The Qurra Papyrus - Order For Payment By The People Of The Homestead Of Hagios Pinoutios - Egyptian National Library Inv. No. 336, 91 AH / 710 CE
© Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
First Composed: 21st December 2005
Last Modified: 22nd December 2005
Assalamu ‘alaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
Figure: (a) Picture of the papyrus and (b) the content of the papyrus.
 encloses letters supplied to fill a lacuna
Safar, 91 AH / December - January, 710 CE.
The document consists of two pieces; the smaller one measures 8.6 cm x 21 cm and the larger one is 11.7 cm x 20.8 cm. Both joined together meaure 20 cm x 21 cm.
Brown, tolerably fine papyrus. The bilingual text contains eleven lines written at right-angles to the horizontal fibres. The Arabic part is written in black ink by the hand of Rāshid, diacritical points are few but sparsely added, ق has one point above. The Greek text is in the brown ink in a neat miniscule hand. Verso blank. Thr brown clay seal on the folded margin shows a wolf(?) with a star above and in from of it.
Inv. No. 336.
The translation is given below. The Greek text is in italics:
- [Homestead of] the Holy [Pinoutios. Solidi] 37.
- In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
- This is a letter from Qurra bin Sharīk
- to the people of Subrā Agiye Bi[nūtī]yeh of the district of Ishqauh.
- Verily, it hath fallen upon you (as your part) of the gold-tax of the year eighty-eight, thirty-
- seven counted dīnārs; and Rāshid has written (it) in
- Safar of the year ninety-one. In the name
- of God. Corra, son of Szerich, governor, to you people of
- [Ha]gios Pinoutios of the village of Aphrodito: It has fallen to you (as your contribution) to the public taxes of the sixth indiction (or),
- [accor]ding to the reckoning of the Arabs, of the year 88, 37 counted solidi-thirty-seven.
- Written in the month of Thot of the eight indiction.
Egyptian National Library, Cairo, Egypt.
 L. Caetani, Annali Dell'Islām, 1912, Volume V, Ulrico Hoepli: Milano, Plate facing p. 352.
 A. Grohmann, Arabic Papyri In The Egyptian Library, Volume III (Administrative Texts), 1938, Egyptian Library Press: Cairo, No. 163, pp. 50-52.
The images above are reproduced from the stated sources under the provisions of the copyright law. This allows for the reproduction of portions of copyrighted material for non-commercial, educational purposes.
With the exception for those images which have passed into the public domain, the use of these images for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited without the consent of the copyright holder.
Back To The Arabic Papyri