Letter: ENA 3733.1

Description

Business letter. In Hebrew. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 16th century. Mentions Shemuʾel b. ____[?] in the first legible line, but this is likely not the letter recipient/addressee. The port of Dimyāṭ (Damietta) is mentioned in line 5 in connection with a ship (ספינת) that may have been bound for Cairo given the reference to "פה מצרים" in the following line. The phrase "פה מצרים" also points to the likelihood that the letter sender was writing from Cairo. There are jottings and elaborate signatures on verso beneath an illegible address. One of the signatures may be Moshe[?] ha-Kohen and the other is from a different person but is barely legible. The middle portion of the signature may contain the cursive word "Abi" (אבי), akin to "Abi Zimra" but it is unclear what the rest of the surname is afterwards. MCD.