Document 1 is alaissez-passerissued by Sultan Badi III to the Franciscan missionaries Theodoro Krump and Antonio della Terza on their departure from Sinnār on 1 May 1702. The translation given here is derived from Krump’s travel account, where he calls it a “Copy of the letter of recommendation given to me and Father Antonio della Terza in Arabic by the king, which I have translated into German with my own hand.”¹ (The explanatory comments in parentheses were added by Krump himself.) The probable authenticity of the king's letter and the general accuracy of Krump’s translation are supported by...

Document 2 is a confinning charter issued by Sultan Bādī IV during Rajab 1141 (31 January to 1 March 1729) to Faqih Muhammad walad al-Shaykh [Abū . . . ] concerning the estate of al-Daqāqāt and to Faqīh Hammad concerning a purchased property. The text is based upon the photocopy published by Sadik Nur.¹ This is the earliest extant dated charter from Sinnār. One of its functions is to give royal sanction to the sale of land between private individuals, a precaution characteristic of the early days of private property in Sinnār.² Noteworthy is the presence at court of the...

Document 3 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Bādī IV to Faqíh Bishāra b. al-Faqīh ‘Ali b. Bursī in 1145/1732-1733. The text has been derived from a partial copy preserved in Ahmad b. Ismā‘īl al-Azharī’s manuscript entitledKhulᾱsat al-iqtibᾱs fi ittisᾱl nasabinᾱ bi’l-Sayyid al-‘Abbᾱs.¹ The author of this genealogical work wrote that he was copying the charter letter by letter from an original document in his possession at that time, but he did not claim to have reproduced the entire document; indeed, he specifically mentioned the existence of seals and introductory materials which were not copied. Comparison with other...

Document 4 is a charter containing a ruling of theqᾱdῑof Sinnār ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, issued in Sha‘bān 1145 (17 January to 14 February 1733). The text is based upon a copy prepared by EI Fatih EI Houssein EI Hasan.¹ The ruling illustrates a common theme of the Heroic Age in Sinnār, the gradual extinction of the landholding rights of women under traditional terms of tenure in favor of aggrandizing middle-class landowners through purchase, with the support of theqᾱdῑ, and the sharῑ‘a.² (The unusual dependence of this early eighteenth-centuryqᾱqῑ, upon the witness of royal courtiers has been noted.)...

Document 5 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Bādī IV to Faqih Muḥammad b. al-Faqīh Ahmad b. al-Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahīm “The Seller of Rain” in Sha'bān 1145 (17 January to 14 February 1733). The text is derived from a photocopy published by Sadik Nur.¹ Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahīm was a younger contemporary of Bādī II b. Rubāt; he was a disciple in Sufism to Shaykh Muhammad b. Īsā “Suwwār al-Dhahab” in the Gezira, where his landholding was probably located.²...

Document 6 is an originating charter issued by theamῑn aI-sultūnRahma b. Yūnus for Shaykh Ya‘qūb b. al-Shaykh Muhammad Zayn on 23 Dhu’I-Iijja 1146/27 May 1734; Sultan Bādī IV subsequently confirmed this grant (Doc. 7). The text is based upon a copy preserved in the papers of A.J. Arkell.¹ The beneficiary was a member of the community offuqarᾱ’of the Ya‘qūbāb living near “Huggag” (al-Hujjāj), about five miles west of the Blue Nile near Wad el Haddad Station.² This document gives a glimpse of the procedure through which a grant was implemented; an emissary of the donor demarcated...

Document 7 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Bādī IV to Shaykh Ya’qūb b. Muhammad Zayn on 1 Muharram 1147/3 June 1734; it confirms the grant of theamīnRahma (Doc. 6). The text is based upon a copy preserved in the papers of A.J. Arkell.¹ The appearance of thekhaṭīb‘Abd al-Laṭīf among the courtiers of this early roster tends to identify him with the party of the young king’s maternal uncle. After Bādī assumed personal power, he killed ‘Abd al-Latīf in 1170/1756-1757, and to Bādī's opponents, this execution provided a degree of justification for his ensuing overthrow.² a...

