رسالة: T-S 10J16.1

الوصف

Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in Sindābūr (India), to his uncle and father-in-law ʿArūs b. Yosef, in Fusṭāṭ,. In Judaeo-Arabic. He found a slow market when he arrived in Aden, so he decided to travel onward to Sindābūr ("after seeking God's guidance") with the corals and storax (mayʿa, an aromatic resin obtained from trees in Asia Minor). He complains about his cousin Yosef (another nephew of ʿArūs), who "stays in Lakhba (near Aden) with the whores (Heb.), 'the company,' and a beardless youth, who ser[ves them drinks]." He also reports on previous sales in ports on the west coast of the Red Sea: Dahlak, Bāḍiʿ, and Suwākin. In the address on verso, ʿAllān calls himself ʿAllāl (as some other ʿAllāns did occasionally), a form of endearment, imitating the speech of small children. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's edition and translation.)