯqīf at-ta'rīf bil-muṣtalaḥ aš-šarīf (ed.Veselý, R., Cairo, 1987), p. 206Google Scholar.

14 Cf. the articles by Stern and Richards cited above and also my article on “The historical development of the structure of the medieval Arabic petition”.