Document 8 is an originating charter issued by Sultan Bādī IV to Faqīh al-Sayyid [b.] ‘Abd al-Hādī b. al-Shaykh Muhammad walad Dōlīb. The text was taken from the original by the editors.¹ The top of the document, probably bearing theinvocatio, is truncated; so is the bottom line or lines containing the name of the scribe and the date. A fragment of the lower right-hand corner is also missing. The beneficiary was a member of the prominentfuqarā’family, the Awlād Dōlīb.² The grant included the bestowal of asāqīyalandholding, probably in or near the village of al-Kadarō, on...

Document 9 is an originating charter issued by Sultan Bāīdi IV to Faqīh Muhammad al-Sayyid b. al-Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hādī b. Muhammad in 1156/1743-1744. The text was taken by the editors from the original.¹ The top of the document, bearing part of theinvocatio, is damaged, and a fragment at the lower right-hand corner is missing. The grant includes the village of the Awlād Dōlīb at al-Kadarō....

Document 10 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Bādī IV to Faqīh ‘Abd al-Hādī walad Muhammad walad ‘Abd al-Hādī walad Dōlīb in Rajab 1157/10 August - 8 September 1744, renewing his rights to the homestead (zarfba) of his forefather Muhammad walad Dōlīb. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The document is worn around the periphery with some loss of text on all sides; one large fragment at the lower right-hand corner is missing, as is a second containing the first half of eight lines near the beginning. Noteworthy is the inclusion of “selling” and...

Document 11 is a colophon concluding a Qur’ān manuscript and dated 9 Sha’bān 1159/27 August 1746; it was prepared in Sinnār for donation by Sultan Bādī IV to Faqīh Muhammad al-Hājj Sa‘d, leader of thefuqarᾱ’ community of the ‘Abābsa of Nādī in the Rubãtāb country. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ This royal donation is one expression of Sultan Bādī’s vigorous policies in support offuqarᾱ’ following his personal assumption of power in 1156/1743-1744.²

The ‘Abābsa Qur’ān consists of a set of unbound pages, some of them illuminated, housed in a hand-tooled case...

Document 12 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Badi IV to Faqīh ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. al-Faqīh Khōjalī in Rajab 1166/4-31 May 1753, bestowing upon him a grant that included the land in which Shaykh Khōjali was buried. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ A fragment at the center of the bottom of the document is missing. The site of the grant lay on the east bank of the Nile immediately below the confluence within modern Khartoum North, where the tomb is to be found today. The eminent early eighteenth-century holy man Shaykh Khōjali b....

Document 13 is an inscription on a copper kettledrum preserved in the family of the Funj sultans. According to A.E. Robinson, “Mek [Sultan] Nasr, the lineal descendent of Mek Badi [VI] the Fung Sultan who surrendered [to the Turks in 1821] possesses a nehas [naḥās] or copper drum . . . . Tradition states that this drum is the original Fung drum and [that] the gold was removed in times of stress by the persons into whose hands it passed.”¹ The text reads:...

Document 14 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Nāsir b. Bādī to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 15 Dhu’l-Qa‘da 1175/7 June 1762. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is intact and easily legible.¹ The witness roster illustrates the changes in court personnel that immediately followed the Hamaj coup of 27 March 1762; conspicuous is the prominent position accorded the new Regent (wazīr) Muhammad Abū Likaylik. The roster gives a large number of places to minor noblemen entitled Arbāb, and reveals that some of these had begun to identify themselves in patrilineal terms; indeed,...

Document 15 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Nāsir b. Bādī to Faqīh Muhammad walad Daf Allāh in the month of ṣafar 1177/11 August - 8 September 1763. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The latter is in fragments; the top lines containing most of theinvocatioare missing, and a segment containing about five lines of the opening protocols and the beginning of the body is also lacking. Damage to the right margin has removed part of the names and titles of several witnesses. The estate granted was probably located in the northern...

Document 16 is a nullifying charter issued by Sultan Nāsir for the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 7 Jumāda I 1179/22 October 1765 against al-Jallī walad Walad Umm Maryūm. The text has been taken by the editors from a copy written down in 1910 during the course of the land registration program of the Condominium government; only the latter portion of the copy survives.¹ The document introduces the theme of rivalry for preeminence among the community of Ma/: las settlers near the Nile confluence on the part of several families offuqarᾱ’.The senior among these aspirants was Faqīh Arbāb al-‘Aqāyid...

