Minyat al-Usquf

Minyat al-Usquf. [1] This is a small village, on the bank of the Main Canal, to its west. Its houses are within orchards,[2] and it is surrounded by date palms and trees. Its orchards contain various fruits such as apricots, grapes, pears, carobs, citrus fruits like bitter orange and lemon, quinces and pomegranates. It is a short journey from Madīnat al-Fayyūm. It is assigned as an iqṭāʿ to the amir ʿIzz al-Dīn Khiḍr ibn Muḥammad al-Kīkānī and his brothers, with a fiscal value of 1,500 army dinars. It gets its water, during the period of the high Nile, from a canal known as Aqnā, designated for its irrigation and the irrigation of Bāja. Its protection is at the hands of the Banū Zarʿa, a branch of the Banū Kilāb. It has a church.

Its revenue in cash, in specie, is 229 1/2 1/8 dinars:

lunar-calendar tax, 13 dinars:

the tannery, 7 dinars;

the weavers, 6 dinars;

land-tax on orchards, 216 1/2 1/8 dinars.

The protection fee, 15 dirhams, which are 1/4 1/8 dinar.

The alms-tax, for the estimate of the date palms, 4 1/2 1/4 dinars.

The poll-tax, for 56 individuals, 112 dinars:

those residing in it, for 47 individuals, 94 dinars;

those absent from it, in the northern region, for nine individuals, 18 dinars.

Its people rear chickens assigned for the royal kitchens, including the rearing wage, which is a third, 300 chickens.

[1] Modern location (uncertain): the eastern part of the city, near the central train station. Timm, Das Christlich-Koptische Ägypten, pp. 1666–7; Halm, Ägypten, p. 271: ʾUsquf/Sāqiyat al-Qummuṣ; Ramzī, Al-Qāmūs, i, 273; 428: ʿIzbat al-ʿAqrab. We could not find this ʿIzba — probably because, as noted by Ramzī, it has been overtaken by the expending city. Timm notes, however (p. 1667), that it was close to the location of the central train station.

[2] variant reading in AS: yatlū-hā fī al-basātīn.