Central to this article is an Arabic letter written on papyrus in an Egyptian prison in the late ninth or early tenth century ce. The author complains that he and his companions are being kept in terrible conditions and that they have received insufficient support from outside prison. Interestingly, he indicates that there is a strong inclination among the group to offer themselves as slaves in order to find relief from their crushing living conditions. By doing so, they would have transgressed Islamic law of that time, which forbade the enslavement of free inhabitants of the Realm of Islam. The letter is a unique source for the social history of slavery, especially self-enslavement, in Abbasid society. This article presents, translates, and annotates this letter and offers a detailed study of its contents.

本文的核心是一封写在公元九世纪末或十世纪初埃及监狱中纸莎草纸上的阿拉伯字母。提交人抱怨说，他和他的同伴被关押在恶劣的条件下，而且他们没有从监狱外得到足够的支持。有趣的是，他指出，该群体有一种强烈的倾向，愿意把自己当作奴隶，以摆脱悲惨的生活条件。如果这样做，他们就会违反当时的伊斯兰法律，该法律禁止奴役伊斯兰王国的自由居民。这封信是了解阿拔斯社会奴隶制，特别是自我奴役的社会历史的独特来源。本文介绍、翻译和注释了这封信，并对其内容进行了详细研究。