Arabic Prayer for the Fātimid Caliph

This brief Judeo-Arabic prayer, written on a small piece of paper and preserved in the Cairo Geniza, uses traditional Islamic formulations to invoke divine blessing on the Fâtimid caliph al-Mustanṣir (r. 1132-1149) or al-Hâfẓ li-dīn Allāh (Guardian of God’s Religion), a title that he assumed when he ascended to the caliphate. The text likely would have been part of a petition to be submitted to the state. The use of Islamic terminology in Judeo-Arabic raises questions about the origins of the text: was it dictated from a Muslim to a Jew, or did the Jew know these phrases through other means?