Letter: Halper 382

Description

Letter from ʿOvadya, Avraham, and Yefet the sons of Shemarya to Avraham b. Natan 'the Seventh', titled Ḥemdat ha-Yeshivot. The letter opens with a paragraph of at least 20 lines of panegyric blessings in Hebrew. The 18 remaining lines are the content of the letter in Judaeo-Arabic, which is also laden with honorific terms. The writers express their longing for Avraham yet decline his invitation to visit him in Syria (אלשאם), as they will be staying in al-Maḥalla (in the central Nile delta), with friends from Aleppo for another two months. The addressee also received the letters T-S NS J131 (from the Nagid Mevorakh ben Saadya 1094–1111); Bodl. MS heb. d. 68/29; T-S 13J15.24 (from Solomon ben Yeshua, the same hand as the previous); T-S 10J11.16 (there: b. Nathaniel); T-S NS J24 (from his brother Araḥ); T-S 18J4.2; and T-S 13J15.24. He appears in a list of dignitaries in BL Or. 5535 (Margoliouth, vol. III no. 1131). A biographical sketch of him was assembled by M. Cohen, Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt, 1980, pp. 130–31. The address on verso is followed by a basmala in Arabic script. Information from FGP