A Judaeo-Arabic Document from SicilyAuthor(s): John WansbroughReviewed work(s):Source: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 30,No. 2, Fiftieth Anniversary Volume (1967), pp. 305-313Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/610994 .Accessed: 11/12/2011 05:20

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A JUDAEO-ARABIC DOCUMENT FROM SICILY

By JOHN WANSBROUGH

(PLATE I)

Among the Arabic documents preserved in the archives of Sicily is one

relating to the affairs of the Jewish community in Siracusa at the end of the twelfth century. Belonging by origin to the episcopal church of Cefalfi, it is now in the Archivio di Stato at Palermo (Tabulario della Chiesa Vescovile di

Cefalki, Perg. no. 25), and was included in the collection published by S. Cusa in 1868-82.1 The interest of this document is twofold: historically, because it

1 Salvatore Cusa, I diplomi greci ed arabi di Sicilia, pubblicati nel testo originale, tradotti ed illustrati, Palermo, 1868-82, 495-6, plate v, and summary p. 736. Of the projected work only the texts were published (in two parts: pp. xxii, 504, plates I-v in 1868 (in fact 1874); pp. 505-862 and plate vi in 1882): a new edition with translations and commentary has long been a desideratum; see C. A. Nallino in his introduction to the second edition of M. Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, Catania, 1933-9, I, xxxii; III, p. 898-9, n. 1 ; and F. Gabrieli, in Archivio Storico Pugliese, xII, 1959, 18, 20. This task, if it is to be undertaken, is not made easier by the fact that many of the original documents printed by Cusa are not now to be found. Indeed, there is some question as to whether Cusa himself saw the originals, a doubt not dispelled by his own introductory observations (op. cit.,' Prefazione ', xii-xiii, xvii-xxi, especially xix-xxi regarding the Copie Tardia and Morso). If a fresh edition is to be based upon the scholarly criteria of textual analysis and diplomatic, every effort must be made to locate the original documents, a total of 201, for only seven of which Cusa included (partial) photographs in his edition. By way of preliminary aid to this search, I include here a few remarks on the present location of the Arabic documents in Cusa's collection, the fruit of several conversations with Professora Baviera and Monsignore Traselli of the Archivio di Stato in Palermo, to whom I am indebted not only for their very helpful advice but also for placing at my disposal photographs of the Arabic documents now preserved there. Of the 16 groups of documents published by Cusa, 11 contain some wholly or partly in Arabic :

Diplomi della Chiesa Cattedrale di Palermo (pp. 1-50, eight documents: still there) Diplomi della Cappella Palatina, della chiesa di S. Maria dell'Ammiraglio, e del monastero

della Martorana di Palermo (pp. 51-98, seven documents: those belonging to the first institution are still there; to the second, location unknown; to the third, Archivio di Stato, Palermo (ASP), but the collection there does not tally with those in Cusa)

Diplomi della chiesa della Magione di Palermo (pp. 99-112, four documents: ASP) Diplomi della chiesa di Morreale (pp. 125-286, five documents: Biblioteca Nazionale,

Palermo) Diplomi del monastero di S. Filippo di Fragala (pp. 381-468, one document: ASP) Diplomi della chiesa di Cefalih (pp. 469-506, seven documents: five at ASP, the other two

possibly still in Archivio Capitolare, Cefalhi) Diplomi delle chiese di Patti e di Lipari (pp. 507-37, two documents: still there) Diplomi della chiesa di Catania (pp. 539-95, three documents : Biblioteca Comunale, Catania) Diplomi della cattedrale di Girgenti (pp. 597-605, one document : still there) Diplomi varii (pp. 607-40, three documents: location unknown, but some possibly ASP) Appendice (pp. 641-91, eight Arabic and one Turkish document: location unknown)

