Letter: T-S NS 306.84

Description

Letter in Ottoman Turkish concerning a shipment of firewood. Dating: circa 1736 CE or later (per Hathaway) based on the mention of the Ottoman gold coin zeri maḥbūb which was first minted in Cairo in 1736 CE(?) (although the earliest coins from Cairo in Uslu's numismatic catalogue date to 1143 AH/ 1730 CE). It should also be noted, that 1703 CE (1115 AH) marked the first year these coins were minted in Istanbul, therefore yielding a plausible chronological threshold over three decades earlier (Kaan Uslu et. al., Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Madeni Paraları, 69, 114-115). MCD. In the introduction to her edition, Jane Hathaway notes that this fragment and the letter T-S Ar.39.435 were penned by the same scribe: "These two badly torn documents are letters in Ottoman Turkish, concerning shipments of firewood (odun). The author addresses the recipient as ‘my father’ (benim pederim) [in T-S Ar.39.435], which could mean either his biological father or a revered elder. In the second letter [T-S NS 306.84], however, ‘my father’ gives way to ‘my brother’ (benim ḳarındaşım), suggesting that the recipient is a friend and/or comrade, much like the Sayyid Muḥammad and Sayyid ʿUmar to whom the writer sends greetings at the close of the first letter. These features, as well as a reference to Mevlevī dervishes in the first letter, open the possibility that the firewood may have been destined for the lodge, or tekke, of the Mevlevī dervishes in Cairo. No date survives on either letter, but if the Mevlevī connection is accurate, then both must have been written after 1016 AH/1607 CE, when the Mevlevī lodge was founded. The language and script of the letters and their overall appearance suggest that both were composed by the same author at around the same time, and possibly to the same recipient, namely al-Ḥājj Muḥammad.... T-S NS 306.84 clearly indicates a link between the firewood deliveries and Cairo’s Janissary regiment. The writer refers to ‘the ketḫüdā there’ or possibly ‘the ketḫüdā [who pre- sides] over that region’ (ol ṭarafa ketḫüdā). In the first half of the eighteenth century, as André Raymond notes, the ketḫüdā, or deputy commander, of Egypt’s Janissary regiment acted as customs agent in chief for the entire province, supervising Jewish muʿallims in place at the various ports (Raymond 1973–74, II:625). It is possible, though far from certain, that these two letters found their way into the Genizah because of Jewish muʿallims, nominally supervised by Cairo’s Janissary ketḫüdā, who assessed customs duties on the huge shipments of firewood." (Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah, 373-378)