Moroccan Hand-Written, Notarised Contract

This sheet of light wood has been written on, in black ink,  in Arabic script on both sides, and then stamped, again to both sides, with an official stamp in red ink. Each side has twelve lines of script.

It is a notarised traditional contract perhaps for the sale of land or livestock, or even setting out a marriage contract.

The contract would have been witnessed by the wilya at the local (French) colonial government office and then stamped with red ink stamp on both sides to notarise the document.

See Amel (1998, p. 71) for several early examples.

The item is in fine condition. There is some fading to the text but it is in otherwise good condition. Contracts written on wood are relatively commonly found in Morocco – but most today are reproductions. Genuine examples are less common and less common still are examples that have been formally notarised with red ink from a colonial administrative office.