Public Documents from Sinnar

Document 35: Charter of Muhammad b. `Adlan b. Muhammad Abu Likaylik

DOCUMENT 35 Document 35 is an originating charter issued by Mul].ammad b. 'Adlan b. Muqammad Abu Likaylik; the text has been taken by the editors from the original, which is intact and easily legible.! The document records a grant to Faqih Al].mad b. 'Isii of the estate of Umm J:!awiiya, located on the west bank of the Blue Nile adjoining the village cemetery of Alti, near the modem al-Masid. The beneficiary held the unusual office of al-faqih al-kabir, or "Great Faqih" of Sinniir.2 Document 42 is an originating charter issued by J:!usayn b. Muqammad Abu Likaylik; it records his grant of the same estate, Umm J:!awiiya, and also to Aqmad b. 'Isii. No other example is known of two originating charters, both of which claim to dispose of precisely the same property. The editors suggest that this anomaly should be interpreted in terms of rivalry between J:!usayn, the last titular Hamaj Regent, and his nephew Muqammad 'Adliin, the de facto strongman of the period, who was known by the improvised title al-miinji/ al-kabir, "Great Manjil" or "Generalissimo.,,3 One may hypothesize that the beneficiary wanted written confirmation of his rights from both Hamaj authorities, but found that the man he asked second refused to confirm the charter issued by the man he had asked first, insisting rather upon producing a second originating charter issued by himself, conveying rights to the same property. The salient question would thus be, which of the two Hamaj lords issued the first charter, and which the second? Document 42 is dated 27 Rabi' II 1235/12 February 1820, and no internal discrepancies seem to challenge this claim. The present document is dated 17 Rabi' II 1225/22 May 1810, and would thus seem to antedate Doc. 42 by a decade; for this reason it has been given its present place in the chronological 205 206 DOCUMENT 35 sequence of documents issued by officials of the central government. However, Doc. 35 also bears the seal of Muqammad 'Adlan (compare Doc. 43), and the seal is inscribed with the date 123111815-1816, several years after the ostensible date of the issue of Doc. 35. Moreover, the scribe who wrote Doc. 35 was himself aware that something was wrong with the sealing of the document, and included a statement to that effect as an integral part of the text and before reaching his conclusion. That might seem to exclude the possibility that Doc. 35 was really issued in 1810, but that Muqammad 'Adlan's seal was added several years later. Was Doc. 42 in fact the first grant, and Doc. 35 the second, issued in reality in 1820 or even early 1821, but clumsily falsified to make it appear to have chronological priority? This possibility cannot be entirely excluded. Yet the question is further complicated by the presence of a second seal, that of Sultan Badi VI (compare Doc. 40). It is therefore entirely possible that Doc. 35 was indeed written in 1810, but that the sultan's seal was wrongly affixed to it during the drafting process, that the scribe took note of this state of affairs in the text, and that the seal of Muqammad 'Adlan was added several years later--the "right" seal, to be sure, but by then bearing a "wrong" date.4 This second interpretation is given some support by the fact that when Muqammad 'Adlan issued Doc. 35, ostensibly in 1810, he had not yet elevated loyal slave supporters such as Tayfara from Mankarukiin to Shaykh; this he had done by 1813, when he issued Doc. 38.5 These promotions were never recognized by I:Iusayn (see Doc. 42), and were therefore an expression of the rivalry between the two men, and probably a matter taken seriously by both. If Muqammad 'Adlan had made a shaykh of Tayfara by 1813, he would have been unlikely to demote him to Mankarukiin again in 1820 or 1821; it is more likely that Doc. 35 was in fact issued in 1810 before the elevation of Tayfara and his comrades. DOCUMENT 35 \ TT. 0- j..l:J J 0)(.... 0- ..v..... ~I ...~ ~I .;-'..;}I jy.;ll Vi ...I...-. ~I u~JJI .JJI ~ JS'.rl1J[rJ1 J ,-:".;>-11 jJ:! 11 ~L:JI J ~)I o:u. ~ ....ll:l 0- JS' ..::.~ JI ul$' ~ ~ .JJI ul$' u~J,; u~J,; ~I Vi ...I...-. ~I .;~I...