Of these 49 Arabic documents some have been the object of further study: Noel des Vergers, in JA, Ser. 4, Tom. vi, sept.-oct. 1845, 318-22, 338-9 (two of the Morreale/Monreale documents); G. La Mantia, II primo documento in carta (Contessa Adelaide 1109) esistente in Sicilia e rimasto sinora sconosciuto, Palermo, 1908 (document from S. Filippo di Fragala) ; L.-R. Menager, Amiratus--'ApC rpas: I'Emirat e les origines de l'Amirauti (XIe-XIIIe siecles), Paris, 1960, 200-2, doc. 24 (one Lipari document), 208-9, 214-20 and frontispiece, does. 29, 33 (two documents from the Cappella Palatina) ; P. Collura, Le piiu antiche carte dell'archivio capitolare di Agrigento (1092-1282), Palermo, 1961, 120-6, doc. 63 and plate viii, with the assistance of Professore U. Rizzitano (the Girgenti/Agrigento document).

306 JOHN WANSBROUGH

throws some light on the juridical status of the oldest attested Jewish com-

munity in Sicily; and linguistically, because it illustrates admirably the contention that the Arabic spoken by Sicilian Jews (and presumably by their Muslim neighbours) belonged to the Maghribi dialect group. While it is hardly surprising that this should be so, it is also largely true that only or principally from Judaeo-Arabic sources can the Maghribi character of the dialect be ascertained, since Muslim Arabic writings tended to reflect the influence of classical standards, in both syntax and orthography. With the publication by Professor Joshua Blau of two masterly studies,2 the foundations have been laid for a systematic investigation of the linguistic and cultural phenomena not only of Judaeo-Arabic, but of Middle Arabic in general.3 The implications of such an investigation are obvious, especially for the medieval history of the Mediterranean world, whose lingua franca was as often Arabic as it was Italian.

The Sicilian document to be examined here (see plate I) is a membrane of

parchment (42.5 x 19.5 cm.) in fair condition, with a right margin of 3 cm.,

a space of 4 cm. at the top, and one of 5-6 cm. at the bottom. There are 18 lines of writing, of which 14 consist of text, with part of the fourteenth and the

remaining four lines containing the names of witnesses to the document, arranged more or less in three columns. The ink, which is black, is in places faded or blotted, but has not, except at one or two points, rendered the writing illegible. Approximately a centimetre apart, the lines tend to run to the left-hand edge of the parchment, except in the signatures at the bottom. Because the text is of value for Middle Arabic as well as for Judaeo-Arabic studies, a transcription of it (without the signatures, which are composite Hebrew-Arab names) into Arabic letters, retaining the many deviations from classical orthography, is included here after the Judaeo-Arabic text and followed by a rendering in English, with a few notes on the linguistic and historical significance of the document.4

2 J. Blau, A grammar of mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1961 ; idem, The emergence and linguistic background of Judaeo-Arabic (Scripta Judaica, v), OUP, 1965. Now in the press is his further study, A grammar of Christian Arabic, to be published (1967?) by the

University of Louvain in the series Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. For similarities and differences between Jewish Arabic dialects and those of their Muslim and Christian neighbours, see Blau, Emergence, 54-5. I should like to thank Professor Blau for his advice during several conversations in the spring of 1966, and for his encouragement of my effort to formulate some satisfactory criteria for editing medieval Arabic texts.

3 Middle Arabic, as opposed to Judaeo-Arabic in particular, is treated in Blau, Emergence, passim but especially pp. 1-18, 114-32. The earlier study by J. Fiick, 'Arabiya, Untersuchungen zur arabischen Sprach- und Stilgeschichte, Berlin, 1950 (French translation by C. Denizeau, and revised by the author, Paris, 1955; references are to this edition) is a useful introduction to the vicissitudes of the classical language in the post-classical period, but never quite comes to grips with the specific problems of Middle Arabic, see op. cit., 87-96, and the reviews by H. Wehr, in ZDMG, cII, 1, 1952, 179-86, and A. Spitaler, in Bibliotheca Orientalis, x, 3-4, 1953, 144-50. There is, however, to be found here abundant bibliography permitting an examination of earlier studies of Middle Arabic, pp. 207-16.

