The Historical Significance of the Endowment of the Trader Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ṣahr al-Bilbīssī (Died 886 AH / 1481 AD) in the Circassian Mamluk Period

Abstract

This study examines a document by the trader Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ṣahr al-Bilbīssī (died 886 AH / 1481 AD). This document is kept at the National Archives House in Cairo, Egypt The document records the endower, the conditions of the endowment and the endowed properties, and contains the signatures of the judges and legal certificates. The document includes a number of annotations added after the death of the endower for the purposes of inheritance inventory, and redistribution of the proceeds of the endowment, which add scientific value to the document. Historical information extracted from the document helps our understanding daily life at the time when the document was codified in the Circassian Mamluk Period.