Letter: T-S 13J25.3

Description

Letter from the future Gaon Daniel b. ʿAzarya, in al-Mahdiyya, to the leader of the Babylonian community Sahlān b. Ibrāhīm (aka Abū ʿAmr Sahlān b. Barhūn), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Tuesday, 11 Tishrei, probably October 1038 CE (according to both Gil and Goitein). The letter congratulates Sahlān on his marriage, which we know to have taken place on 9 September 1037 CE, from his ketubba (T-S 20.6). The letter also discusses difficulties experienced by the Babylonian/Iraqi congregation of Fustat that were resolved with the intervention of Abū Naṣr Ḥesed al-Tustarī (ll. 13 and 16). Daniel is working on these matters together with the Rosh ha-Gola, at present in the Maghrib, and with the Nagid of Qayrawān (Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram or Shemuel ha-Sefaradi). The Arabic-script address on verso references Sahlān’s late father Ibrāhīm b. Sahlān (d. ca. 1031), previously the head of the Iraqi community of Fustat, and refers to him as “Barhūn.” The letter briefly mentions Sahlān's deliverance from an illness, but this part of the letter is too damaged to discern any more information (l. 8). (Information from Gil and from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:511; 3:118, 451.) EMS. NB: As of 01/2022, the PGP transcription is missing all of the text in the margins and on verso.