Legal document: T-S 13J37.3

Description

Legal testimony concerning Ibrahim b. Futūḥ b. Ṭayyib, who spread heretical interpretations of the Torah, and who was opposed by the judge Ḥayyim. Goitein writes, "[T]he shubbān yisraʾel, the youth, were enticed by a guest preacher, who expounded the Holy Scriptures in the way of mystical allegory, 'which should not be listened to, let alone be believed.'" He is accused of engaging in "inquiries concerning permanence (baqāʾ)" (al-mabāḥith al-baqāʾiyya), which seems to be an allusion to Jewish Sufism (sometimes called pietism). This Ḥayyim is likely identical with Ḥayyim b. Ḥananʾel b. Shemuel, who was both an in-law of David I Maimonides and a judge in his court—see T-S 13J9.12, ENA NS 18.36, ENA 2559.12, and T-S 8K13.11—in which case we can date this document to ca. the second half of the 13th century. There is a note on verso in a different hand, evidently a filing note, describing the document as "the maḥḍar of Ibrāhīm b. Futūḥ." (Information in part from CUDL, Goitein, Med Soc II, p. 62 note 125, and Friedman, Polygyny, p. 95 note 1.)