A Comparison of the Arabic and Earlier Egyptian Contract Formularies, Part II: Terminology in the Arabic Warranty and the Idiom of Clearing/Cleaning

Abstract

IN Part I of this series of articles, literal translations of Egyptian Arabic formulary for the sale of residential property and parallel Arabic texts were presented and annotated. Here in Part II, technical terms occurring in the Arabic warranties are defined, and a comparison to earlier Egyptian formularies and a discussion of those formularies in a larger Near Eastern context are presented. It is hoped that literal translation of the Arabic formularies will provide a basis for further comparison of the Egyptian Arabic formulary, to not only the earlier Egyptian ones, but also to Islamic and pre-Islamic formulary attested elsewhere in the Near East. The primary focus of this study is to establish the existence of parallels between Arabic and Byzantine Greek formulary for the sale of residential property by comparing the idiomatic expression of constitutive elements (for example, the literal translation of a word or term specifying an obligation created by the warranty, Part II)' and the formulation of particular clauses (for example, the enumeration of the buyer's rights in the transfer and investiture, Part III, forthcoming). Documentary attestation of Arabic sales formulary begins about 200 years after the latest published Greek contract.2 In the intervening period, extant documentation is in