منحة في رسالة: T-S 12.337

Recto

1. In Your name, O Merciful.
2. This is my letter to you, my dear, nob[le] brother and lord [. . .],
3. may God prolong your life and preserve you and keep you! May he unite us in the near future
4. in the best of circumstances, fulfilling our happiest hopes in His grace and favor, for He
5. is omnipotent! You will be pleased to know that I had sent
6. you (pl.) a number of letters, which, however, came into the possession of Mevasser, who did not make the effort
7. to forward them to you. Then, he came to Aden, and I exerted myself for him
8. beyond my ability, until I found out that I had gotten myself into trouble {alt. tr.: beyond my ability, and he had found me immediately after (I had suffered) a disaster}.
9. However, it would take too much time to explain my experience with him {alt. tr.: The details of my story would take up too much space}. Now, my brother, it has pleased
10. God, the Exalted, to ordain my safe arrival in Fustat—
11. Let them praise the Lord for His steadfast love—and I have already heard that [you have a grown son . . .] {alt. tr.: [you have three sons, the eldest]}
12. who is learned in Torah, and two other sons. [I am in the possession of  x thousand and x]
13. hundred dinars and am welloff {alt. tr.: [I lost x] hundred dinars, but remain prosperous}. [. . . Out in India]
14. two children {alt. tr.: boys} were born to me, (pleasant) as the twigs of sweet basil. {Add: [The younger died in India.]}

15. The firstborn {alt. tr.: the older} died in Aden [. . .]

16. I have no words to describe him [. . .]

17. I have left a daughter, his {read: their} sister, li[ke . . . She will receive]

18. all my money. Now by God [when my letter arrives,]

19. send your [eldest] son [. . .]

20. so that we {alt. tr.: I} have joy from her and from him and marry [them . . . While]

21. in Aden, Sheikh Khalaf b. Bundār [had asked me for her hand] for his son, and she stayed

22. three years in their house. However, I called the engagement off, when I heard

23. about your son Surūr, because I said: “My brother’s son has more rights (to her) {alt. tr.: is more deserving} than

24. strangers.” When I brought her to Egypt {alt. tr.: Fustat}, many

25. asked me for her hand. I am writing you this, so that you should know.

26. Saying less about this would have been enough. I sent you with Sulaymān

27. b. Siṭrūn a bale {alt. tr.: bag} (shikāra), called ṣurra, containing pepper

28. and ginger, in a mixture, weighing exactly one qinṭār and fifteen raṭl.

29. May God ordain that it arrives safely and comes into your hand //safely//! However, do not

30. deal with it as you did with the pepper, which I had sent

31. you and which you lost through incompetence. Your letters to me should reach me

32. in Fustat, God willing. Let your son Surūr

33. carry the letters. Were it not now the time of the sailing

34. of the Salībiyya (winds), I would have sent more for you [[and sons]]

35. and your sons. Sulaymān and Abraham will explain to you my situation and the troubles I

Recto, right margin

have {lit., ‘my heart’s troubles’}. As to Mevasser, he is not a man, he is indolent, possessed of a hard heart. I gave him all he needed, although I got into trouble (through him) {alt. tr.: I had just suffered a disaster}.  By these lines {alt. tr.: because, by these lines}, I {add: had} lost one thousand and forty dinars and suffered also losses on my way to Fustat, six hundred dinars.

Verso

1. Receive for your noble self the best greetings, and to your [[two]] three sons—

2. may God preserve them!—the best greetings, and she who is with you, their mother, is greeted by me

3. with the best greetings. Together with this letter I sent a letter to my beloved sister

4. Berākha, to her and her children. Please see to it that she receives it

5. and extend to her, in my name, the best greetings and likewise, to her

   husband Marwān

6. and to my sister’s children profuse greetings. Should Sheikh Barhūn b.

7. Ḥassūn b. ʿAṭiyya be in the country, greet him and express to him sympathy in my name at the loss

8. of the one who is dear to me. I received this year in Aden a letter from my sister,

9. written by him. Likewise, greet R. Moses, the great cantor. My dear brother, I shall not cease

10. to favor you (pl.) and to send you presents showing my affection. However, this year

11. excuse me, for I lost three hundred mithq ls from my capital. Greetings to you and your sons and your house! 

12. Greetings to you and to your household, etc!

Verso, address

1. To the brother, who suffered scorn, who went through fire

2. and cold {alt. tr.: snare/heat}, but is still fresh, Joseph b. Peraḥya—may he rest in Eden!—

3. known as Ibn (?) Surūr Ben Yijū of al-Mahdiyya, 

4. living in Mazara— may Go[d protect it]! This is a deposit entrusted. {Alt. tr.: Steadfast faithfulness.} (From) His brother, the son of his mother,

2. who longs to see him, 

3. Abraham b. Peraḥya—may he rest in Eden.

4. Ben Yijū.

5. May salvation be near!