رسالة: ENA NS 50.11

الوصف

Letter from Shelomo Barukh, in Damietta (Kapotakia), to Me'ir Ben-N[aʿ]īm, in Cairo, whose surname is damaged but legible in the address section. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 20 Tevet 5561 AM, which is 1801 CE. The original portion of the letter is quite brief and then followed by an addendum of goods that Me'ir should not forget to send Shelomo. The main section of the letter states that Shelomo has not received a reply to a previous letter between them and that he has sent a shipment of wool to Me'ir. He then requests for 5 ardabb of something to be sent to him and then seems to explain proper storage or shipping conditions "wa-ḥuṭṭū fī kīs aḥsan min al-baʿzqa" (... putting it in a bag is better than wasting it...), from the verbal noun بعزقة "wasting" or "squandering." After mentioning the anticipated arrival of a business partner Ib[rahīm] Abū Ṭabīrī/Ṭabrī and his son Khalīl to Cairo, Shelomo signed the letter and continued with the addendum. Some of the additional goods requested are: rice, salt, anise, three silk hair-cloths (thalath bilāsīn ḥarīr). Shelomo references the fact that boats have stopped coming to them in Damietta because they are gathering in Fāraskūr, a town roughly ten miles upriver on the Nile. Lastly, the addendum references Yehuda Pariente, perhaps the same person mentioned in AIU VII.D.68 (PGPID 30564). MCD/ASE