1901.] 
Section III. Manuscripts. 
27 
The paper on which they are written was also made, like that of the 
Paper Chinese and Brahml documents, in moulds 
with a network bottom ; for it has water-lines, 
13 or 14 to an inch, with transverse lines, about If" apart. It is also of 
whitish colour ; but it has a very different texture. While the other 
paper is extremely thin and comparatively hard, this is somewhat thicker, 
and of an extremely soft and frail quality, resembling thin, loose flannel : 
it must have been made of other material, though what this was has 
not yet been determined by Hofrath Professor J. Wiesner, to whom 
specimens have been submitted. He has, however, found that, unlike 
the paper of the Chinese dated documents, no loading with starch was 
used in its manufacture. The paper shows transverse marks of fracture* 
as if the documents had been folded into narrow folds, about 1 -lf" wide. 
In its present condition, the paper is so flossy that it is difficult to see how 
it could be written on with any hard instrument such as a reed-pen, unless 
originally it was of a firmer texture, or the writing was done with a soft 
brush. The writing is all on one side of the paper, except in one of the 
fragments (No. 4) which shows it on both sides. It also runs invariably 
transverse to the close-spaced water-lines. 
The documents have been examined by the Rev. D. S. Margoliouth, 
Laudian Professor of Arabic in Oxford, who has kindly undertaken 
to publish them in extenso in some Oriental 
Script, Language, j ournal . 
They are written in the Naskhi 
Date and Purport. , , 
character, and m Persian language ; and ac¬ 
cording to Professor Margoliouth, they are the earliest specimens of 
writing of that kind in prose. One of them (No. 1) is dated in H. 401, 
equivalent to A.D. 1010-11; and to judge from their close resemblance to 
one another and their common provenance , it is probable that they all 
belong to the earlier half of the 11th century A.D. Two of the docu¬ 
ments are certainly, and one of the fragments probably, deeds recording 
sales of land: the purport of the other fragments cannot be determined. 
No. 1. Document. (Plate V, fig. 1.) 
Belongs to M. 10. Size, 16 § x 6f", the length being complete : as a 
comparison with the Document No. 2, which possesses the full breadth, 
shows, the entire sheet must have measured 16f x Ilf ". Accordingly 
a strip, about 3 §" wide, is lost on the left side: top, bottom, and 
(practically) right side are intact. Inscribed, only on one side, with 
16 lines, running parallel to the narrow edges. 
The document purports to be the record of the sale of certain land 
at Almatah, a village in Nikotanj ( ^ 4th line) to 
Yahya son of Ayub. It is dated in words, Hijrah 401, equivalent to 
