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The Letters of Al-Mustansir bi'llcāh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Ḥusain F. al-Hamdānī
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Extract

In the archives of the Da'wat of the Yemen and India a collection of royal letters and decrees (sijillāt) issued by the Fātimid Khalīfa al-Mustanṣir bi'llāh (denoted in the following pages by the letter M.) (died A.H. 487 = A.D. 1094) to the Sulaihids of the Yemen has been preserved, and a manuscript containing this collection of documents has now been acquired by the Library of the School of Oriental Studies, London. The MS. is a modern copy, which belonged to an Ismā'īlī priest in India. I have searched in vain for other copies, but it is quite likely that we might find others in the collections of the Ismā'īlī in the Yemen and India. I give in the following pages a synopsis of the historical matter contained in these documents. Apart from their interesting literary style the letters furnish us with some useful historical data and contemporary evidence for the period covered by them, viz. the forty-four years from A.H. 445 = A.D. 1053 to A.H. 489 = A.D. 1095.

Type
Papers Contributed
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1934 , pp. 307 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1934

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References

page 307 note 1 'Umārā also gives another date, viz. A.H. 473, which is supported by al-Janadī and Ibn . In my note on page 508 of JECAS., vol. xviii, part 4, October, 1931, I have used the latter date, depending upon 'Umārā and al-Janadī, but in the light of the contemporary evidence of the Sijillāt, the date could not be other than A.H. 459.

page 308 note 1 See my article, JRAS., Jan., 1932, p. 135, and Encyc. of Islam, s.v.

page 309 note 1 This Risāla is a polemical treatise written by al-Āmir bi ahkāmi'llāh to support his father al-Musta ‘lī’s and his own claims to the of M. against the contentions of Nizār and his followers. (See also Nos. 35 and 43.) The Risāla is preserved by the Da'wat and an edition of the text is under preparation.

page 322 note 1 The text has whereas in No. 42 it is said that these honours were sent to Mukarram with these agents While Mukarram was still living, these could only have been sent to him may perhaps be the copyist's mistake.