Letter: ENA 4009.11

Letter ENA 4009.11

Metadata

Shelfmark
ENA 4009.11
Primary Language
Judaeo-Arabic

What's in the PGP

  • Image
  • 1 Transcription
  • 1 Translation

Description

Letter from David b. Daniel to Aaron the cantor

Additional metadata

Collection
Jewish Theological Seminary Library
Historical shelfmarks
ENA 4009, f. 11; ENA 4009, fol. 11
Input date
In PGP since 2017
Image
Transcription
Translation

ENA 4009.11 2

°
2
Moshe Gil, Palestine During the First Muslim Period (634–1099)‎ (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv University, 1983), vol. 3.

ENA 4009, f. 11 ed. Gil, Palestine, Pt. 3, pp.337-338 (Doc. #538), C.B. 11-11-87 (p) Short letter from David b. Daniel to Aaron the cantor (hazzan).

  1. בן ראש הגולה
  2. אנתהי אלי חצרתנא יא יקירנו החזן ר אהרן אידך
  3. אללה מא פעלה אלמערוף באבן שאול וולדה מע
  4. אלדבאחה עלי גיר אלקאנון אלמסתקר ותעדיהמא
  5. דפעה בעד אכרי ואנהמא אנדרא ונבהא
  6. ולם יותר דלך פיהמא פתקדמנא ואחרמנא
  7. עלי כל ריבון יכלמהמא או יעאמלהמא או
  8. ידכל מעהמא חמאם או יגתמע בהמא בקצי
  9. ארבע אמות ויגב אן תעלן בדלך ותעלם
  10. אלגמאעה חרסהם אללה בה ותגדד אלחרם
  11. עלי אלצפה אלמדכורה עד שיחזרו למוטב
  12. ישועה
Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization (Yale University Press, 2026), vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Translation by Brendan Goldman

[From:] The son of the exilarch.

The news reached us—our splendorous one, my dear ḥazan, R. Aaron, may God support you—concerning what the person known as Ibn Shā’ūl and his son did, undertaking ritual slaughter that went against established law. They transgressed time after time; even though they were exhorted and warned, these warnings did not concern them. So, we went forth and pronounced a ḥerem [ban] against anyone who speaks with them or does business with them or goes out to the bathhouse with them or gets within four cubits of them. It is necessary to promulgate this ban and to inform the Jewish community—may God defend it—to apply assiduously the excommunication according to the manner described, until [father and son] repent.

Salvation.

ENA 4009.11 1

1
    Image Permissions Statement
    • ENA 4009.11: Images provided by the Jewish Theological Seminary Library (JTSL)
    Jewish Theological Seminary Library, ENA 4009.11. Available online through the Princeton Geniza Project at https://geniza.princeton.edu/documents/752/ (accessed August 17, 2026).