Letter: ENA NS 48.2

Description

Copy of a letter from Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan, in Aden, to Avraham Ibn Yiju. Dating: 1136–39 or 1145–49. Written by one of Maḍmūn's clerks, in Judaeo-Arabic. The letter describes the highhanded tactics of Bilāl b. Jarīr, the governor of Aden and Maḍmūn's occasional business partner. Madmun complains about Bilal’s habit of demanding the first pick of the goods in the port, specifically of DRKY (אלדרכי) a commodity exported from Dahlak to Aden and from Aden India that was not always available. The identification of the addressee is based on the fact that Avraham Ibn Yiju reused verso for accounts. (Information from S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India Book, 357.) EMS. AIU XII.116 (PGPID 31027) is another version of the same letter, identified by Alan Elbaum. The AIU copy is written in Arabic script and may be the original of which this is a copy, or alternatively ENA NS 48.2 could be a draft for the more complete AIU XII.116. The AIU copy clarifies the context and several of the lacunae, e.g., Ibn al-Sudā[nī] should be emended to Ibn al-Saddār. The precise relationship between the two fragments remains to be determined. Notably the Arabic version contains blessings for the prophet Muḥammad, omitted in this copy, which would suggest that either the sender or the address is Muslim. It is possible that Maḍmūn wrote the Arabic letter to a Muslim merchant, his clerk copied part of it here in Judaeo-Arabic, and this fragment somehow found its way into Ben Yiju's possession who subsequently reused it. It is also possible that Maḍmūn is the addressee of this letter rather than its sender, and perhaps his clerk copied it into Hebrew characters for greater legibility. However, the content of the letter and some of its phrases are very similar to those in Maḍmūn's other letters, and the sender is writing from Aden, so the identification of Maḍmūn as the sender likely stands. Another possibility is that Maḍmūn sent the same letter to two different addressees (ENA NS 48.2 to Avraham Ibn Yiju and AIU XII.116 to a Muslim merchant), but then it would be unusual to see the same text verbatim in each letter. ASE