رسالة: IOM D 55.3

الوصف

Letter addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions business in fava beans, vetch, cucumbers, and wheat. Mentions Bilbays. Mentions people such as David ha-Dayyan, Bū l-Ḥasan Ibn Nufayʿ, and Mufaḍḍal Ibn al-Maqdisī. "In an eloquent letter a traveler details all he had sent: 6 irdabbs of wheat (making 36 waybas per year, or 3 per month, as so often reported up to now), 4 "gold dinars," and several smaller remittances in silver, totaling 51 dirhams; here one or two lines are lost, no doubt containing the remaining 30 or so dirhams which could make a grand total of 6 dinars, again half a dinar per month. The writer gets very excited. "I should neglect my wife?!" he exclaims, adding: "Has not God said [Proverbs 11:17]: 'He who wrongs his flesh [meaning: wife, Genesis 2:23] is a cruel one?!" and, quoting Proverbs 22:23, he invokes God to punish those who give him a bad reputation." (Translation from Goitein, Med Soc III, p. 194 note 164.) There are photostats and an edition in Goitein's files (to be uploaded).