رسالة: T-S 10J31.3

الوصف

Draft of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, heavily corrected and damaged, from Fusṭāṭ to a relative of the sender in Ifrīqiya, probably in al-Mahdiyya. Neither the writer nor the addressee is named. Dating: ca. 1062, since the letter mentions moving the body of Rabbenu Nissīm (b. Yaʿaqov), who died around then (see T-S 13J19.20, PGPID 5892). The writer is defending himself against two complaints, both of which had reached him partly through Abū l-Ḥasan Labrāṭ (b. Moshe b. Sughmār), the judge of al-Mahdiyya. Recto: the flax. One lot of flax was shipped from Egypt for Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Shaʿyā and Abū Naṣr Yehuda al-Dimashqī. Another belonged to the writer’s in-law, Abū l-Barakāt, and was supposed to go in the name of Abū Zikrī b. Qayyomā, who was supposed to act as his agent. That shipment was diverted, and the writer was blamed: someone said Abū Naṣr had told him about it. The writer swears he knew nothing until after the ships had sailed. Back in Fusṭāṭ, he reproached Abū Naṣr in front of Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ also told Abū Naṣr off: “You did not inform me of anything of that, nor did I authorize you to do it.” The writer says the real grievance was not the commission (ʿumāla) on the flax; it was the injury to the addressee’s standing and what people were saying. Verso: R. Nissīm and the responsa. The addressee is also upset about money he had sent for carrying R. Nissīm’s body, which was apparently diverted from him. The writer insists that Abū Zikrī b. Qayyomā had shown the addressee nothing but friendship, and that no one knew the two were estranged. He had assumed they were working together on the transport. He had also assumed the addressee would share in buying the responsa (teshuvot) that he had asked Abū Zikrī to get for him. Abū Zikrī is “our friend and our brother,” but the addressee is “the head of our house and family,” who takes the place of a father. Finally, the writer says, he is sending a small amount of silver with the Elect of the Academy (baḥīr ha-yeshiva) to be sold in al-Mahdiyya. The proceeds will pay Abū Zikrī for the responsa, and the addressee gets the remainder. The passage also mentions the estate of R. Berakhya. See Goitein, Med. Soc. 5:293 and nn. 103–5.