4 While lexical and syntactical elements common in Maghribi Judaeo-Arabic, such as first person imperfect nqtl/ngtlii and the genitive particle mate', do frequently appear in Muslim Arabic texts (e.g. BSOAS, xxv, 3, 1962, p. 450, 11. 6, 14; p. 451, 1. 18), orthographical features

A JUDAEO-ARABIC DOCUMENT FROM SICILY 307

TEXT

rnHR pri $pS'

Notes

The following emendations to Cusa's reading (op. cit., 495-6) are proposed.

L. 1: nt for m I xI. L. 5": p 11 for

7p 1; and 1K23 I for 1NH.?

L. 7: i? for 1 ; and I" m for x' 6 i1.. though for the latter the

condition of the text permits only a conjectural reading. L. 12: l 1 7 for 41i ~1. n L.

13": 7 for 31 ; and pI1nN for 71; Ix. I

Mor he follo ew instances where diacritical points have been used in the text

were ignored by Cusa but have been included here.

like the definite article I and scriptio plena generally do not, since Muslim writers of Arabic usually aimed at conformity with the rules of the classical language, especially in Classical Arabic with Middle Arabic admixture or Semi-Classical Middle Arabic (see Blau, Emergence, 24-5, and for the concomitant problems of hypo- and hyper-correction, op. cit., 27-34). References in the notes below are to Blau, Emergence, in which will be found further reference to more detailed descriptions in the same author's grammar (Diqdiiq). See also S. D. Goitein, in BSOAS, xvI, 2, 1954, 254-5 ; and idem, in Arabic and Islamic studies in honor of Hamilton A. R. Gibb, Leiden, 1965, 270-84, for Arabic transcriptions of Judaeo-Arabic, where, however, a slightly different method of transcription has been employed.

308 JOHN WANSBROUGH

Signatures : omit 1. 4 in Cusa, 496;

•rin for tonpw in Cusa, 496, 1. 1 ;

,amrin for

,rri~T in Cusa 496, 1. 3.

At one or two other points the readings here and in Cusa of the signatures are

open to question, which can be finally answered only by identifying the men in other sources, which I have been unable to do. The sigla t.i may indeed be 11?

"rr but the common formula of benediction 1lr7 inn•

cannot be excluded; after one signature the sigla appears to be ini (? irni ).

