The qânûn translated by Hart is written in Arabic, with many archaic Amazigh words. The notebook photographed was, according to Hart, a copy made around 1935-1940 of an older document that he was not shown. It is neither dated nor signed; the use of obsolete terms (timawlîn for fines, the measures tisi'ît and tarba'ît) argues for the text's age.
The first pages regulate the gifts owed to the shurfa of the Ulad Mulay 'Abdallah at threshing time (butter, barley, hospitality), then a series of fines: 8 measures of barley for stealing grass, lucerne, maize or wheat, 2 for a handful of grass, 8 for anyone diverting irrigation water for his own benefit.
For theft from a house, the accused must produce ten co-jurors at Timjraj; if he “trips up” in the oath, he must return what was stolen and pay 32 one-year-old sheep. The text also delimits, through a list of place names, the area where these rules apply.
Assisted translation, not validated
⚠ The manuscript photographed by Hart is not reproduced here (copyrighted article); the associated image is another document, a manuscript of the Ayt ʿAṭṭa of the Rteb reproduced from A. M. Di Tolla's article (2016).
Sources — 1 sources cited · 1 independent documentary line(s)