Document 17 is a letter from the Hamaj Regent Muhammad Abū Likaylik to Arbāb Bādī b. al-Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh. The text was taken by the editors from the original, which is damaged around all the margins; fragments bearing theinvocatioand the seal have been detached from the rest of the document.¹ The letter is not dated, but may be placed within the regency of Abū Likaylik from 1762 to 1774.² It is addressed to a nobleman from the ruling family of Qarrī, and probably a son of the late governor ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Ajib (Docs. 4, 5, 8, 9,...

Document 18 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Ismā‘īl b. Bādī to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjali on 11 Rabī‘ I 1184/5 July 1770. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is intact and easily legible.¹ The charter confirms the rights of the Khōjalīb to Jundīya Island (Doc. 14). The witness roster reflects the situation at court following the killing of Bādī IV on his return from exile and the collapse of Sultan Nāsir's unsuccessful revolt against the Hamaj that soon followed. The regicide ‘Ali walad Hasan had been replaced as Shaykh of Atbara, Muhammad...

Document 19 is alaissez-passerissued by Sultan Ismā‘īl b. Bādī to the traveler James Bruce in 1772. An English translation was published by Bruce‘s biographer Alexander Murray, and this is given here.¹ The sultan explained that Bruce, known as “El Hakim Yagoube,” came from Ethiopia (“Habbesh”) and wanted to go to Upper Egypt (“Rif”); he should be given what he needed for the journey. The letter is addressed to Ibrāhīm walad Musnad, the first leader of the Jamū‘īya to be elevated to the status ofmakk, as part of the Hamaj attempt to cripple the Shaykhs of Qarrī by...

Document 20 is alaissez-passerwritten for James Bruce in 1772 by the Shaykh of al-Baḥr, ‘Adlān. walad Ṣubāḥī. The English translation provided by Bruce’s biographer Alexander Murray is given here.¹ The document is addressed to the senior leader of the Jamū‘īya, Musnad (mentioned in thesanctioof Doc. 10); both Musnad’s father, and his son and successor (Doc. 19), were named Ibrāhīm. At the time of Bruce’s visit to Sinnār, the Regent Abū Likaylik himself was absent on campaign in Kordofan, while his son Ibrāhīm served as governor of the capital city, and his friend Shaykh ‘Adlān, encamped with...

In the name of the most merciful God, the Lord of both worlds. Blessing and peace be upon our Lord Mahommed, his family and friends, the supporters, who are majestic, pure, illustrious, and radiant.

[The seal with the inscription on it above-mentioned.]

May it come with the sprinkling of the dew of perfume, scented with ambergris and odours, to the presence excelling in bounty, that speaks virtue and piety, the fountain of excellence and perfections, the spring of honours and favours, the horse that first reaches the goal, the chief of the masters of exalted eloquence, whose way of life...

Document 22 is a charter issued to several notables of the Hamrān, among them Shaykh 'Alī walad Mahmūd walad Kuwayn, on 27 safar 1188/9 May 1774. The text has been taken from the version published by al-Tayyib Muhammad al-Tayyib, apparently based upon an imperfect copy of an original document.¹ The opening of the body of the document is missing, so that it may not be established whether it originates or confIrms a grant, and several minor infelicities of expression raise small questions about the accuracy in detail of the published text. The land granted may have been located in the...

Document 23 is a confirming charter issued by the Hamaj Regent Bādī walad Rajab to Shaykh Barakāt walad Maduwī on 24 Sha‘bān 1192/17 September 1778. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The document is truncated at the top, and the opening protocols are missing. The charter confirmed the administrative authority of Shaykh Barakā t,²khalifato Shaykh Idrīs walad al-Arbab,³ over the lower Blue Nilefuqarᾱ’settlement of al-‘Aylafūn. The charter also bestowed upon thefaqῑhthe right to sponsor a market, a privilege ordinarily reserved to the territorial nobility.⁴ The scribe identified the location...

Document 24 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan ‘Adlan b. Ismā‘īl to Faqīh Ismā‘īl b. Muḥammad b. Arbāb al-‘Aqayid and his sister Sittinā on 1 Dhu‘l-Hijja 1194/28 November 1780. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, supplemented by material from an early copy preserved as a companion to the somewhat tattered original by its keepers.¹ The charter confirms a grant to a prominent descendant of the seventeenth-century holy man Arbāb al-‘Aqāyīd,² whose settlement was located at the Nile confluence on the site of modem Khartoum.³ The terms of the grant are unusually detailed; they include...

