Khurasan
dated Sha‘ban 160 (May – June 777)
ink on light-coloured parchment; bulla of red clay
28.1 x 18.1cm
Arabic document.
The document (‘itq) confirms that al-Harith ibn Malik has emancipated a slave belonging to him called Nufah and her three children, al-‘Abbas, Hatim and a girl Sindiyya. Eleven witnesses are named.
The document was sealed with a bulla bearing a number of seal impressions. One has the name ‘Harith ibn Malik’, another the name ‘Muhammad’ with a six pointed star, and a third ‘May God be praised’, repeated. Besides the textual impressions, the bulla also contains a seal impression representing a quadruped, blank impressions and thumbnail marks.
G. Khan, Arabic Documents from Early Islamic Khurasan, Studies in the Khalili Collection, volume V, London 2007, no.30, pp.155–7.