Whether the city of Fostat was rebuilt after the fire, I have not been able to ascertain; but it seems" that the fact that in our docu ment the city of Fostat is mentioned as the place where the document was written, would indicate that the city had been repopulated; or it may be, that the ancient name of Fostat was carried over by the Jews who settled in the neighboring city of Cairo, and retained in their documents as the name of the latter city. This decree of the court is issued in the, name of Abraham who was the son of Moses Maimonides, who is described as "our Lord, our Xagid [prince]. Abraham, the intelligent Rab [Rabbi], banner of the Rabbis, and the first of his time and its wonder, the great Xagid,—may his fame be great and his honor increase,." After making due allow ance for the exaggerated style of the author of this document, it is obvious that Abraham was a man of great importance. The fact is that the Jewish Xagid was recognized by the Caliphs. The Xagid was the religious and judicial head of the Egyptian Jews; he ap pointed rabbis and other officials of the con gregation and was the supreme judge in criminal and civil matters. He was sup ported by the various congregations and re ceived fees for all legal documents that were issued in his name. Abraham Maimonides succeeded his father, the great Moses Mai monides, as Nagid. Like his father, he was a great scholar and the great physician of the Caliph El Kamil, so that in addition to his power as the head of the Jewish com munities, he had great influence and power as a statesman and as a member of the royal household. Although a great scholar, he was an insignificant figure in Jewish history compared with his father, Moses Maimonides, whose wonderful intellectual gifts and at tainments, whose scholarship and statesman ship and business capacity and medical skill, all combined, strengthened and inspired by a most remarkable originality and intellectual boldness and independence, completely over shadowed those who preceded as well as those who followed him.
Our decree is signed by two men. It is probable that they were elders of the congre gation, for otherwise, if the signatures were intended to be those of the Bet Din there should have been at least three names. It is possible, however, that this document is mutilated at the end, and that the other sig natures have been destroyed, although I am inclined to think from an examination of the edges of the document that it is complete as" we have it. It is possible, also, that the two signatures may be those of members of the Bet Din, it being sufficient to have two of them sign the document in the character of witnesses, the decree having been made by a full court. The letters T. N. S. B. H. after the last name are the initial letters of a He brew phrase which may be rendered "may his soul be gathered into life everlasting. A pious prayer for a deceased father. Another feature of this document is that although written and published in troublous times, it shows no signs of the excitement that must have affected all the members of the Jewish community as well as their Mo hammedan compatriots. At this time the crusades were being con.ducted with unabated vigor. The sixth crusade had ended in the year 1229, and the seventh commenced in the year 1230. Only a few years before this document was writ ten, the city of Damietta at the mouth of the Xile had been taken by the Christian invaders, and the entire community massa cred. The invaders in turn were driven out by the Caliph el Kamil, assisted by a timely overflow of the river Xile. The land was filled with alarm, and war was being; con tinuously carried on between Christian and Moslem. In these wars the Jews fought under the crescent against the cross. The relation between the jew and Moslem was brotherly, both of them being separated from the Christian through the Trinitarian doc trine, and more especially, by reason of the fact that in the eye of the crusader, Jew and Moslem were alike children of the devil, whom it was a sacred duty to destroy. In discriminate application of this doctrine
