Letter: Yevr. II A 1295

Description

Letter from the Qaraite community of Fustat/Cairo to the Qaraite community of Istanbul. In Hebrew. Dating: Ottoman-era. The purpose of the letter is to request financial aid in repaying a large debt that was imposed on the Qaraite community of Fustat/Cairo. The writers explain that it all began when a Qaraite named Shelomo Gibor arrived from Istanbul together with a Rabbanite youth. The Qaraite community endeavored to help him, but Shelomo wound up staying in the Rabbanite quarter and refused their offers of assistance. He fell sick and died. There ensued a terrible conflict between the Rabbanite and Qaraite communities, in which it seems the Rabbanites went to the local Muslim authorities ('the Chelebi' and 'the Judge'), insisted that the deceased Shelomo was not of their party, and said bad things about the Qaraites.The authorities sent 'two great eunuchs' to despoil the Qaraite neighborhood; it was decided that the Qaraites owed 30,000 esedi gurush; the synagogue was plundered and two of the best houses were confiscated and turned over to the Rabbanites. There is still an outstanding debt of 1,600 esedi gurush, accumulating interest every month. The Istanbul community is asked to help. There is a postscript about an apostate woman, the wife of Avishay, who showed up with her son Muṣṭafā; these two, it seems, caused a stir when they claimed that the man (Shelomo?) who was buried by the Qaraites had actually apostasized, and they were wrong to have buried him among Jews. ASE.