TRANSCRIPTION

~~~ [L5 [7]ja L4l '3.y

YI[', -12 L11 ~ 10 5sl~?~J

11411103

[1410 [6] 1 J.6) [5

~l~~, J. .L u ***s Ut iJ

V~ 10

oA~t A&L5 LJ JW dKj, L5.0

c~-~ls U

Notes

[1] The use of Heb. shanah, here and in 1. 13, before Hebrew numerals is not unexpected (see Blau, Emergence, 44-6, 133), and contrasts interestingly with Ar. sand in 1l. 7, 9, 12. Note q for kh in ta'r~kh ; and for k in 1-mubdrak (1.13).

[2] Adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet to Arabic was not in practice consistent, especially with regard to diacritical points (see Blau, Emergence, 34-5) : cf.

' for 0 injama'a (1. 9) ; r for $ in ladh4 only once (1. 8) ; but i for •"

consistently, in yatadaman (1. 10), yilqbad (1. 12) and in the signature Fadlln (1. 15).

PLATE I

\M,

A.. . . ..MGM..

K h alli

so4 mo5

........

La.~

:j: :01'v o 1\000Y IT...%4.

K- M ?.Mi' 4 . ` - :< K

Kgg .K ::.\g

:::::::::::::::RIM

iii:~`'iiiifi~iii~i~i :::??:?:: ::J 1 I:

IV %:::::::::: ::::ii~'ii ::':':::

::::ME m: :?::i::::::::::::::::?:?:;: ::::::::::111L::~-i: M.,

-

E'''::::::::::- - :i.iiii:~ciiii:::~~~~ '?

. .. ... .... ... ...

BSOAS. XXX]

A JUDAEO-ARABIC DOCUMENT FROM SICILY 309

[3] Scriptio plena (also in 1. 9), possibly for orthographical distinction between the preposition li and the definite article 1 (see Blau, Emergence, p. 72, n. 1).

[4] 'Alif is omitted in the definite article throughout (see M. Steinschneider, Arab. Literatur, p. xxxiv, n. 1; and H. Hirschfeld, in JRAS, 1891, 307). Note also the separation of the article from its noun in 1-rab' (11. 7-8).

[5] Scriptio plena (also for the same verb, 11. 3, 6, 9), presumably a result of the disappearance of hamza and the consequent need to distinguish Form IV

imperfect from Form I (where Form IV had not also disappeared, see Blau, Emergence, 75, 111; Flick, 'Arabiya, 94; and N*ldeke, in WZKM, viii, 1894, 259).

[6] Bi-janb is common Maghribi usage, but may possibly appear much earlier in Middle if not Classical Arabic, see H. Reckendorf, Syntakt. Verhrilt., Leiden, 1895, 1898, 15, 255-8 ; and idem, Arab. Syntax, Heidelberg, 1921, 217, 223, for instances of double prepositions, among which is il5 janb.

[7] For the shibboleth of the Maghribi dialects, first person imperfect nqtl/nqtli, see Blau, Emergence, 58-9, 119-20; and N61ldeke, in WZKM, viii, 1894, p. 251, n. 1 (but read vtoiiy in 1. 2 !). Blau's rejection of the proposal (based on N*ldeke, loc. cit.) that nqtli preceded nqtl seems justified, since

subject pronouns can and do frequently precede the imperfect : e.g. L. Brunot, L'arabe marocain, Paris, 1950, p. 95, 1. 9, p. 100, 1. 2, p. 121, 11. 20, 23, 24. See also nii'tikum (1. 3, infra), nii'tiyii (1. 9, infra), nqitl 'ana (Cusa, 107), nu'limfi (Cusa, 604), the latter two examples from Muslim Sicilian Arabic.

[8] Probably for shay, as accusative object, though the common Maghribi negation with shfi is not excluded, see Blau, Emergence, 127, p. 71, n. 1.

[9] Mufakhkham pronunciation, or defective orthography owing to a con- fusion of emphatic consonants ; see also intdj (1. 7, infra) and Blau, Emergence, 28, 77, 126.

[10] On the genitive particle matd' (more commonly so), see Blau, Emergence, 82, 117 ; Colin, in Hespiris x, 1, 1930, 117-18 ; and N6ldeke, in WZKM, viii, 1894, p. 264, n. 1 (but read mata' !). With regard to the short vowel of the second syllable, one might consider the observation (Colin) in EI, second ed., I, 503, though in the present text the third radical is retained, and the second vowel shortened not only between two nouns (1l. 4-5) but also before a pro- nominal suffix (1. 8), in conformity with the phonetic change resulting from a

dropped final short vowel, see Blau, Emergence, 71.

[11] For the occasional influence of Hebrew upon Arabic orthography, here the double writing of yod to represent what the writer supposed to be a

