Letter: CUL Or. 1080 3.17

Description

Mercantile/trade letter in a chancery hand, in Arabic script, 11 lines. The writer seems to be trained in the inshāʾ or hired a chancery scribe. It discusses the usual commercial accounts and mentions specifically a carat of glass/crystal (zujāj). The writer acquaints the addressee about the safekeeping of his things with Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Qasam and reassures him about the friendly bond between the writer and Abū l-Ḥasan. The writer also rebukes the addressee about something he said and says “it can’t be pardoned except with the aid of God.” Lines 7 and 8 contain words of wisdom and advice, “the mediator is good, and you have lost it, no one can retrieve it except God. Ambition won’t benefit the ambitious without the help of God, may he not deprive you of it." The sender reports that a woman named Rivqa states that she doesn't owe the addressee any money, but the sender can send some.