A Wedding Gone Wrong The Rather Worldly Woes of a Rather Wealthy Qādirī Sufi Shaykh. Two 18th Century Documents from the Ottoman Court Records of Ḥamā and Aleppo

A rather intricate legal case took place first in Ḥamā’s and then in Aleppo’s Ottoman Islamic courts around the middle of the 18th century. The setting, the social standing of the individuals involved, and the alleged circumstances of the case all contribute to make clear that this was not just another routine court case. Altogether, the two documents are a good example of the scope and quality of the information preserved in the archives of local courts and they both demonstrate the extent and modes of implementation of Islamic law in a specific Ottoman milieu. The long inventory of personal property in the Aleppo document gives us a good idea of the social status and affluence enjoyed by the plaintiff – a member of the Jīlānī/Qādirī family - and an interesting insight into material culture and what constituted wealth and affluence at the time.

al-Bahjah al-sanīyah fī mabdaʾ al-ʻulūm al-riyāḍīyah : manuscript, [1824].

Questions about the fundamentals of mathematics with their answers. Translated by the author from an Italian original while he was an instructor at the Dār al-Handasah. The introduction mentions Muḥammad ʻAlī and the scholl's director, ʻUthmān Nūr al-Dīn Afandī. See James Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt (London, 1938), pp. 108-109.Watermarks: Scrollwork with 3 lions rampant; scrollwork shield with initials DC in roman; scrollwork with lion rampant; scrollwork with lotus (?); initials GBA in roman; scrollwork with GIUSEPPE in roman; VICO in roman. For the first see Edward Heawood, Watermarks, Mainly of the 17th and 18th Centuries (Hilversum, 1950), no. 3737.Contains logarithmic tables.Text rubricated; marginal corrections in hand of author/copyist; marginal notes in another hand.al-ithnayn al-mubārak salkh Dhī al-Qaʻdah sanat 1239 [27 July 1824] ʻalá yad kātibihi al-mutarjim al-madhkūr.Date, provenance, name of copyist, and source of copy in colophon: wa-hādhā ākhir mā yasurruhu al-mawlá al-karīm min tarjamat hādhā al-majmūʻ al-ʻaẓīm wa-dhālika bi-naqlihi min al-lughah al-iṭāliyānīyah ilá al-lughah al-ʻarabīyah wa-ḥaṣala dhālika wa-tamma bi-al-madrasah allatī anshaʾahā walī al-niʻam tarjamah ʻalá yad al-faqīr al-ḥaqīr Aḥmad al-Ṭabbākh laṭafa bi-hi al-ḥukm al-khayr fa-kāna al-farāgh min tabyīḍihi baʻd naqlihi ilá musawwadah min aṣlihi yawmQuestions about the fundamentals of mathematics with their answers. Translated by the author from an Italian original while he was an instructor at the Dār al-Handasah. The introduction mentions Muḥammad ʻAlī and the scholl's director, ʻUthmān Nūr al-Dīn Afandī. See James Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt (London, 1938), pp. 108-109.Mode of access: Internet.McGregor FundAn Egyptian (?) instructor of mathematics (?) at the Dār al-Handasah, founded by Muḥammad ʻAlī in Cairo in 1820.Purchased in Cairo, 1933/34. Owner's mark: inside cover, manuscript notes in handwriting of Max Meyerhof