The Cairo Geniza preserved hundreds of Arabic-script petitions to officials at the Fatimid palace. These petitions are more elaborate than those written during the rule of earlier Islamic dynasties. This essay asks three questions about Fatimid petitions and their development: Who were the scribes who wrote them? When (and why) did Arabic petitions assume the elaborate form and format characteristic of the Fatimid period? And why did Fatimid high officials hold the petition-and-response procedure to be so central to governance? The essay includes an edition and translation of an unedited petition to Sitt al-Mulk, the sister of the caliph al-Ḥākim (386–411/996–1021), who ruled the state for more than two years after her brother’s death. A comparison between this petition and another I edited in 2010 sheds light on all three questions.

中文翻译：

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法蒂玛请愿书

Cairo Geniza 保存了数百份写给法蒂玛宫官员的阿拉伯文请愿书。这些请愿书比早期伊斯兰王朝统治期间所写的请愿书更为详尽。这篇文章提出了关于法蒂玛请愿书及其发展的三个问题：撰写这些请愿书的抄写员是谁？阿拉伯语请愿书何时（以及为什么）采用法蒂玛时期特有的精心设计的形式和格式？为什么法蒂玛的高级官员认为请愿和回应程序对治理如此重要？这篇文章包括一份未经编辑的请愿书的版本和翻译，该请愿书是写给哈里发 al-Ḥākim (386–411/996–1021) 的妹妹 Sitt al-Mulk 的，后者在她兄弟死后统治了该州两年多。这份请愿书与我在 2010 年编辑的另一份请愿书之间的比较揭示了所有三个问题。