Scholarship on Letter: ENA 3959.1

Jane Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah (Open Book Publishers, 2026).

Sulṭānım ḥażretlerinin ḫāk-ı pāy-ı şerīflerine ʿarż-ı bende-i bī-miḳdār ve zerre-i ḫāksār budur ki ben ḥaḳīr faḳīrü’l-ḥāl ve zū-ʿiyāl
olub, Maḥmūd Ketḫüdā ʿİnāyet nām Yehūdī ṣarrāfı Baġdādoġlu’nun mevcūdātı içün ṣayrāfī
gönderüb, bunda Mıṣır’a geldikde, iki buçuḳ aydan ṣoñra fevt oldı, ben ḥakīr daḫi Baġdādoġlu’nun
Ḫān-ı Ḫalīl’de ṣatılan esbābın aḳçesi ṣayrāfīsi olub, ḥāliyā Maḥmūd Ketḫüdā fevt ol[ub],
‘Yehūdī’nin şerīkisin’ deyü dutub, ben ḥakīrden ḥaḳḳ ṭaleb ider bī-günāh. Devletlü
sulṭānım’dan istidʿā olunur ki ʿale vechi’ş-şerʿ görüle tā ki ben ḥaḳīre ẓulm olmaya.
Sulṭānımın eyyām-ı ʿadāletler[inde] kimesneye ẓulm olmaz. Bāḳī fermān devletlü sulṭānımındır. //El-faḳīr el- ḥaḳīr// Mūsā

Jane Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Genizah (Open Book Publishers, 2026).

This is the petition of the worthless slave, who is but a speck of dust, to the noble dust under the feet of my esteemed lord. I, the lowly one, am poor and have many dependents.
Maḥmūd Ketḫüdā sent a Jewish ṣarrāf named ʿInāyet as an accountant for the estate of Ibn Baghdād,
[but] two and a half months after he arrived here in Cairo, he died, and I, the lowly one,
became the accountant for the money from Ibn Baghdād’s textiles sold in Khān al-Khalīlī. Now that Mahmūd Ketḫüdā has [also] died,
they detain me, saying, ‘You are the Jew’s partner’, and demand that I pay what was owed, [even though] I am innocent [of any debt].
It is requested of my illustrious lord that you impose the sharīʿa so that I, the lowly one, am not oppressed.
In my lord’s days of justice, no one can be oppressed. The eternal command is my illustrious lord’s. [Signed] //the poor, lowly one// Mūsā

ENA 3959.1 1