Letter: DK 116

Description

An interesting letter in rhymed Hebrew prose, with one line of Judaeo-Arabic, spanning 4 leafs (7 pages). It opens with a blazon of a certain person's beautiful features (arched eyebrows as if inscribed by a pen, temples and cheeks like scorpions that sting the heart of all who behold them, etc.). The addressee seems to be named in the last line of Image 6: "his name is Avram and Avraham is his father, like Elʿazar purifying with animals' blood," i.e., they are Kohanim. The writer asks several times for a letter and then for an ambiguous favor "based on the convenant between you and me [made] on Shabbat Teruma." He says he always asks seafarers for news ot he addressee. Then, "Write to Daniel your servant on the day he goes (or: you go) down to the city of און בימה (Heliopolis?) / To accompany a brother as he travels to Spain, and your slave to 'Sin' of the West (? סין שבימה)." Information largely from FGP. Merits further examination.