• 1 The papyrological abbreviations used in this paper follow “The Checklist of Arabic Documents”, avai (...)

1The papyrus1 document studied in this paper contains a rare record of a violent street fight between two people. The document tells the story briefly, leaving ample room for interpretation. According to the document, the story goes as follows: a certain al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh, the textile maker/merchant (al-ḫayyāš), passed by a neighbour of his, known as Ḥamdān, who was walking with private parts uncovered (makšūf al-ʿawra) down the street. At that moment a woman was crossing the street too and she saw him in this indecent condition. Al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh expressed to the neighbour his disapproval of this behaviour. Ḥamdān responded violently. He leapt over al-Ḥasan, insulted him overtly and beat him viciously. This mishap took place on Saturday, the 8th of the month of Šawwāl. We know from the document that there was at least one eyewitness. Aḥmad b. ʿImrān, who was for some reason unable to write his testimony himself, testified that he witnessed all this.

• 2 For the prophetic tradition man raʾā minkum munkaran fa-l-yuġayyirahu bi-yadihi fa-in lam yastaṭiʿ  (...)

2In spite of the poor condition of the papyrus, the text reveals interesting information concerning two significant Islamic concerns: 1. the Islamic concern regarding the exposure of the private parts in public (kašf al-ʿawra), and 2. the moral duty of forbidding the wrong (al-nahy ʿan/inkār al-munkar), in our case with tongue (bi-l-lisān) rather than with hand (bi-l-yad) or heart (bi-l-qalb).2

• 3 The term ʿawra has various meanings, depending on the context in which it occurs. The word ʿawra oc (...)
• 4 Johansen, 1996, pp. 75, 80; Lange, 2008, pp. 162, 232–233.
• 5 Lange, 2008, pp. 232–236.

3According to Islamic law, all Muslims, males and females, are obliged to conceal their private parts from the sight of strangers (satr al-ʿawra).3 The degree of preserving the ʿawra differs in accordance with gender and social status in terms of slavery and freedom. While the ʿawra of free males covers only the part between the navel and the knees, free women are required to conceal the whole body except face and hands.4 The exposure of one’s ʿawra is carried over in Islamic penal law. Even in public discretionary punishments, e.g. tašhīr (ignominious public exposure), private parts of the condemned should remain always veiled.5

• 6 The topic is widely discussed by Michael Cook in his massive book, 2004.

4Our papyrus does not tell precisely what parts of the body or degrees of exposure (the knee, the thigh, or the genitals) are potentially implied by the expression makšūf al-ʿawra (l. 4) and whether complete nudity or merely indecent exposure is intended. Whatever the case may be, al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh took an action against it (ankara ʿalayhi ḏālika) and he was insulted and beaten up in return. The action (inkār) taken by al-Ḥasan should be understood in this context as a self-conscious act of religious admonition in the spirit of al-nahy ʿan/inkār al-munkar (forbidding the wrong) rather than merely a spontaneous personal insult.6

• 7 For more extensive discussion about the validity of the written legal documents in Islamic law, see (...)
• 8 See Younes, 2013b, p. 18.
• 9 Khan, “An Arabic Legal Document”, pp. 365–366 and note 25; Khan, “An Early Arabic Legal Papyrus”, p (...)
• 10 See Khan, “An Early Arabic Legal Papyrus”, pp. 227–237 and part. 234 with note 15. See also the com (...)

5Let us now discuss the form and legal function of the document. The document was apparently written upon the request of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd Allāh to serve as a valid legal proof,7 although it lacks important legal information and formulae. In the first place, a full identification of the wrongdoer is not given; only the first name is provided. Secondly, there is no reference to the place of residence of the two fighting people, nor the location of the accident is specified. Thirdly, the document is dated only by the day and month without mentioning the respective year which is very unusual in legal documents in particular and in papyri in general with the exception of private and business letters.8 What is more, the document was written on the back of a used piece of papyrus that was cut from a larger sheet. This all strongly suggests that our papyrus is a preliminary draft or a copy of the original document. In addition to being a copy or a draft, it is well possible that our document is a separate document of testimony; a document that was primarily written to record the names of the witnesses and what they had witnessed to. It has been suggested that autograph witness testimonies and signatures are only attested on Arabic papyri from the end of the second-the beginning of the third/eighth-ninth centuries onwards; before that, witnesses only gave oral testimony.9 Written testimonies were at first recorded in separate documents of testimony, after that they were written at the bottom of the legal deeds themselves.10

• 11 For examples of separate documents of testimony on papyri; cf. Rāġib, “Trois Documents datés du Lou (...)

6A separate document of testimony has the following structure after the basmala:11

• 12 I would like to thank the syndics of Cambridge University Library for providing me with the digital (...)

8P.Cam.Michaelides B134212   30 cm × 18 cm    3rd/9th century

• 13 See below the commentary to line 8.
• 14 See P.World, p. 84.

