رسالة: T-S Ar.39.370

الوصف

Letter from Meḥmed Çavuş (Muḥammad Jāwīsh) to an unidentified Jewish tax farmer (ʿāmil) in Old Cairo. In Arabic script. Dating: late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. In the introduction to her edition, Jane Hathaway notes: "This is a terse, undated letter—really more like a note—signed by one Meḥmed Çavuş, who is obviously a military officer. To judge from his signature, he belongs to the imperial Çavuşān regiment or, alternatively, to the regiment of Çavuşān attached to the personal entourage of the governor of Egypt and known as the ‘corps of servants of the imperial palace’ (Ottoman Turkish, Cemāʿat-ı Gılmān-ı Dergâh-ı ʿĀlī). Members of the imperial Çavuşān acted as messengers for and escorts to the sultan; they were sometimes dispatched as emissaries to foreign governments.... As to the date of the letter, the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century seems likely since both Çavuşān regiments enjoyed their greatest influence during this period.... Meḥmed’s note is addressed to the Jewish ʿāmil, or tax farmer, of Miṣr al-Qadīma, whom he accuses of wrongfully taking a receipt for a shipment of sheep sent to Meḥmed by the amīr ʿAlī." (Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah, 190-191)