Letter: T-S 8J17.15

Description

Letter possibly from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in ʿAydhāb, to his sons (addressed to Fustat "to the house of ʿArūs b. Yosef"), before embarking again for the east. He reports that he had dismissed his traveling companion and chosen a different one, and that no one, not even in the Kārim flotilla, had arrived in ʿAydhāb. He expresses regret at having undertaken the voyage at all, and advises his sons not to be on the road constantly as he is; he advises them that a family partnership would enable them to share the effort of travel. Goitein identified ʿAllān as the author of the letter, however, the handwriting is actually that of ʿAllān's maternal uncle ʿArūs b. Yosef. One possibility is that ʿArūs wrote the letter on behalf of ʿAllān; this is supported by the greetings to "my son Zayn al-Dār," as ʿAllān is known to have had a son with this name. Another possibility is that ʿArūs wrote the letter in his own name. (Information in part from Goitein, "Portrait of a Medieval India Trader: Three Letters from the Cairo Geniza," BSOAS 50 (1987): 449–64, published posthumously; see also the attached notes, used as a basis for the article and stored in Goitein's files.) ASE