geminated yd', see Blau, Emergence, 135. On the other hand, common Maglribi pronunciation must have been qyem (Brunot, L'arabe marocain, 236) while the Judaeo-Arabic spelling here is scriptio plena : qyam/qiyim.

VOL. XXX. PART 2. 21

310 JOHN WANSBROUGH

[12] See Blau, Emergence, p. 14, n. 2, p. 17, n. 2 ; for the widespread use of the preposition li to introduce an indirect pronominal suffix, cf. op. cit., 111-12; JRAS, 1891, 309.

[13] 'An shart seems an odd locution, possibly employed here by stylistic analogy with 'an 'amr (1. 4), which is, however, Qur'anic (xvIII, 82). Note also bi-'amri (1. 3).

[14] Classical orthography, after 'an, but to avoid ambiguity in meaning (3rd pers. sing. or plur.), probably pronounced yi'tfweh.

[15] Disappearance of case-endings, here for the accusative as in the same word (1. 10) and ratl (1. 7), need only be noted, see Blau, Emergence, 78 ff., 126 ff., 168 ff.

[16] For the alternation of tS'marbitta and 'alif mamdfida (and 'alif maqsira), all pronounced a, see Blau, Emergence, 70; JRAS, 1891, 306; and cf. Ar. W I ?J [sic] in Cusa, p. 81, 1. 2 (Manager, Amiratus, p. 216, 1. 2 Ar. text, and

frontispiece, 1. 1 Ar. text), in a Muslim Arabic text.

[17] Kdn/yakcin employed as an ' index' is widespread in medieval Arabic (see Blau, Emergence, 99; Amari, SMS, second ed., III, p. 897, n. 1; and Cusa, p. 604, 11. 12, 16 for Muslim text), and even appears (though perhaps here with a vague temporal significance) in Classical Arabic (see H. Reckendorf, Arab. Syntax, 299 f.).

[18] Attested for Sicilian (e.g. Cusa 28, 29, 30 and passim, with plur. yJi? 245-6, but note also 473: ~

. U-.I

Lj,~J ?IJ ) as well as

Spanish Arabic, Maghribi, and Maltese (cf. Dozy, Suppl., II, 493), but here

possibly Hebrew, with the Arabic definite article (see Blau, Emergence, 141-2).

[19] Shin for Romance s is common in medieval Maghribi Arabic, see

Ndldeke, in WZKM, viII, 1894, 269; BSOAS, xxv, 3, 1962, p. 455, n. 2,

p. 459, n. 8; but c.1. = santa, in Cusa, 245, 479, 604.

[20] Zait is often in the Maghribi dialects masculine (e.g. Colin, Chrest. marocaine, Paris, 1955, 225 bottom) ; for the 'hyper-correct' use of hddhihi, see Blau, Emergence, 112, 130.

[21] The infrequent instances of preservation of the internal passive are often indicated by scriptio plena, see Blau, Emergence, p. 72, n. 1, 105; and for Muslim Arabic, Cusa, p. 605, 1. 9: yiiqdl lahd.

[22] While rfi' is the common Maghribi masdar, the reading 1-ris is proposed with all reserve instead of Cusa (op. cit., 495) : 1-dis, which appears to make little sense. For ris (classical ru',s) see Blau, Emergence, 75; and Fiick, 'Arabiya, 147.

TRANSLATION

In the year 948 [1M we, the Jewish community of Siracusa,[21 requested of his Lordship the priest Sire Blasio that he give us a bit of land adjoining our

A JUDAEO-ARABIC DOCUMENT FROM SICILY 311

cemetery. But he said to us, ' I cannot on my own authority give you anything, but only on the authority of his Lordship the bishop '. So Sire Blasio mediated between us and our lord the bishop of Cefalii,[31 and got for us eight metres.[4] He moreover brought us letters-patent 561 with the seal of our lord the bishop, as well as his attestation and that of the canons: [6] on condition that the Jews of Siracusa give him a qaftz of olive oil [71 every year, the amount of which will be 16 ratls of the produce, against the land which he gave us adjoining our cemetery. So we, the Jewish community of Siracusa, take that upon ourselves, to give to the church of Santa Lucia every year a qafiz of olive oil, as contained in the letter of our lord the bishop, which is in our possession. We, the Jewish community of Siracusa and those of our descendants dwelling here, also under- take that this oil be collected from us every year at the time of the payment of poll-tax.181 All this has taken place at Christmas in the sixth indiction, which falls in the year 948. That is valid and confirmed.

