A Comparison of the Arabic and Earlier Egyptian Contract Formularies, Part I: The Arabic Contracts from Egypt (3d/9th-5th/11th Centuries)

Abstract

THIS study will compare the Arabic to earlier contractual formularies employed in Egyptian contracts for the sale of residential property.' Part I establishes the literal translation of the Arabic formulary and its idioms and discusses parallel Arabic texts. Part II will compare the Arabic formulary to its immediate predecessors, the Byzantine and the Coptic.2 The similarity of Arabic idioms and constitutive elements to earlier Egyptian formularies will also be noted. When those Arabic elements which are paralleled in pre-Islamic formularies are compared to Islamic jurisprudence, it will be possible to determine which of those parallel elements were incorporated not only into Islamic practice, but also into Islamic jurisprudence. It will also be possible to determine which elements of the Arabic formulary are unique or not directly parallel to the earlier Egyptian formularies herein considered.3