Letter: DK 238.4 (alt: XIII)

Description

11th century letter from Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq near Tripoli to his son Mevorakh b. Avraham Ibn Sabra. See Oded Zinger’s dissertation, which mentions this letter several times and gives a partial translation on p. 305. “Avrahamʼs daughter had been divorced from her husband and her son returned her home to her fatherʼs place in Fustat. It seems that at least two children remained with the husband. The daughter was deeply depressed and longed to return to her abusive husband.” She had been in bed for three months, abstaining from baths and festivities, and saying that she will be grief-stricken until she dies and that she will never marry again so that her ex-husband will be punished for her sins. Remarkably, Avraham returns to this story in the last phrase of the letter: "It is a problem with the mind, to ask after someone who does not ask after you." He also conveys family news, including his delight that Mevorakh's wife has given him a daughter in his "old age." Abu Sa'd, whose "life is renewed" after surviving a serious illness, is on his way to Mevorakh's location from Tripoli. Oded Zinger, “Women, Gender, and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents from the Cairo Genizah,” Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2014, p. 305.