Letter: T-S 8J26.14

Description

Letter of appeal for assistance from a dignitary. Begins in Hebrew, including a Hebrew taqbīl (העבד מנשק . . . . ידיו ורגליו), and ends in Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee may be the judge Abū l-Bayān Moshe (the sender swears by his name on verso, בחיאה מולאי אלדיין אבו אלביאן ר משה), whom Goitein tentatively identifies as Moshe b. Mevorakh. The sender fears that he himself will not succeed if he approaches the government about some affair; so he wants the addressee or another dignitary to act on his behalf in this (r4). He explains that the request "is the interests of your congregation and nation, it is not for me myself, I have no needs at all myself" (v3). He then expresses a hope that "Fakhr al-Mulk will not continue treating us like this" (v4). In a postscript he adds that he heard that his sister fell and broke a limb, for which he also asks for help from the addressee and the other elders in Egypt/Fustat. So the sender is not located in Fustat, and possibly not in Egypt. This Fakhr al-Mulk might be Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār in Tripoli (which would date the document to 1108 or earlier), however there is no clear evidence for this. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)