Letter: Moss. II,195

Recto

In Your name, oh Allmerciful. 

He will receive blessing from the Lord [and vindication from the God of his salvation]. Plenty of peace have those who love Your Torah.

To his excellency, my lord, the illustrious sheykh, the accomplished Head (physician), the erudite, capable, noble, and 'efficient' Faḍl b. Khalaf, may God enhance his honored position and grant him long life and wonderful success. Amen. 

God knows how much I am yearning for your excellency, my master and lord—may God enhance your honored position. My wife, known as Sitt al-Sāda, the daughter of Khalaf, the woman from Tripoli, wife of Mr. Yehuda ha-Maʿārāvi has by now stayed with you for a long time. If she intends to join him and to be with him as before, being his wife under his care and command, have her come up to Cairo, Roofed Passage Ibn Ayyūb, and stay with her guardian and dear husband, the beloved of her heart, and be with him as the pious and chaste men of Israel are with their wives. She will be reserved, going out little, except to the prayer hall of the Karaites and to the bath house, but stay in the house of her husband, and he will be with her as God, may He be praised, has ordained in His Law, which guides on the right path, namely with affection, good will, love, and generosity. If she does not wish this, let her divorce me and leave me and I shall go and marry another wife, for I have no longer strength for bachelorhood and solitude. I have already made a legal inquiry in this matter... 

 

Recto, right margin

She should come and take her embroidery frames from the house of the Qawwās and her bucket and tray from the woman teacher and come up to Cairo to my house, in the Roofed Passage Ibn Ayyūb. She should hurry and not leave her things,

Recto, upper margin

By the Torah, the Religion, and the Oral Tradition, send me my wife, the lifeblood of my heart, my beloved.

Verso

but come and take her things, whether she wishes to divorce me or to be my wife. I shall do her no wrong and not rob her of her embroidery frames or her jar, her glass … , her small trunk at the ... of my house, or her bucket or tray at the woman teacher. Have her come and take everything whether she will be my wife or divorce me. 

If she returns to me, I shall be with her better than I was before. I shall serve, obey, honor, respect, and treat her with deference. I shall be the slave, and she the mistress, the queen, and I her slave, her freedman, and this is my duty. So have mercy with me because of my bachelorhood, solitude, and my living in Cairo, for it is too difficult for me. If she does not come, have her set me free, whereupon I shall immediately set out for the countryside and marry—then, she will blame me, but I cannot be accused by her, I am innocent. Leading the life of a bachelor in Cairo is extremely difficult for unblemished and chaste persons. If she does not come, I shall leave the city for the Rif. There are many girls available there and I shall marry one of the finest, a girl or a widow. 

And Peace. Peace.

 

Verso, margins

By God, my lord, do not disappoint me; send my wife to Cairo with her Maghrebi relatives, for leading the life of a bachelor in Cairo is very, very difficult. I cannot bear it. 

The prices here: nine pounds of pure bread cost 1 1/8 dirhem. Two irdabbs of (regular) wheat (cost one dinar). Nine and a quarter waybas of good wheat (cost one dinar). Bread is cheap and cannot be sold. After the first third of the night some of mine have still remained in the market.

The sheykh Abu ʾl-Munajjā occupies today a high position and place. And Ibn al-Salʿā … [did this or that to (cut away)] Abū Naṣr.