Document 25 is a confIrming charter issued by Sultan ‘Adlān b. Ismā'il to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 17 Dhu’l-Hijja 1195/4 December 1781. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is easily legible and intact except for minor fraying with loss of a few letters along the right edge.¹ The charter confirms the grant of Jundīya Island to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī. After a review of previous litigation (Docs. 14, 18), the document describes the rejection of a new challenge along the eastern boundary of the estate. The witness roster reflects the relative tranquility of...

Document 26 is a charter issued by Ibrāhim b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik concerning a dispute over land between Ḥājj Ḥāmid walad ‘Awūda and ‘Ubayd walad Idrīs. The text has been taken by the editors from a photocopy of the original.¹ The document is truncated at the bottom; only the opening protocols and the beginning of the body are present. The charter was written after the death of Abū Likaylik in about 1188/1774-1775 and before the execution of Ibrāhīm at the beginning of 1200/1785; it was probably issued between 1782 and 1785, when Ibrāhīm governed the town of Sinnār on behalf...

Document 27 is a charter issued on 6 Jumāda II 1203/4 March 1789 to Faqīh Muḥammad walad Dā'ūd of Kitra, confrrming his right to lands his family had held under sultanic grant since the reign of Bādī II. The text has been taken by the editors from Neil McHugh’s study of a nineteenth-century copy.¹ The beneficiary was a member of the Ya‘qūbāb community of the ‘Abbūd area, and a prominent personal supporter of the late Muhammad Abū Likaylik.² It is noteworthy that neither the name of the charter-issuing benefactor (presumably the incumbent Regent Nāṣir b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik) nor the...

Document 28 is an originating charter issued by Sultan Bādī v to ‘Awadal aI-Karim “Abū Sinn,” Shaykh of the Shukrīya, on 12 Rabī’ I 1206/9 November 1791. The text has been taken by the editors from a photocopy of the original, which is intact and easily legible.¹ The grant, probably ordered by the incumbant Regent, Nāsir b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik, followed by some years the successful revolt of the Shukrīya against the Hamaj in 1193/1779-1780, and acknowledged theirde factoindependence by bestowing their tribaldārupon the rebel leader. The grant, much larger than any other recorded, included a...

Document 29 is a letter from the Regent Nāṣir b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik to his governor of the northern province, Bādī b. Mismār. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is damaged around all the margins with some loss of text.¹ The letter warned Bādī against tolerating transgressions against the island of al-Karīda, land of the Awlād Dōlīb; a similar warning concerning the sarne property had been issued by Abū Likaylik himself (Doc. 17). Since Bādī seems to have issued Doc. 51 late in 1794 in response to this request, it is probable that the...

Document 30 is a confirming charter issued by ‘Adlān b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik to Faqīh Muhammad walad Dā'ūd of Kitra on 26 Muharram 1210/12 August 1795. The text has been taken by the editors from Neil McHugh's study of a nineteenth-century copy.¹ The document confirms the rights of the Faqih Muhammad to ancestral lands, probably those described in greater detail in Doc. 27. It rejects the claim of challenging litigants, who had . previously and unsuccessfully pressed their suit before theqāḍī, Sharif ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. At the time ‘Adlan issued this charter he was not yet Regent, but the litigants...

Document 31 is a letter from the Regent Nāṣir b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik to Faqīh al-Amīn al-Majdhūb of al-Dāmir. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is truncated at the top; the seal and part of the opening protocols are missing.¹ The letter is not dated, but it may probably be placed in the year 1797, when the faltering Nāṣir made an appeal for support to leading holy men of the kingdom.²...

Document 32 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Ranfā b. Bādī to the Awlād Dōlīb during 1213/1798-1799. The document has been taken by the editors from the original, which is damaged around the margins with some loss of text.¹ The charter reflects the compromise arranged during 1798-1799 by the new Regent Idris b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik with the rebel Muhammad Kamtūr, a powerful claimant to the office of Shaykh al-Bahr. Kamtūr had advanced Ranfā as an anti-sultan to Idris’s incumbent, Bādī VI; to make peace, Idrīs deposed Bādī, invested Ranfā, and appointed Kamtūr Shaykh of al-Bahr. One benefiCiary of...

