A Bilingual Protocol Text Mentioning The Caliph Al-Walīd - Egyptian National Library Inv. No. 66, 95-96 AH / 714-715 CE

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First Composed: 18th December 2005

Last Modified: 19th December 2005

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)

(b)

Figure: (a) Picture of the papyrus and (b) the content of the papyrus.

[] encloses letters supplied to fill a lacuna.

Date

95-96 AH / 714-715 CE.

Size

15.5 cm x 23 cm. Yellow-brown, in several places darker coloured, coarse cardboard-like papyrus. The text of the protocol, written in blackish brown ink, occupies the first sheet of the roll entirely. On the reverse there are two lines of a Coptic text written in black ink across the horizontal fibres.

Accession No.

Inv. No. 66.

Contents

The translation of text is given below. The Arabic text is in italics:

  1. [In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful]
  2. [In the na]me of God, the
  3. [Compas]sionate and Merciful
  4. [There is no] god but God alone, Mu[ḥammad is the Messenger of God].
  5. [There] is no god but God alone,
  6. [Maa]met is the Apostle of God.
  7. The servant of God, Al-Walīd, Com[mander of the Faithful]
  8. [The servant of God] Alulid
  9. [Commander of the Faith]ful

Comments

The cartouche of the perpendicular writing on the right hand side contains δ and below this is the figure ιγ meaning the thirteenth indiction, 714/15 CE [lines 8 and 9 of Fig. (b)].

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 100:3.

[2] C. H. Becker, "Das Latenische In Den Arabischen Papyrusprotokollen", Zeitschrift Für Assyriologie Und Verwandte Gebiete, 1909, Volume 22, p. 178.

[3] A. Grohmann, Arabic Papyri In The Egyptian Library, Volume I, 1934, Egyptian Library Press: Cairo, No. 11, pp. 20-21.

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