رسالة: T-S NS 306.164

الوصف

Letter from Abū Manṣūr al-Fakhr al-Mutaṭabbib (the physician). In Arabic script. Addressed to Abū al-Faraj, with elaborate honorifics. The sender reports on the execution of the addressee's instructions and refers to the dispatch of correspondence through his servant, including letters to Alexandria and to the official in charge (mutawallī) of Fusṭāṭ. The letter concerns financial and administrative affairs involving associates (ashrākāʾ), mentions the transmission of a sealed communication without payment ("without a dirham or a dinar"), and requests official support. The writer emphatically professes his loyalty, swearing that he would not abandon the recipient's interests "even for a thousand dinars," and notes having purchased something on the addressee's behalf for five dinars. The right margin contains a postscript conveying greetings to Shaykh Yūsuf Yaḥyā and additional personal remarks. The verso preserves part of the address. It seems that the addressee is a state official based on the honorifics at the beginning, and the letter could be evidence of the entanglement between state officials and trade. Secondary usage: On the verso, there is the remnant of the address, a list of names in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, and a few verses from the Book of Esther in Hebrew.