Document 33 is a charter issued by theqᾱdῑ, Sharīf ‘Umar b. Ibrahim on 16 Muharram 1214/20 June 1799. The text has been taken by the editors from a miniscule copy of the original preserved in the photographic collection of the Sudanese Ministry of Culture and Information; when enlarged the photograph reveals an intact and easily legible document.¹ The charter records the foreclosure by the judge on a mortgage held by Arbāb Farah walad Muhammad, possibly Faraḥ walad Abū Ẓahr, some of whose private business papers are also found in the Ministry's photographic collectlon.² The land mortgaged was agricultural rainland...

Document 34 is a letter from the Regent Idrīs b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik to the leaders of the Majadhib community of al-Daāmir. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is truncated at the top; the seal and most of the opening protocols are missing.¹ The document is not dated, but circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that it was issued during Idrīs’s northern campaign,² and probably in 1216/1801-1802.³ The members of the defeated war party are described as “Kunjāra,” certainly meaning Fūr-speaking westerners, but probably followers of Hashim of the Kordofan Musabba'at rather than men under the...

Document 35 is an originating charter issued by Muhammad b. ‘Adlān b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik; the text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is intact and easily legible.¹ The document records a grant to Faqih Ahamad b. ‘Īsā of the estate of Umm Hawāya, located on the west bank of the Blue Nile adjoining the village cemetery of Altī, near the modem al-Masīd. The beneficiary held the unusual office ofal-faqīh al-kabīr, or “Great Faqih” of Sinnār.² Document 42 is an originating charter issued by Husayn b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik; it records his grant of the...

Document 36 purports to be a grant by a Hamaj authority to Ahmad al-Basīr, the last independent Shaykh of the Halāwiyin, consisting of land where he lived. A very imperfect English version was recorded by G.B. Tame.¹ The charter is not dated. The issuing authority was not the sultan, nor was it “Mohammed Likeilik.” As Tame’s informants elsewhere made clear, the Hamaj authority contemporary to Shaykh Ahamad was Muhammad b. ‘Adlān b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik.² The object of the grant was apparently Shaykh Ahmad’s village, which probably lay in the Ḥalāwidᾱr, along the Blue Nile near al-Tumayd

“This title...

Document 37 is the text of a seal of the court official Wāwrit b. Hārūn, recorded by G.B. Brocchi and dated 1218/1803-1804.¹ In his diary entry for 25 February 1826, Brocchi wrote: “I have seen today an iron seal of Wāwrit Hārūn, of the race of the Funj, secretary to the King of Sinnār. In the Plates is given an impression taken from the original.”² Wāwrit was the last serving member of the family who had dominated the offices ofamīnandjundīthroughout the eighteenth century. Brocchi was told correctly that the seal itself dated from the reign of...

Document 38 is an originating charter issued by Muḥammad b. ‘Adlān b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik to Faqīh Muhammad ‘Ali walad al-‘Abbās on 10 Muharram 1228/13 January 1813. The text is based upon a copy preserved in the papers of A.J. Arkell.¹ The charter conveys rights to land near the modern village of Wad al-‘Abbās, in the southern territories of the Walad ‘Ajib between the Blue Nile and the Dinder about fifteen miles north of the capital. The Regent Husayn confirmed this grant through the issue of Doc. 39 a few days later. The two charters reflect the relatively tranquil...

Document 39 is a confinning charter issued by the Regent Husayn b.Muhammad Abū Likaylik to Faqīh Muhammad ‘Ali al-‘Abbāsī on 12 Muharram 1228/15 January 1813. The text is based upon a copy preserved in the papers of A. J. Arkell.¹ Document 39 confirms the grant of Muhammad ‘Adlān recorded in Doc. 38.

P.M. Holt has adduced arguments to the effect that Docs. 38 and 39 must have been issued not in 1813, but in 1808, firstly because he believed that “three of the persons mentioned Hassān and Farajallāh in [Docs. 38 and 39], Husayn w. ‘Iwadllāh in [Doc. 38] only)...

