Letter: BL OR 5544.15
Letter BL OR 5544.15Description
Letter from Yosef [...] and Moshe [...]. In Hebrew. Location: Probably Tripoli, Greece (טראפוליצא = Τριπολιτσά). Dated: Wednesday 8 Tammuz 5510 AM, which is 1750 CE. This is a fundraising letter for the redemption of Yaʿaqov of Fez and his wife and two Jews, who had embarked on a Turkish ship in Crete (קאנדייה) when Maltese pirates attacked and took them captive. God moved the Maltese captain (הקברניט המלטיז) to have mercy, and he brought them to land on מאנייה (the Mani peninsula?) and left them in the charge of a local rich man, setting the ransom at 1500 gasim/גסים ("big" coins—a common term for coinage in this period). ASE. MCD.