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p.lond.4.1380 1. Juni 710Aphrodites Kome (Antaiopolites)

Letter of Kurrah ibn Sharik to Basileios demanding arrears of gold taxes. Official letter from the Arab governor of Egypt, Kurrah ibn Sharik, to Basileios, administrator of Aphrodito, rebuking him for failing to pay the two-thirds instalment of the gold taxes and ordering him to send the arrears immediately. It was written on 1 June 710 and delivered by the courier Muslim. machine translation

Source of record: Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

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Linked by Trismegistos ID TM 19835. Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 · Greek · Greek

Transcription

[r] ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ Θεοῦ Κορρα βεν Σζεριχ σύμβουλος Βασιλείῳ διοικητῇ κώμης Ἀφροδιτώ. εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα. πολλάκις φαινόμεθα γράμμασιν ἡμῶν χρησάμενοι πρὸς σὲ περὶ τοῦ διμοιρομέρους τῶν χρυσικῶν δημοσίων τῆς διοικήσεώς σου καὶ ἐδοκοῦμεν ὡς ἤδη τοῦτο κατεβάλου. ἡμῶν οὖν ἐπιτρεψάντων τοῖς νοταρίοις ἐγκύψαι εἰς τὰ χαρτία τῆς σακέλλης ἐφʼ ᾧ μαθεῖν τὸ τί κατεβάλου ἐν τῇ σακέλλῃ ηὕραμεν τὸ ἔργον σου ἀνίκανον καὶ μηδαμινὸν καί σε εἰς τοῦτο κακῶς διαπραττόμενον. καὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἀπεστείλαμέν σε σχολάσαι εἰς τὸ φαγονεῖν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀπεστείλαμέν σε φοβεῖσθαι τὸν Θεὸν καὶ φυλάξαι τὴν πίστιν σου καὶ ἀνύσαι τὸ δίκαιον τοῦ Ἀμιραλμουμνιν. οὔτε γὰρ ἔχεις ἀφορμὴν τὴν οἵαν οὖν οὔτε οἱ τῆς διοικήσεώς σου. καλῶς γὰρ γέγονεν ὁ καρπὸς τῆς γῆς καὶ τοῦτο ὁ Θεὸς εὐλόγησεν καὶ ἐδίπλασεν ὑπὲρ ὃ ἢν πρὸ τούτου. γέγονεν δὲ καὶ ὁ σῖτος πολλοῦ καὶ τοῦτο ἐπράθη παρὰ τῶν τῆς χώρας. λοιπὸν ὡς εἴρηται οὐκ ἔχεις τὴν οἵαν οὖν ἀφορμήν. βλέπε οὖν τὸ λοιπασθὲν διὰ τῆς διοικήσεώς σου ἐκ τοῦ διμοιρομέρους τῶν χρυσικῶν δημοσίων αὐτῆς. μετὰ πάσης συντομίας τοῦτο ἄνυσον μὴ ὑστερῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ μιλιαρίσιον καὶ μόνον, γινώσκει γὰρ ὁ Θεός, ὡς οὐκ ἤρεσεν ἡμῖν τὸ πῶς πεποίηκας εἰς τὸ πρᾶγμα τῶν τοιούτων δημοσίων. ἐβουλόμεθα γὰρ δοῦναί σοι ἀνταπόδοσιν τούτου χάριν. ἐὰν οὖν ἐστι ἐν σοὶ ἀγαθὸν ὡς εἴρηται ἄνυσον μετὰ πάσης σπουδῆς τὸ λοιπασθὲν διὰ τῆς διοικήσεώς σοῦ ἐκ τοῦ τοιούτου διμοιρομέρους τῶν χρυσικῶν δημοσίων καὶ ἀπόστειλον. ὄφελος γάρ ἐστι τοῖς τῆς χωρᾶς δοῦναι κατὰ πρόσβασιν τὰ διʼ αὐτῶν καὶ μὴ ἐᾶσαι αὐτοὺς ἄχρις οὗ συναχθῶσιν ἐπάνω αὐτῶν καὶ στενωθῶσιν πληρῶσαι. ἐπιστάμεθα δὲ ὡς ἀνικανίᾳ καὶ ἀχρησιμίᾳ φερόμενος ὁ ὑπουργὸς ζητεῖ τὰ πρὸς ἀφορμὴν τοῦ ὑστερῆσαι τὰ διʼ αὐτοῦ. μὴ γένῃ οὖν τοιοῦτος καὶ δώσῃς κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς σου πρόφασιν. ἰδοὺ μαρτυρόμεθά σε. ἐγράφη μηνὸς Παῦνι ζ ἰνδικτίονος θ [v] † μηνὸς[…] ἰνδικτίονος θ διὰ Μουσλημ βερεδαρίου περὶ ἐκπέμψαι συμπλήρωσιν διμοιρομέρους χρυσικῶν δημοσίων

Translations (1)

EN AI · machine translation from the DDbDP edition (Claude Opus 5.5)
[recto] [In the name of God. Kurrah son of Sharik, governor, to Basileios, administrator] of the village of Aphrodito. [We give thanks] to God, and after that: We have evidently written to you many times about the two-thirds instalment of the public gold taxes of your district, and we supposed that you had already paid it. So when we instructed the notaries to look into the papers of the treasury in order to learn what you had paid into the treasury, we found your work inadequate and worthless, and that you are handling this matter badly. For we did not send you to idle away your time in gluttony; rather we sent you to fear God and keep your faith and accomplish what is due to the Commander of the Faithful. For neither you nor the people of your district have any excuse whatsoever. For the produce of the land has turned out well, and God has blessed it and doubled it beyond what it was before; and the grain too has fetched a high price, and it has been sold by the people of the country. So, as has been said, you have no excuse whatsoever. See to it, then, the arrears owed by your district from the two-thirds instalment of its public gold taxes. Accomplish this with all speed, without leaving even a single miliaresion of it unpaid, for God knows that we were not pleased with how you have acted in the matter of these public taxes. For we wished to give you a reward on this account. If then there is any good in you, as has been said, accomplish with all zeal the arrears owed by your district from this two-thirds instalment of the public gold taxes, and send them. For it is beneficial to the people of the country to pay their dues by instalments and not to leave them until they accumulate upon them and they are hard pressed to pay in full. We know that an official carried along by incompetence and uselessness seeks pretexts for leaving his dues unpaid. Do not be such a one, and give a pretext against your own soul. Behold, we call you to witness. Written on Pauni 7, indiction 9. [verso] [† Month] […], indiction 9, by Muslim the courier, concerning sending the completion of the two-thirds instalment of the public gold taxes.

Connections

Found at Aphrodites Kome (Antaiopolites)

Cross-references (3)

Similar inscriptions · by content embedding

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