Document 40 is a confirming charter issued by Sultan Bādī VI to Madanī walad Farah on 13 Dhu‘l-Qa‘da 1230/17 October 1815. The text has been taken by the editors from a miniscule copy of the original preserved in the photographic collection of the Sudanese Ministry of Culture and Information; when enlarged, the photograph reveals an intact and easily legible document.¹ The land conveyed was riverbank property, probably in the vicinity of the capital. The purpose of the grant was to exclude the brothers of the beneficiary from landholding rights they might otherwise have obtained through inheritance.

The witness roster reflects...

Document 41 is confmning charter issued by Sultan Bādī VI to Muhammad al-‘Araki walad ‘Abd al- ‘Ali, his Shaykh of Bayla (Doc. 40). The land conveyed probably lay east of the Blue Nile and north of the capital along the lower course of the Rahad. The original document was sent by Shaykh Muhammad Zayn b. al-Shaykh al-Rayyih al- ‘Arakī to Samuel Hillelson for photocopying in Khartoum, probably in 1928, but neither the original nor the photocopy has been located. The version given here is an English translation preserved in “The Arakiin,” by ‘Abd Allah Effendī EI Shafie, 8 August 1928.¹...

Document 42 is an originating charter issued by the Regent Husayn b. Muhammad Abū Likaylīk to Faqīh Ahmad b. ‘Īsa on 27 Rabī’ II 1235/12 February 1820, bestowing upon him the estate of Umm Hawāya. For the controversial relationship between Doc. 42 and another grant of the same property by Muhammad b. ‘Adlan b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik, see the introduction to Doc. 35. The text has been taken by Dr. Abū Salim from a copy in the handwriting of the early twentieth-century Sudanese historian Muharnmad ‘Abd al-Rahim.¹ The copyist has omitted some of the opening protocols. The witness roster bears...

Document 43 is a letter issued by Muhammad b. ‘Adlān b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik late in 1820 or early in 1821 during the course of the Turkish invasion of Sinnār. The text has been taken by the editors from a photocopy published by al-Shāṭir Busaylī ‘Abd al-Jalīl.¹ The present letter, probably one of many similar calls to resistance issued by the GreatMānjilat this moment of Crisis, was directed to the leader of a community of holy men of the north-central Gezira.²...

Document 44 is an originating charter issued by the northern provincial governor Ḥammad b. ‘Ali, nicknamed “al-Simayḥ,”¹ to Faqīh Khōjalī. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.² The grant conveyed rights to two riverbank properties, probably near the Nile confluence, and it also released the community of Mahas settlers on Tūtī Island from obligations to the government. Document 44 is not dated, but may be the earliest extant charter from Sinnār. It may be placed with certainty within the lifetime of Shaykh Khōjalī, who died in 1155/1742-1743.³ It probably antedates the earliest extant charter issued by...

Document 45 is a letter from Hammad b. ‘Ajib to Faqīh Khōjalī . The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ Hammād, nicknamed ?ẓilf al-‘ijlor “Calfs Foot,” was remembered in later years as a successful general in the service of his father, ‘Ajib b. Muhammad al-‘Ajayl; however, the present document provides some indication that he may also have succeeded ‘Ajib as governor of the northern province, as did his brothers Badi and ‘Abd Allāh,² though perhaps his tenure was brief. Document 45 was written before the death of Shaykh Khōjalī in 1155/1742-1743.³ Since ‘Abd Allah,...

Document 46 is a charter issued by Faqīh Ḍayf Allāh, theqāḍīof Shaykh ‘Ajib b. ‘Abd Allāh of Qarrī, on 4 Rabī‘ II 1181/30 August 1767. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed at the bottom and along a fold through the middle of the document.¹ The charter contains the judge’s ruling concerning a longstanding dispute between the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī and their neighbors the Awlād Walad Umm Maryūm (Docs. 12, 16).The circumstances in which this litigation took place, and which occasioned the subsequent addition of the personal endorsements found at the...

Document 47 is a confirming charter issued by the Shaykh of Qarrī ‘Ajib b. ‘Abd Allāh to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 19 Sha‘bān 1181/10 January 1768. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is intact and easily legible.¹ The charter confrrms the ruling of the judge Dayf Allāh recorded in Doc. 46, and explains why additional endorsements were added following the original ruling; one may note that the seal of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, the qādī of Sinnār, must have been added at an even later date than the present document of 1181, for the judge’s...

