This investiture letter was written for a shiḥna (military governor) appointed over the Khorsanian city of Balkh, found in the Saljūq secretarial compendium of ʿAtabat al-kataba. The text was written by Muntajab al-Dīn al-Juwaynī (After d. 552/1157), the head of the Saljūq chancery in Khurasan, and it provides a clearer understanding of criminal justice in the Near East during the sixth/twelfth century.
The instructions al-Juwayni gives to the shiḥna of Balkh are reminiscent of other administrative texts related to criminal justice, such as Siyāsat al-Mulūk and the Buyid investiture letter for a ṣāḥib al-shurṭa of Wāsiṭ, but it also mentions that the enforcement of criminal law by the shiḥna had an intertwining of both siyāsa (governance) and shariʿa (sacred law).
This source was edited by Muḥammad Qazvīnī and Abbās Iqbāl in Kitāb-i ʻatabat al-Katabah. Tehran: Shirkat-i Sahāmī-i Chāp, 1950. Scans of this investiture letter have been made available.