Letter: T-S AS 152.360

Description

Recto: Letter in Hebrew. Dating: early 13th century, based on the mention of the Judge Anaṭoli in the penultimate line. The sender is apparently a Byzantine Jewish man. He married either a Christian woman or a Jewish woman who converted to Christianity (along with him? והלכ[ה] אחרי אלי נכר). Then he tried to persuade her to return to Judaism. She said, How can I leave here (Byzantium) and eat and live? He arranges to support her with four pounds (ליטרין) of bread and one pound (רטל) of meat each week. With this, she was supposed "to sit and to make Rūmī garments" (on such garments see Goitein, Med Soc IV, 191–92). The letter becomes more fragmentary around here; mentions a Jewish woman; a Christian man; someone quarreling a lot with the sender (probably his wife); Muslims; giving some people a bribe; and perhaps accusing a man of sleeping with his wife (וחטאת עמה). Then he went to the Judge Anaṭoli and confessed. (Information in part from Goitein's index card, Goitein, Med Soc IV, 236, note 82, and de Lange, Byzantium in the Cairo Genizah, 40.) This document has also been edited by Ze'ev Falk in Sinai 85 (1979), 147–48. Edition in Yagur's disserttion, # 26