Letter: T-S 13J27.21

Description

Recto: letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, probably in Qalyūb, to his father Abū Sahl Levi, in Fustat. He asks the addressee to a sell the coats (al-shuqaq) and with the proceeds to buy for him what he had specified in his preceding letter. He asks his brother Abū l-Ḥasan (Yedutun) to send him some sort of letter (כתאב אלמזאיד?) that the owner had requested. He asks the addressee to have the scissors belonging to Furayj repaired without delay and send them to him; he will pay however much it costs. He informs the addressee that his paternal uncle Ṭāhir had spent Shabbat with him. He sends regards to his other paternal uncles, ʿImrān and Bayān. He also sends regards to Bū l-Yusr. Verso: letter from Abū Sahl Levi to his son Moshe, with a detailed list of transactions he had conducted on behalf of the recipient. Notably he obtained for his son three dirhams of mastic (ʿilk), a pound of mercury (zaybaq), a pound of barberries, and a half-pound of alum (shabb). He needs the container (kūz) in which he had sent the mercury back without delay, because he gave collateral for it. The addressee still owes a dirham to Ṭāhir and 1 3/4 dirhams to Baqāʾ al-Kohen. The margin contains a plea not to cut off the expenses provided to the addressee's niece or cousin. It also mentions Ṣāfī, the ghulam who sometimes shuttled letters and commercial goods for the family members letters between Qalyub and Fustat (hence no need for addresses). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) EMS, VMR, ASE.