Document 48 is an originating charter issued by Hamm ād b. ‘Arabi, Shaykb of the Dāniyāb, to Faqīh al-Sayyid b. ‘Abd al-Hādī b. Muhammad walad Dōlīb. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed across the bottom with some loss of text. An unusual feature are the characters used in lieu of a seal.¹ The land conveyed probably lay in the vicinity of the settlement of the Awlād Dōlīb. at Kadarū, though not on the riverbank. Document 48 was issued before Doc. 49, which confirms it, and therefore dates to the tenure of Shaykh...

Document 49 is a conftrming charter issued by the Shaykh of Qarrī ‘Ajib b.‘Abd Allāh to Faqīh al-Sayyid b. ‘Abd al-Hādī b. Muḥammad Dōlīb, ratifying the grant of his subordinate Ḥammad b. ‘Arabī (Doc. 48). The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed across the bottom with some loss of material.¹ Circumstances suggest that Doc. 49 may have been issued during ‘Ajib’s ftrst period of rule in Qarrī rather than his second (Docs. 47, 48)....

Document 50 is an originating charter issued by the Shaykh of Qarrī Muḥammad al-Amīn b. Mismār to Faqīh Muḥammad b.al-Sayyid walad Dōlīb. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed across the bottom with some loss of text.¹ The property bestowed was island land on the west bank of the Nile a short distance below the confluence. The date of the charter is lost; however, since the roster of provincial courtiers closely resembles that of 1768 (Doc. 47), it is likely that the document was issued not long thereafter.² Document 58 confirmed this grant....

Document 51 is a confirming charter issued by the Shaykh of Qarrī Badi b. Mismār for the Awlād Dōlib on 2 lumāda II 1209/25 December 1794. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is damaged at the lower right comer with some loss of text.¹ The document was issued in response to a command of the Regent Nāṣir b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik (Doc. 29), and struck down the claims of rival litigants. Several of the latter represented contending branches of the maturing and rapidly segmenting new princely patrilineage of late eighteenth-century Qarrī, whose rivalries kept...

Document 52 is a confirming charter issued by Arbāb Abū Bakr b. Sulaymān, Malik of the Jamū‘iya, to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is damaged across the bottom with some loss of characters.¹ The charter is not dated, but may be assigned to the reign of Arbāb Abū Bakr; this had not yet begun in 1206/1791-1792 and was over by 1798.² It is likely that Abū Bakr died in battle with Hashim of the Musabba‘at in 1796, and that Doc. 52 was issued during the period 1206/1791-1792 to 1796.³...

Document 53 is a confirming charter issued by the Shaykh of Qarrī ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Ajib to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 7 Muḥarram 1213/21 June 1798. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The charter records one episode in the longstanding dispute between the Khōjalāb and their neighbors introduced in Doc. 14....

Document 54 is a confirming charter issued by the northern provincial governor ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Ajib to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 18 Ramadān 1214/13 February 1800. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The charter documents one episode in the longstanding dispute between the Khōjalāb and their neighbors introduced in Doc. 14. The present document raises important questions about contemporary legal procedure in Qarrī. It is a charter at customary law, issued by the secular ruler, but it is paired with a parallel and corresponding Islamic document issued by Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh’sqādī, Muhammad walad...

Document 55 is a charter issued by theqāḍīof Qarrī Muḥammad al-Nūrb. Dayf Allāh to the Allād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 18 Ramadān 1214/13 February 1800. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed around all the edges.¹ It forms one of a pair of documents, discussion of which may be found above in the introduction to Doc. 54....

Document 56 is a confirming charter issued by Arbāb Ibrāhīm b. Nāyil, Malik of the Jamū‘īya, to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 16 Jumada II 1215/4 November 1800. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The present document may be seen as a sequel to and support for the rulings contained in Docs. 54 and 55....

Document 57 is a letter from the northern provincial governor Nāsir b. Muhammad al-Amīn to the populace of the district of Berber, announcing the deposition of their district governor ‘Alī walad Mustafā and the appointment of his successor Nāsir al-Dīn. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The letter was probably written during the northern campaign of the Regent Idrīs b. Muhammad Abū Likaylik between 1800 and 1802.²...

Document 58 is a confirming charter issued by the northern provincial governor Nāsir b. Muḥammad al-Amān to the Awlad Dōīb on 27 Ṣafar 1215/20 July 1800. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The present charter confirms the grant recorded in Doc. 50....

