A Wheat Receipt Issued By Two Officials Of The Granary At Babylon (Old Cairo) - Egyptian National Library Inv. No. 126, 87 AH / 706 CE

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First Composed: 17th December 2005

Last Modified: 17th December 2005

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)

(b)

(a) Papyrus Inv. No. 126 and (b) its transcription.

[] encloses letters supplied to fill a lacuna

Date

Dhūl-Qaʿdah, 87 AH / October-November, 706 CE.

Size

30 cm x 14.7 cm. Bilingual papyrus. The Arabic text is written in on the recto in black ink at right-angles to the horizontal fibres; the Greek text running in the same direction is written in the brown ink. The verso is blank. Unfortunately, the right half of the papyrus has disappeared. The portion actually preserved is in some places worm-eaten and broken, but generally in a good state of preservation.

Accession No.

Inv. No. 126.

Contents

The translation of text is:

  1. [Arabic] ] numbering among the people of the town of ... [
  2. ..] ... artabas and sevente[en]
  3. artab[as] of wheat, which they both have received in full in the barns
  4. [for the corn-tax (embolé) of the year] eighty-[seven],
  5. [and] ʿAbdallāh b. Jarīr [has written it] in Dhūl-Qaʿdah
  6. [of the year] eighty-[se]ven.
  7. [Greek] In the name of God. ʿUmar, son of Abip, and [.... the superintendents]
  8. of the public barns at Babylon, to you peo[ple of ...]
  9. You have delivered to us for the present 5th indiction through the .... [ ]
  10. of the village 617⅔ artabas of wheat, six hundred and sev[en]teen [and two thirds]
  11. Phaphi of the 5th indiction. .....[
  12. 7 (?) [y
  13. That makes 617⅔ artabas of wheat,
  14. [Arabic] the amount] thereof (being) six hundred and seventeen and two thirds of artabas of wheat.
  15. [Greek] 617⅔

Location

Egyptian National Library, Cairo.

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References

[1] B. Moritz (Ed.), Arabic Palaeography: A Collection Of Arabic Texts From The First Century Of The Hidjra Till The Year 1000, 1905, Publications of the Khedivial Library, No. 16, Cairo, Plate 101.

[2] A. Grohmann, Arabic Papyri In The Egyptian Library, Volume IV (Administrative Texts), 1952, Egyptian Library Press: Cairo, No. 286, pp. 242-245.

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