∗ NITZAN AMITAI - PREISS UMAYYAD LEAD SEALINGSEALINGSSSS The following article will deal with Islamic sealings from Umayyad jund al- Urdunn and jund Filasṭīn . A few things have to be said as we start. The Umayyad period stretches from 41-132 H/661-750 C.E. This period is hardly reflected in the historical sources that were written at the earliest some a hundred and fifty to two hundred years after the events, during the ‘Abbasid period. Some sources mentioning the Umayyad period were even written in later periods such as during the Ayyubid or Mamluk periods. These sources were composed in remote provinces such as Iraq or Iran far from south Bilād al-Sh ām. Thus we find in them hardly any evidence for the historical events of jund Filasṭīn and jund al-Urdunn or hardly any details of the administration of those parts of the Umayyad empire. Many sources have to be checked in order to find some of what had happened, or in order to find some details of the administrative information connected to these parts of the empire. We then have to look for new evidence for the administrative information. Our source is Umayyad sealings. The field of Umayyad lead sealings of Palestine is a relatively new field of research. These were published by the current author in the last few years. They mention names of caliphs 1, a name of a governor 2, or a place name 3, another sort mentions a religious formula 4. A few other sealings were published by N. Schindel 5. ∗ Ben Gurion University of The Negev (IL). 1 AMITAI - PREISS , “An Umayyad Lead Seal”. 2 AMITAI - PREISS , “Four Umayyad Sealings”, 177, No. 2. 3 AMITAI - PREISS , “A Poll Tax Seal of Tiberias and EADEM , Islamic Lead Coins, Weights and Seals”, Nos. 10-11. 4 AMITAI - PREISS , “Four Umayyad Sealings”, 177, No. 3. 5 SCHINDEL , “Eine umayyadische Bleibulle”, and, IDEM, “Nochmals zu umayyadisch Siegeln”. N. AMITAI -PREISS 19 The current article deals with a few sealings that mention a place name. The first sealings mention a city's name (Ludd), the next sealing mentions a hierarchy of place names and the last one mentions the city of Ṭabariyya as well as a name of a religious group. We know of four sealings that mention the name of the city Ludd, they are all of bulla type. The first two only mention the name Ludd. 6 Another's reading is: «bi-Ludd » – i.e. [ issued ] at Ludd 7. The fourth one reads is: « kh ātim Ludd » – i.e. the sealing of Ludd 8. Another type sealings mentions a hierarcy of place names, the jund , the town and the village: Filasṭ[īn], Bayt Sūr, Rāmallāh. The Rāmallāh is not the known today city, which carries this name, found on the mountain ridge north of Jerusalem, but another older one, that according to the town Bayt Sūr mentioned before it on the sealing, we gather its location was south of Jerusalem. We do not have record of such a place from the Umayyad period, and hence the importance of the sealing. The modern Rāmallāh was established in the Middle Ages, maybe on ruins of an older settlement with that name, found at the same place 9. The last sealing we mention here is a sealing that mentions a religious group, the Jewry of Ṭabariyya. We think this sealing is a sealing of the Jewry of kūra Tiberias and not only the Jewry of the city of Tiberias. When we say 6 AMITAI - PREISS , The Administration of Jund al-Urdunn and Jund Filasṭīn, pf. 145, Nos. 72-73 . 7 IBID ., pf.146, No. 75. 8 IBID ., pf.145, No. 74. 9 The sealing is No. 603, from the Khalili Collection. A local ancient tradition tells that Ramalla (north of Jerusalem), was established by the descendants of a Christian family named Hadad, that came from Karak in Jordan, after a quarrel with the family of the local Muslim sheykh. YANIV , “Murder and Revenge”, pp. 30-32, and also DRORY , “A Tradition on the Establishment of Ramalla”, pp. 382-383. 20 UMAYYAD LEAD SEALINGS kūra we mean the city and the rural villages and towns in its vicinity, otherwise the term for city, madīna , would have been used before the name of the city. Tiberias was the place of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish assembly of judges), and the spiritual center of the Jewry of Palestine. The city contained many synagogues 10 . We think it is a poll tax sealing, serving as a receipt for the taxs imposed on all the Jewry as a collective body. A Geniza document from 1030 C.E., tells us that the collective tax in one sum of money, was imposed on all the Jews of the city from previous older periods 11 . Another version of similar seals from kūrat ‘Asqalān and kūrat ‘Amwās were published also by us, these, though, do not mention a religious group 12 . To sum up the sealings mentioning the city of Ludd may reflect an early date of issuing, maybe before ‘Abd al-Malik's reform. Showing an ununiformity and hence the four different types of sealings for one city, i.e. Ludd. The other sealings with the triple hierarchy are a later development. The most developed hierarchy is found on the kūra and iqlīm type that the sealings is only one version of it. Other sealings mentioning names of places as well as a hierarchy will be dealt with by us in the near future elsewhere. 10 This is the description of Vilibald the bishop who traveled and visited Tiberias in 723 C.E., see GIL , Palestine , pp.145-146. 11 GIL , “The Taxes”, p.277; 284-285. 12 AMITAI - PREISS , “Islamic Lead Coins”, p.19, Nos. 10-11. Other sealings with this formula are about to be published by us, AMITAI -PREISS , Kura and Iqlim According to Sealings and Sources . N. AMITAI -PREISS 21 BIBLIOGRAPHY AMITAI -PREISS N., “An Umayyad Lead Seal with the Name of Marwān b. Muḥammad”, Al- Qantara , 18/1 (1997), p. 233. AMITAI -PREISS N., “A Poll Tax Seal of Tiberias”, in M. DOTHAN , Hammath Tiberias , II, Jerusalem 2000, pp.104-105. AMITAI -PREISS N., “Islamic Lead Coins, Weights, and Seals in The Israel Museum”, Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology , 6 (2007), pp. 13-20. AMITAI -PREISS N., The Administration of Jund al-Urdunn and Jund Filastīn during the Umayyad and Early `Abbasid Periods According to Seals and Other Small Finds , a PhD dissertation submitted to Ben Gurion University of The Negev, Israel, 2007 (Hebrew). AMITAI -PREISS N., “Four Umayyad Sealings from Palestine”, Israel Numismatic Journal , 16 (2008), pp. 176-179. AMITAI -PREISS N., Kura and Iqlim According to Sealings and Sources , forthcoming. DRORY J., “A Tradition on the Establishment of Ramalla”, in S. Dar, The Land of Benjamin: A Collection of Articles and Sources. Tel Aviv 1973, pp. 382-383. (Hebrew). GIL M., “The Taxes in Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099)”, Zion , 35 (1980), pp. 268-285 (Hebrew) . GIL M., Palestine during The First Muslim Period (634-1099), part 1 (Hebrew). SCHINDEL N., “Eine umayyadische Bleibulle des Kaliphen Yazid”, Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Band 47 (2007), Nr.3, pp. 116-122. SCHINDEL N., “Nochmals zu umayyadisch Siegelnund Bullen”, Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Numismatischen Gesellschaft, Band 48, No.1, pp. 31-39. YANIV M., “Revenge and Fear were the Causes of the Establishment of Ramalla”, Nature and Land, 20/ 1 (November-December 1977), pp.30-32 (Hebrew). .