Document 59 is an originating charter issued by the northern provincial governor Nāsir b. Muhammad al-Amīn at the request of Faqīh Ahmad b. ‘Īsā on 17 Muharram 1224/4 March 1809. The text has been taken by the editors from the photocopy published by Dr. ‘Īzz al-Dīn al-Amīn.¹ The document contains two grants. By the first, the governor excused the obligations of six men. The obligation (‘aẓm) of each of the men named consisted offardatayn subā‘iyāt,probably meaning two pieces of homespun cotton cloth seven cubits (about fifteen feet) in length.² The assessment of a tax in the form of...

Document 60 is a confirming charter issued by the northern provincial governor Nāsir b. Muhammad al-Amīn to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī on 4 Dhu‘l-Qa‘da 1226/20 November 1811. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The charter records one episode in the longstanding dispute between the Khōjalāb and their neighbors introduced in Doc. 14. Documents 60 and 61 form a pair of rulings, comparable to Docs. 54 and 55, issued respectively by the Shaykh of Qarrī and hisqāḍīafter hearing the same case at the same time in the same place. Consideration of both will be...

Document 61 is a charter issued by theqāḍīof Qarrī Dar Allāh b. Dayf ayf Allāh; it contains a ruling favorable to the Awlād al-Shaykh Khōjalī in the longstanding dispute with their neighbors introduced in Doc. 14. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is truncated at both top and bottom, and frayed along either side with significant loss of text.¹ The date of the charter is missing, but internal evidence clearly indicates that it forms a pair with Doc. 60, and may therefore be assigned to 4 Dhu’l-Qa‘da 1226/20 November 1811. Further discussion...

Document 62 is a charter issued by Qāsim walad Muḥammad, Shaykh of the Ḥalawīyīn, at al-Tumayd, in 1204/1789-1790. The text has been taken by the editors from a photocopy of the original.¹ The document is intact, but the closing protocols are crowded into a very small space at the bottom, and are written in a miniscule hand, so that some readings of the final portion are uncertain. Document 62 is the second of a pair, with Doc. 26, concerning the rival claims of two litigants to land that probably lay on the west bank of the Blue Nile slightly below...

Document 63 is an originating charter issued by Arbāb Idrīs b. Muḥammad al-Faḥl, governor of Shandī, to Faqīh Ḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Majdhūb. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed around the edges and damaged along a fold below the middle of the document, with considerable loss of text.¹ The document was issued in 1168/1754-1755, on a Wednesday, the twenty-eighth day of a month whose name may have begun with the lettersal-; a likely possibility would be Wednesday, 28 [Dhu’]l-Qa’da 1168/5 September 1755. One impression of the seal is visible below theinvocatio,...

Document 64 is an originating charter issued by Arbāb Muḥammad b. Nimr, governor of Shandī, to Faqīh al-Amīn b. Ḥammad al-Majdhūb on 12 Sha bān 1208/15 March 1794. The text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is frayed along internal folds with some loss of text.¹ The lands donated lay on both banks of the Nile in the vicinity of al-Dāmir. The present document was issued at a time when the Makk of Shandī was the last surviving major figure in the royalist movement that had sought to oust the Hamaj and restore the kings.² a...

Document 65 is an originating charter issued by Arbāb Naṣr al-Dīn b. al-Ṣādiq for Faqīh al-Amīn b. Hammad al-Majdhūb and his brother Faqīh al-Tayyib in 1216/1801-1802. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹ The land bestowed lay in the vicinity of al-Dāmir. The charter was issued during a period of confusion and civil war in the Middle Nile area, after the conquest of Shandī by ‘Adlān b. Muḥammad Abū Likaylik and before the division of the district of Shandī into separate east bank and west bank governates later in 1216/1801-1802.²...

Document 66 is a confirming charter issued by Arbāb Mulfammad Musā‘ad b. Sa’d for Faqīh Ibrāhīm al- Hawwā b. ‘Abd al-Salām on 10 Safar 1220/10 May 1805. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹...

Document 67 is a charter issued by Arbāb Nirnr b. Muḥammad, governor of Shandī, for the Awlād al-Faqīh Ḥammad al-Majdhūb on 14 , safar 1228/16 February 1813. The text has been taken by the editors from the original.¹...