Letter: CUL Or.1081 2.59

Description

Letter from Shelomo Cesana & Company to Karo y Frances & Company. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1 Sivan 5568 AM, which is 27 May 1808 CE. Cesana opens by mentioning the arrival of a boat from Rhodes. The word for the vessel is "קאיק" from Ottoman Turkish "قايق" or "kayık"– translating as "boat" or a "small sailing vessel." This term also appears as a loanword in English "caïque" with the same meaning. Cesana mentions that a "קציץ" was traveling on board the vessel in question from Rhodes and the "qaṣīs" bore a letter and polisa bill of exchange (sp. פולסה instead of פוליסה) that were sent by Yūsef and Naṣrallah Musqī (מסקי). The polisa had a value of 150,000 (niṣf) fiḍḍa and it seems that there is some issue in terms of its transfer, possibly: "the qaṣīs was not content to travel(?) to Cairo" (אל קציץ לם מורצ'ו לצפר מצר), but this reading is based on לצפר being a misspelling. The term "qaṣīs" might be an occupational title for someone who worked with coinage (i.e. "coin-clipper"), but requires further examination. This occupational terminology was interrelated with that of moneychangers in early modern Cairo (per André Raymond, Artisans et Comerçants, Vols. I-II, 35, 336-337, 460). MCD