Letter: NLI 577.3/6

Recto

1. In Your name, O Merciful.
2. The letter of his excellence, the most illustrious shaykh, my master and lord, has arrived.
3. May God preserve your prosperous state and make eternal your happiness! May He enhance
4. your comfort, raise your reputation, elevate your status in both worlds,
5. and crush your enemies and those envious of you! You mentioned, my master,
6. your longing and concern—may God concern Himself
7. in doing you good! May He avert from you sorrow and unite us
8. in complete happiness and in the best circumstances for which one can hope, with His favor
9. and might, God willing! This is to inform you—may God preserve
10. your honored position!—that I enquired with regard to your brother Mevasser and was informed that he was
11. well and in good health. Furthermore, I enquired whether he was traveling
12. to Eretz Israel, but the people whom I had asked said they did not know, but that he was well.
13. Had he come to Aden, I, your servant, certainly would have taken care of {alt. tr.: performed every courtesy for} him, even
14. without your instructions, my lord, to this effect {alt. tr.: concerning him}—God 
15. beware (that I should not take care of him). {Alt. tr.: I, your servant, feel
16. regret on his account.} There arrived what you kindly sent, my lord, namely the betel nuts, the two locks and the two wooden qa a-bowls. And I have taken delivery of all this. I, your servant, sent
17. what has no importance or value, for
18. the children, namely two bottles of sugar, a bottle of almonds and two bottles of
19. raisins, altogether five bottles, all of them in the ship of Sheikh Maḍmūn,
20. which is going to Mangalore, through the agency of the purser {alt. tr.: nākhudā}. Please, my lord, take them from him.
21. Receive, my lord, for your esteemed self the best
22. greetings and give in my name to my lord, your boy, the best greetings,
23. and likewise to the brother Bama the best greetings in my name. Every year
24. you write that you are leaving for Aden, but nothing happens. May God, the Exalted,
25. ordain a happy conclusion! If you have any order
26. or require any service, please honor me with it. Written in the month of Av of the year
27. 1459 E.D. I sent you also two dasts of
28. Egyptian paper. Please take notice of this. And Peace.

Verso, address

1. (To) His excellency, the most illustrious Sheikh, my master,
2. Abū Isḥāq Abraham, son of
3. his honor, great and holy master Peraḥya b. Yijū from al-Mahdiyya
4. may he rest in Eden the Garden!

 

1. (From) His servant, who is grateful
2. for his favors, Khalaf b.
3. Isaac—may the spirit of the Lord give him rest!

Verso, address (Arabic)

(Not in Friedman and Goitein's translation; this translation by Marina Rustow)

1. His excellency, the most exalted shaykh, my lord Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm
2. Ibn Yijū al-Isrāʾīlī

 

 

1. (From) his servant who longs for him,
2. Khalaf b. Isḥaq al-Isrāʾīlī