Letter: T-S 20.122

Letter T-S 20.122

Shelfmark: T-S 20.122

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Letter from Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār al-Madinī, from Palermo, probably to Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti (according to Gil, but the name of the recipient is lost). Dating: around 1055 (also Gil). The letter contains details about damage to goods (flax and indigo) that were sent from Egypt to Sicily. In addition, mentions details about silk, leather, oil, and lead being exported from Sicily. Jessica Goldberg opens her book Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean with a beautiful and gripping unravelling of the contents of this letter: "Around the year 1050 a bale sat on the shore at the port of Mazara in western Sicily. It was wrapped in canvas and tied with rope, and on the outside was written the name “Maṣliaḥ b. Eli[yy]ah[u],” the dayyan (judge) of Palermo. It contained indigo, and a bale of it represented a great deal of money: around 175 dinars if it was the Syrian variety, triple that if it was good Kirmānī. But the bale was wet, a fact that would both reduce the value of the indigo and mean a lot of work for someone. So it sat on the shore for several days. "Ḥayyim b. ‘Ammār, the Palermo “representative of the merchants” (wakīl al-tujjār), was also down on the Mazara shore, sorting, spreading, airing, and re-packing the indigo in a second wet bale dropped off by the same unweatherly ship. Aḥmad b. Dā’ūd, a clerk whom all the people of Palermo had agreed to leave in charge of their goods, asked him about the orphaned bale. Ḥayyim suggested moving it to the funduq until they heard from Maṣliaḥ. But Maṣliaḥ, writing from Palermo, said the bale did not belong to him at all, and he refused to receive it. On the other hand, could Ḥayyim get the two sections of indigo belonging to his brother out of the bale and send them to him? Ḥayyim presented this plan to Aḥmad b. Dā’ūd, who was equally quick to reject responsibility: “If you are willing to accept the bale in its entirety, fine. If you don’t want to, I’m not going to open it for you to take what you like and leave the rest with me.” Ḥayyim wrote to the judge again, who repeated his request that Ḥayyim handle matters and fetch him the requested sections. So Ḥayyim, whose professional duty as wakīl meant he “sought to arrange everything for the best” for everyone, went to Aḥmad and said he would pay for everything and take it to his own warehouse, provided Aḥmad would open it and record all the details of each bundle – its weight and label. Aḥmad stood on the balcony of the funduq while the bale was opened and took down everything in his ledger. There were seven sections of indigo: three were labeled as belonging to Mūsā b. Abī ’l-Ḥayy and were to be delivered to Maṣliaḥ b. Eliah; two were labeled for delivery to Maṣliaḥ's brother; and two were labeled for delivery to Ismaʿīl b. Hārūn. One of the last sections contained some pumpkin seeds and rice along with the indigo. One of the merchants on hand to witness the unpacking, Maymūn, said that the section with the pumpkin seeds belonged to Abū Isḥāq, who had had it packed in Cairo itself. "As everyone had suspected this bale caused no end of trouble for Ḥayyim. After it was opened he got a letter from Abū Isḥāq telling him of a change of intent: he was to deliver the sections labeled to Isma‘īl b. Hārūn to Nissīm b. Shemariah instead. In the dispute that followed when both arrived from Palermo and Ḥayyim refused to give Isma‘īl the package, Isma‘īl and his brother denounced Ḥayyim to the “inspectors,” saying that he was undermining Muslim institutions by evading customs duties. Insults and accusations were traded among the merchants when they were hauled in front of the Muslim authorities (al-sulṭān). Worst of all, and shameful, Ḥayyim's brothers-in-law were among those who witnessed the abuse hurled at him; in return, in a moment of anger he insulted one of the other men on the quality of both his wife and his in-laws. The case, and the payments involved, were apparently not settled to Ḥayyim's satisfaction, for he detailed the entire episode in a letter to an associate in Fustat (whence the bale had originated), asking that he take the letter and read it to his (the associate’s) brother-in-law. No doubt the arguments would continue in Fustat and Alexandria, where most of the owners made their homes." Quoted from Goldberg, Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean (Cambridge UP, 2012), pp. 1–2.

Collection: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter
Input date: In PGP since 2017

How to cite this record:: Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter, T-S 20.122. Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/5926/, accessed November 27, 2024.
Link to this document:: https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/5926/

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T-S 20.122 1r

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recto - right margin

T-S 20.122 1v

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Letter: T-S 20.122

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T-S 20.122 1r

recto

recto - right margin

T-S 20.122 1v

verso