A woman's inheritance: contract on wood from the Atlas Mountains

[Berber contract]. Manuscript contract (arra) on argan wood.

€ 850.00

A legal document written in Arabic by a member of the Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, on a debarked and smoothed piece of a branch of Argania spinosa, a tree endemic to southwest Morocco. Similar pieces are held in the collections of various universities and museums.

This manuscript is an inheritance contract written after the death of a woman named Maryam by Maryam's brother 'Ali. In the contract, 'Ali divides Maryam's inheritance between himself and his niece Fatima, who is legally represented by her husband Muhammad. The inheritance contract details the distribution of Maryam's land with houses, forest, and bodies of water.