10Dark-brown badly damaged papyrus. The papyrus was cut from a larger sheet. The bottom is missing; only 12 lines survived. The papyrus fibres are frayed on the top and at the right hand side, but only a few letters have been lost at the beginning of each line. There is a large tear at the top left corner making difficulties in reading the last two words in line 3. Other smaller worm holes and lacunae are spread all over the papyrus causing few damages to the text. The text is written in black ink with a fine thin pen in a practiced hand parallel to the fibres. The verso contains traces of seven lines from an official letter written in black ink at the right angle to the fibres. Diacritical dots occur frequently but randomly. There are many ink spots that could be mistaken for diacritics. Of the characteristics of the script, sīn is sometimes written with an oblique stoke above it (l. 7 al-Ḥasan; l. 12 Sahl) or as a straight line with three dots written over the line to represent the teeth (l. 8 wa-asmaʿahu).13 Šīn is occasionally written with three dots above it. The dots are normally aligned horizontally (l. 10 Šawwāl).14 Ḍād is oval in shape with no tooth (l. 8 bi-ḍurūb). Medial kāf is written as a short vertical stroke with no rightward shaft at the top (l. 2, 11 al-kitāb; l. 4 makšūf; l. 6 fa-ankara).

• 15 Khan, 2000, B + BQ, p. 49, available online at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/neareastern/michae (...)

11A short description of the papyrus, the script and the content is given in the catalogue of the Arabic papyri in the Michaelides collection, Cambridge University Library.15

• 16 For different means to highlight the basmala, see Grob, Documentary Arabic Private and Business Let (...)

14L. 1. The bāʾ of bi-sm is missing. Bi-sm is highlighted by linea dilantans/mašq and by being oblique. Al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm is written cursively and ligatured.16

• 17 For more information about this profession in the papyri, see also Muġāwrī, 2000, pp. 388–389. See (...)

16L. 3. The profession al-ḫayyāš (the textile maker/trader) is well attested in the papyri, see Qāsim al-ḫayyāš (P.Marchands I 5.14, 3rd/9th century, provenance al-Fayyūm); Ǧabr al-ḫayyāš (P.Marchands I 6.10, 3rd/9th century, provenance al-Fayyūm).17 The word could also be read as al-ǧabbās (the plasterer), see P.Marchands I, p. 20. A short stroke is attached to the šīn of al-ḫayyāš from the bottom. The lower curvature of the ǧīm of ǧār is missing in the lacuna, but the reading is the only fitting one.

• 18 See Hopkins, 1984, § 26 and note 2.

18L. 5. Of al-ṭarīq only the rāʾ, yāʾ and qāf can be read at the beginning of the line. Imraʾa is written with post-consonantal medial hamza according to classical Arabic rules, which is unusual in Arabic papyri.18

• 19 Cf. P.Khalili I, p. 41.

19L. 6. Only upper traces of the two alifs, lām and the upper curvature of the ḥāʾ of al-ḥāl are perceptible at the beginning of the line, but the reading is certain. The curvature of the ḏāl of ḏālika is reduced resembling a rāʾ. Ḏālika is written in a similar manner in line 9.19

• 20 For this practice in the papyri, see P.World, pp. 86–87.

20L. 7. The scribe wrote the word ʿalayhi twice by mistake. The nūn of Ḥamdān is missing in the lacuna. The proper name Ḥamdān is well attested in the papyri, see for example P.Cair.Arab. I 43v.6, dated 306/918, provenance not mentioned; P.Cair.Arab. II 90.1, dated 274/887, provenance prob. al-Ušmūnayn; P.Cair.Arab. III 255.6, 2nd–3rd/8th–9th, provenance not mentioned. The sīn of al-Ḥasan has an oblique stroke above it. See also Sahl in line 12.20

• 21 Cf. P.World, pp. 86–87; P.Ryl.Arab. II, p. 13.

21L. 8. The sīn of wa-asmaʿahu is written as a straight line with three dots written over the line to represent the teeth.21 The word before bi-ḍurūb is unclear to me due to the lacuna. The final letter is quite clearly a rāʾ; compare it with the rāʾ of al-makrūh and bi-ḍurūb in the same line. Preceding it seems to be written a lām/kāf, fāʾ/qāf and a tooth at the beginning. I was not able to provide a satisfactory reading for this word. The meaning of the sentence would be “assault of beating.”

• 22 For the widespread use of linae dilantans/mašq in Arabic papyri, see Grob, Documentary Arabic Priva (...)

23L. 10. The left tip of the nūn of ḫalawna finishes near the lowest point without turning upwards on the left side resembling a rāʾ. For dating documents using verbal forms from ḫalā, see Grohmann, 1966, pp. 19–20. The šīn of Šawwāl is elongated horizontally.22