رسالة: T-S H2.133

الوصف

Letter in Arabic script, beautifully written in a chancery-esque hand with diacritical marks and dots. Dating: Fatimid period based on paleography and the ending formula. "We heard from a group of the merchants arriving from Fustat/Egypt that there arrived a lot of the merchandise (? al-ḥaml) which comes from Yemen, and it must be sold 'whether by money or loss' (in shāʾa bi-l-naqd in shāʾa bi-l-faqd). They have not been freed with it (? mā tatakhallaṣū bihi) from the Byzantines or the [...]." Might then mention brazilwood (baqqam) and lac. "And if the [...] does not sell (in kāna kāsid), by God, we have taken a beating (? ḍuribnā), I and Abū l-Barakāt, from distress and demands (al-ḍīqa wa-l-muṭālaba). We ultimately settled with the Maghribīs concerning the customs for the wheat which they must pay, 39 dinars [...]." (There are more specifics about the customs duties given, but they are difficult to read.) "And we wrote the receipts (al-wuṣūlāt), but they were not content, and this is part of the distress and demands. And there passed between Abū l-Barakāt...." When the letter resumes in the margin, there is a ṣalwala and ḥasbala, and the continuation is too fragmented to make sense of. The upper part and the lower part are missing. On verso, there is part of the Passover Haggada. ASE/YU.