Description
A legal document for the sale of the “Al-Ghudairi Estate” after the endowment of it was transferred to the ownership of the seller in Al-Ruwaydah, including proof of the property endowment transfer in the town of Al-Majma’ah to the ownership of the family of Sulaiman Bin Ibrahim Abanmi in Al-Ruwaydah.
Source
The Library of Muhammad Bin Abdul-Aziz Bin Muhammad Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Ateeqi (Al-Atiqi), may Allah have mercy on him.
Registrar
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Bin Uthman Bin Abdul-Jabbar, Judge of Al-Majma’ah and Al-Ghat, who stamped the document.
Date
1 Rabi’ Al-Awwal 1262 AH (2/27/1846 AD).
The Sellers
The children of Sulaiman Bin Ibrahim Abanmi: Ibrahim, Abdullah, Salma, Uthman, Abdel-Rahman, Abdul-Muhsin, and other siblings represented through the Power of Attorney of Abdul-Muhsin.
The Buyers
Abdul-Aziz, Ibrahim, and Hamad, the sons of Muhammad Bin Sulaiman Al-Ateeqi.
Price
490 French (Austrian) riyals (also called Maria Theresa riyals).
Witnesses
A group of Muslims, including Hamad Bin Uthman Bin Abdul-Jabbar and his brother Muhammad; Muhammad Ibn Rumaih and his brother Naser; and Muhammad Ibn Mansour.
Transcriber
Ibrahim Bin Hasan Al-Dhabib.
Addendums
1. An addendum on the same issue pertaining to the sale of the rest of Al-Ghudairi, which was owned by Muhammad Bin Sulaiman Abanmi, for the price of 115 riyals and one qirsh.
2. Judge Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Bin Saleh Bin Murshid’s certification of the validity of the endowment transfer and subsequent sale.
3. Judge Sheikh Uthman Ibn Mansour’s certification of the validity of the endowment transfer contract and subsequent sale.
Conveyances
The document transferred authority over the property referenced in it from the endowment transferor to witness Muhammad Bin Abdullah Abanmi, Abdullah Bin Sulaiman Bin Abdullah Abanmi, and other Muslims. The conveyance was intended to be another document in which the validity of the Abanmi family’s ownership of the Ghudairi property endowment was established. The document was written in the hand of Nafi’ Ibn Habdan (a resident of Al-Khees), and also contained his stamp and the attestations of the above-mentioned individuals in addition to the attestation of another witness, Abdul-Muhsin Ibn Naser.
What this document tells us
1. The Al-Ghudairi property mentioned above and purchased by the Al-Ateeqi family is surrounded by several adjacent properties, including Al-Farhaniyya, which borders Al-Ghudairi to the south and is an inherited endowment belonging to Muhammad Bin Sulaiman Al-Ateeqi. There is also Fayd Dhuwaihi and Al-Tuwaila’ah, both of which are located to the south of Al-Farhaniyya. These properties are located in the region known as Sifalat Al-Majma’ah in northern Al-Majma’ah (the capital of Sudair Governorate), with the word “Sifalat” referring to the lowlands of that area. Besides the above, the Al-Ateeqi family owns many other properties in Al-Majma’ah and Harmah, but this is not the appropriate place for such details. Below is a photograph of the Al-Ghudairi property taken by the author of this text on 6/7/1994 AD. Mr. Muhammad Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Ateeqi and Mr. Muhammad Bin Ahmed Bin Abdul-Muhsin Al-Ateeqi both appear in the picture.
2. Besides being an ownership deed, this document is also an endowment deed pertaining to a property of Sulaiman Abanmi, which is a hawtah (territory or property) bearing his name in the village of Al-Ruwaydah. This latter property was linked to the first through an endowment transfer ruling authorized by the judges. The Al-Albanmi family has a long history in the village of Ruwaydah, as they were the first to inhabit it in modern history.
3. The text of the above-mentioned document confirms important geographic information, such as the location of the property called Hawtat Sulaiman Bin Ibrahim Abanmi in the village of Al-Ruwaydah. It also specifies the location of Al-Ruwaydah as being in Shuaib Al-Khees, with the word “Shuaib” meaning a valley through which rainwater flows. Al-Khees, as it appears on a published map of present-day Sudair, is a town located to the west of Al-Ruwaydah, while both Al-Ruwaydah and Al-Khees are located to the west of Al-Majma’ah and to the southeast of Al-Ghat. (For more details about Al-Khees and its residents, see the article “Important Figures from the Town of Al-Khees, Sudair,” by Professor Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Askar, in Al-Riyadh Newspaper, 10/13/2006 issue, http://www.alriyadh.com/193908.)
4. Information about Mhadath Al-Tamimi. The document is one of the few documents that make reference to Mhadath Al-Tamimi, a historical figure who settled in the well-known town of Al-Khees, Sudair. The hawtah to which the Abanmi family endowment was transferred was referred to in the document as: “A property of theirs called Al-Hawtah in the village of Al-Ruwaydah in Shuaib Al-Khees, known as Khees Mhadath (Mhadath’s Khees).”
As Professor Rashid Bin Asaker stated in a footnote appearing in Nabthat Ibn Sayyar, Mhadath was from the tribe of Bani Amr Ibn Tamim and the emir of Al-Zulfi, and it was he who rebuilt the town of Al-Ghat around the end of the eleventh century after the Hijrah, whereupon Sulaiman Al-Sudairi purchased it from him. Mhadath was, however, there earlier, because: 1) Al-Ghat was mentioned in Nabthat Ibn Sayyar, whose author died in 1085, and 2) the family of Mhadath invaded Al-Zulfi in 1098 as reported in some histories of Najd. In order for the descendants of Mhadath to have maintained control over a town like Al-Zulfi, the population would have needed to increase greatly over a period of at least five generations, or about 150 years. The period of Mhadath’s reign can thus be placed around 950 AH—which means that Al-Ghat and Al-Khees date back even further.
The rest of the story, as we learn from this document, is that Mhadath moved to Al-Khees, where his descendants multiplied, thus giving rise to the name Khees Mhadath. The descendants of Mhadath comprise a well-known extended family, including among its members Sheikh Nafi’ Ibn Habdan mentioned above. The Al-Habdan family is well-known throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Authored by:
Dr. Imad Muhammad Al-Ateeqi
22 Ramadan 1430 AH (9/12/2009)
Updated in Jumada Al-Thani 1438 AH (March 2017)
