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(Abū l-Faraj) Nissīm b. Shelomo al-Raqqī

بيانات التعريف

Gender
Male
Dates
Active dates
1094–1097 CE
Social roles
  • Jewish community member
  • Merchant
Other name
(Abū l-Faraj) Nissīm b. al-Raqqī

Description / Bio

India trader. This man can be Identified with Abū l-Faraj Nissīm b. (Shelomo) al-Raqqī on the basis of a reference in T-S 12.19 (IB II, 8), which would then also identify him with the recipient of DK 311. The affair of the camphor (IB II, 2-8): Nissīm had sent camphor (a highly valuable commodity) from Mirbāṭ to Aden and instructed Ḥasan b. Bundār to sell the camphor and send the proceeds to his family in Alexandria. When Nissīm disappeared in India, however, Ḥasan held on to the camphor, seemingly as collateral against items that Nissīm had taken with him on behalf of other merchants. Eventually, Nissīm's wife's brother (ʿAmram b. Yūsuf) sought the intervention of leading Jewish authorities like Nahray b. Nissīm and Mevōrākh b. Saadya. Mevōrākh was eventually able to convince or pressure Ḥasan into sending the camphor/its proceeds to Alexandria. Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Traders.

Select bibliography

  1. S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India traders of the middle ages : documents from the Cairo Geniza : India book (Brill, 2008), vol. 1.
  2. S. D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton University Press, 1973).
Pratima Gopalakrishnan and Marina Rustow, "(Abū l-Faraj) Nissīm b. Shelomo al-Raqqī," available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/nissim-b-shelomo-al-raqqi/, accessed February 9, 2026.
https://geniza.princeton.edu/people/nissim-b-shelomo-al-raqqi/