Letter: T-S 13J8.22

Description

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Reused for business accounts on verso, which are in the hand of ʿArūs b. Yosef (according to Goitein's notes). The letter is written in a very difficult hand. The addressee is asked to meet with Abū [...], Abū l-Barakāt, and the latter's mother and to convey the sender's greetings and the message that he only cut off his correspondence with them because they cut it off first. It seems that the sender's father (al-marḥūm abī), who was intimately associated with the addressees, has died. (Goitein read "abī" as "ṣabiyy" and a previous PGP transcription interpreted this as his son—but presumably that would have been written "al-ṣabiyy." Another possibility is "akhī"/brother, since the scribe does not carefully distinguish between כ and ב.) The death has led to various financial/business complications. The addressees are to send him all the things they are supposed to send, "just as you would to your father." The sender did not want to write a power of attorney as he has done with others. Apparently he wants to try resolving the dispute without resorting to legal instruments. He closes by asking them to do what is right, then a threat to escalate the situation if they don't. (All of this is tentative, because the letter has still not been adequately transcribed.) EMS. ASE.