Fadlfn ibn Da'iid [91 Ya'qub bar Abraham: I am witness to it.

Yalhyd bar FrahIiah : I am witness to it. Da'Rid ibn Salmdn : Witness.

Yehfidah bar Abraham: I am witness to it. Shlomo ibn Sa'id Shaul bar 'Amram : I am witness to it. Ya'qub Hazn: Witness. Ya'qub bar Bal'dm Sa'diah bar Yitzhaq : I am witness to it. Moshe bar 'Amram : I am witness to it.

Notes

[1] The date 948, of which a lapsus calami has made 548 in 1. 13, is the Hebrew year 4948, or 1187-8 of the Christian era. The reference in 1. 13 to the sixth indiction (al-hawl al-sddis; cf. Cusa, 46; Dozy, Suppl., I, 341) where one expects the fifth, is the result of the interval in Sicily between calendar and fiscal years (25 December and 1 September, respectively; see Bresslau, Urkundenlehre, II, 409-12 ; K. Kehr, Die Urkunden der normannisch-sizilischen Kodnige, Innsbruck, 1902, 302; JA, S6r. 4, Tom. vi, sept.-oct. 1845, 329; Amari, SMS, second ed., III, p. 396, n. 1). In Sicilian Arabic documents indiction is more often rendered /~ (e.g. Cusa, 28, 30, 35, and passim).

[2] Jama'a, also jalma and jamma in Latin documents, as well as universitas (Iudeorum civitatis Syracusie), all from the fourteenth century (see B. and G. Lagumina, Codice diplomatico dei Giudei di Sicilia, raccolto e pubblicato, Palermo, 1884-1909, 157-8, 98-100, 103-5); these terms appear to have a corporate and not merely a topographical significance (Dozy, Suppl., I, 215-16), see Amari, SMS, second ed., III, 297-8, 304; A. Milano, Storia degli Ebrei in Italia, Torino, 1963, 459-84 ; C. Roth, History of the Jews of Italy, Philadelphia,

312 JOHN WANSBROUGH

1946, 81, 131; and idem, 'A contribution to the history of the Exiles from

Sicily ', Eretz-Israel, III, 1954, 230-4.

[3] Recourse to the authority of the bishop of Cefalhi appears to have been a matter of property-freehold rather than diocesan jurisdiction, since the

bishopric of Siracusa predated and was independent of Cefali', see Amari, SMS, second ed., III, 310, 313; Cusa, 487-8. Location of this particular cemetery is unknown, though it may have been in the vicinity of Santa Lucia, see Milano, Storia, 451-6. Ownership of property in the Giudecca was closely associated with questions of tribute and taxation, upon which concessions were

frequently granted to the Church, see F. Chalandon, Hist. domination normande, Paris, 1907, II, 563; Milano, Storia, 55-6, 91-5; idem, Gli Ebrei in Italia nei secoli xi e xiii, Citth di Castello, 1938, 51.

[4] Qiyam (sing. qdma), a measure of length, variable regionally, but always about 2 metres (Dozy, Suppl., 11, 425; W. Hinz, Islamische Masse und

Gewichte, Leiden, 1950, 54).

[5] Sijill maftii,

is self-explanatory but unusual in Arabic documents, and is probably a calque (litterae patentes/apertae) with a meaning identical or at least closely related to sijill manshilr, see S. M. Stern, Fatimid decrees, London, 1964, 85-90. Sijill alone, like acylMAAov, was employed in Norman Sicily indiscriminately for every kind of document, e.g. Cusa, 37, 70, 82, 516, 604, and see Kehr, Normanni.-sizil. Kdnige, 183, 237, n. 6. For the seal (tabi') as the

royal (and therefore by emulation also the ecclesiastical) sign of authentication, cf. Cusa, 36, 39, 604 ; and see Kehr, op. cit., 181-223. The terms dhdlik

sah.h and tihbit (1. 14) or variations thereof appear frequently in the Sicilian Arabic documents (e.g. Cusa, 12, 66, 498, and passim); reminiscent of the signs manual employed in western Muslim chanceries (cf. Stern, op. cit., 141-2), these phrases appear not to be so used here (they are for example written in the same hand as the rest of the text), but rather as sanctio/taukid formulae

