رسالة: Sim. Jud.-Arab. 6

الوصف

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Recto is extremely damaged/faded, while verso is mostly legible. The hand may be known. Recto mentions ʿImrān; a woman; legal proceedings; corrupt judgments (al-dīn al-fāsid); a favor requested of the addressee; and Sayyidnā Sar ha-Sarim (generally the title of Sar Shalom ha-Levi, Head of the Jews for part of the period 1171–95 CE); and relief that the sender already received from Sar ha-Sarim. He might also mention his physical tribulations (from dust? a broken rib?): אני מקאץ אלגבאר מכסור אלגנב (last line). On verso he says that he lives peaceably with his neighbors; he plans to go to the woman (the wife or widow of Nissim?) and bring her and her children to make a legal declaration that they will repay the addressee the dinars that they owe him; everyone is in agreement with this plan. The original letter ends here with greetings and a yeshaʿ yiqrav. He adds a postscript to the effect that he has sent another letter to Sayyidnā, summarizing its contents or urging the addressee to intervene with Sayyidnā to make sure it gets acted upon. He complains about a certain "madman" (majnūn) to whose name he appends curses. The madman sowed discord between the sender and his sister and her children. He quotes Proverbs 6:19 (וּמְשַׁלֵּחַ מְדָנִים בֵּין אַחִים). He says that the addressee is already aware of 'what they did' with the widow, the daughter of Ḥasan(?) and with Dā'ūd and Yūsuf with an inheritance. He concludes by complaining once again about the madman. (Information in part from Amir Ashur via http://www5.kb.dk/manus/judsam/2009/sep/dsh/object44694/en/#kbOSD-0=page:4). ASE