Al Daw

The present book investigates three short late Mamluk treatises about land properties (waqf) in the Palestinian city of Hebron, which the prophet Muhammad granted to Tamīm al-Darī. The treatise entitled Ḍawʾ al-sārī li-maʿrifat ḫabar Tamīm al-Dārī by al-Maqrīzī (d. 845/1442) is the core of the book. It is edited here for the first time on the sole basis of the copy corrected by the author. A facsimile of the manuscript is also provided at the end of the book. In order to illuminate the discourse on property rights and donation that prevailed in the Mamluk period and al-Maqrīzī’s position, two additional treatises dealing with the same issue are included. The first is al-Ǧawāb al-ǧalīl ʿan ḥukm balad al-Ḫalīl by Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1448). The second is al-Faḍl al-ʿamīm fī iqṭāʿ Tamīm by al-Suyūṭī (911/1505). The three texts are fully translated and annotated and preceded by a thorough introduction.

Yehoshua Frenkel, Ph.D The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, teaches Medieval Islamic History at the University of Haifa. His main research interest is social and legal history.