وثيقة رسميّة: ENA 684.1

الوصف

Fragment of an official letter (upper left piece). In Arabic script. After the basmala one reads :ʾaṭāla llāh baqāhā wa-ʾadāma taʾyīdahā wa-ʿalāhā (l. 2), ʿārafahu bi-mā li-l-ḥadra al-sāmiyya al-ʾaǧalliyya al-raʾīsiyya (l. 3), ʿalā al-ḥadrat al-mawlā al-ʾaǧall waladihā (l. 5), taḥmīl (or: bi-jamīl) al-raʾy al-šarīf, ǧaʿala llāh al-riyasa ʿalā al-ṭāʾiʿīn (l. 6), ʾinnī iǧtmaʿtu bi-ḥadrat mawlāya al-šayḫ al-ʾaǧall (l. 7). L. 12 mentions something that "deserves an increase" (istaḥaqqa or astaḥiqqu l-ziyāda)—maybe the sender is asking for a raise. L. 14 mentions a mukātaba ʾilā al-ḥadra al-ʾaǧalliyya al-raʾīsiyya. (Information from Naïm Vanthieghem.) The reference to headship in l. 7 appears to be thanking a dignitary for granting the writer "headship over the two sects" (the Rabbanites and the Qaraites?). The document was reused for Hebrew piyyuṭ possibly in the hand of Yehuda b. Ṭuviyyahu (active ca. 1170s–1220). If this identification is correct, the headship mentioned in this document could be related to Moshe Maimonides, Sar Shalom ha-Levi, or Avraham Maimonides. ASE