Petitions from the Ayyūbid period

Abstract

During all periods of Islamic history, subjects with a grievance were free to address petitions to the ruler, one of whose traditional functions was to remedy injustice personally (al-naẓar fi'l-maẓālim). From Egypt we have a series of extant petitions from the Middle Ages. The practice of the Fāṭimids has been described in the detailed commentary accompanying my edition of three petitions from the time of that dynasty; the information which can be derived from the documents is there completed by accounts in literary sources. Here I publish all those petitions from the Ayyūbid period which are known to me. In another study I hope to perform the task carried out for the Fāṭimid period for the Mamlūk period also, comparing the detailed statements of the historians with the extant documents. For the Ayyūbid period there are no detailed descriptions of the procedure followed in submitting petitions, and the little which is known will be set out in the course of our discussion.

Popular politics in the Medieval Middle East

“…In addition to violent outburst and riots, popular politics was sometimes also expressed in the form of petitions to higher ruling authorities—including the sultans—to intervene and redress wrongs. Literary sources give some scant references from this process but suggest that it was a common, indeed age‐old, tactic by subject populations (Elbendary, ; Stern, , , ). More references to petitions are available for the Ottoman period due to the survival of state archives (Faroqhi, ; Ginio, ; Lafi, ; Singer, ).…”

A copy of a decree from the archives of the Fāṭimid Chancery in Egypt

“….., which is used by the copyist to introduce the validating 'aldma is also found in a clerical note on the reverse of an Ayyubid petition. 70 This is a report by a clerk of the result of a search in the archives for a decree which had been issued eleven years previously. He reproduces the text of the decree, adding at the beginning the statement: thabata bi-'a'ldhu al-aldma al-'dliyya al-malakiyya al-'ddiliyya khallada allah sultdnah ' headed by the exalted motto of al-Malik al-'Adil-may God prolong his might '.…”

Une requête (petition) au calife fatimide al-Ḥākim bi-amr Allāh (Rémondon 1, musée du Louvre)

“… 10 Khan (1990a : 26–7 ; 1993 : 307–8), qui se réfère à – ou discute – Ibn Muyassar (1919 : 142) ; al-Qalqašandī (1903–18 : VI, 651–2) ; Richards (1973 : 141, 151, 157) ; Stern (1962 : 182–3, 206 sq . ; 1964a : décrets n° 5 à 7 ; 1964b : 7) ; des documents de la Geniza TS et des inscriptions fatimides ; enfin, Goitein (1982 : 57). …”