(cf. H. Ernst, Die mamlukischen Sultansurkunden des Sinaiklosters, Wiesbaden, 1960, xxvii ff., where the examples are of course those of an oriental chancery).

[6] Jdlflniyd occurs in another, exactly contemporary, Sicilian Arabic document as ja~nlniya (Cusa, 83-4; Ar. text, p. 84, 1. 4), and appears to be rendered in the Latin part (which is not an exact translation of the Arabic) of the document (Cusa, p. 83, 11. 9-10) by tocius capitoli eiusdem cappelle. This

phrase refers of course to the canons of the church (cf. de Fresne, Glossarium, s.v. capitolium, no. 4: pro capitolo canonicorum), which occurs in medieval Italian as canonico/calonico/calonaco, or, as place-name, terminating in a rather than o (cf. Tommaseo-Bellini, Dizionario, s.v.). References to the canonici

appear frequently in the Sicilian documents (e.g. Cusa, 95, 298, 417, and passim), since their ratification was necessary for decrees concerning church property, see Chalandon, Hist. dom. nor., 11, 583-4 (top). The employment of Heb. gimel to represent the closely related phonemes g and g, or k and 6, need not neces-

sarily have affected the pronunciation of Ar. jama'a in our text, but the spelling

A JUDAEO-ARABIC DOCUMENT FROM SICILY 313

,asl n~ (1. 9) and

,'nb (1. 5) ought to be noted, in which connexion it is worth

remarking that in Cusa, p. 604, 1. 9, Ar. ".l-\ is used to render Lat. cappella.

[7] Qafiz, originally and generally a dry measure (cf. Grohmann, Chrest. zur arab. Papyr., Prague, 1954, 160-1 ; Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte, 50), was clearly in Sicily also a liquid measure, see Amari, SMS, second ed., III, p. 336, note, p. 917, n. 3, and Ducange, 11, 126: caphisos olei; though olive oil could also, as here, be measured in rattls (cf. Cusa, op. cit., 84:

[8] The reading rffi' 1-riis must be regarded as conjectural, though on

palaeographical as well as lexical grounds it seems more likely than 1-dfis (Cusa). That both Jews and Muslims paid a poll-tax under the Normans in Sicily is well attested, see Amari, SMS, second ed., III, 254, 255, n. 1, 256, 261, nn. 2, 3; Chalandon, Hist. dom. nor., 499-500, 690-1, 693; Milano, Gli Ebrei in Italia, 48, 66-7; A. Finocchiaro-Sartorio, ' Gizyah e Kharag: note sulla condizione dei vinti in Sicilia durante la dominazione musulmana ', Archivio Giuridico, LXXXI, 1908, 247-55, esp. p. 253-4, n. 4. This tax appears to have been called sometimes jizya (e.g. Cusa, op. cit., 111, last line) or sisia, sometimes 8d'pa or donum, occasionally even data or agostale. On the analogy of KEcaAthTov, capitatio, and testatico, I would propose that rfis could be a designation of the poll-tax, particularly within the colloquial context of our document. The technical phrase 'ala 'l-ru'ils, referring to a manner of levying jizya, is of course well-known (EI, second ed., 11, 563) in Ottoman terminology, but cannot be of great value for Sicily in the twelfth century, though the expression al-jawdli 'l-marsltma 'ala 'l-jamdjim used in his report on the island by the tenth-century traveller Ibn Hawqal (ed. Kramers, Leiden, 1938-9, 130) might well be.

[9] It is not clear whether the 11 witnesses to our document illustrate the prescriptions of Norman chancery practice, royal or ecclesiastical, or those of the Jewish community. In either case they could represent something like the groups of provincial or municipal notables, yfpov-TE and KaAol 'v0 pwTro& attested in Norman sources, see Amari, SMS, second ed., In, 291-7, Kehr, Urkunden, 178-81, 266-70. Cusa is probably correct in reading ?i as nashhad 'alih, since the word shihid is clear after one, and perhaps two, of the other signatures (i.e. testor and testis sum).