This is an edition of an early Shiite/Fatimid Arabic epistle that includes a controversy pertaining to several issues on Islamic law. Al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 363/947), the most famoust jurist of the early Fatimid period refutes the illustious Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889). In his book "Adab al-Katib", Ibn Qutayba claimed that it was enough for civil servants (kuttab) to memorize a few legal formulas in order to be able to effectively do their work without the need of long dissertations on law from jurists. In the introduction to his epistle, al-Nu'man claims that without these dissertations the...