Letter: T-S 8J18.19

Letter T-S 8J18.19

Tags

Input date

In PGP since 1990

Description

Letter from a widow, with one orphaned daughter and whose house had collapsed, petitioning a high-ranking official in the community for assistance. The woman employs the common strategy of appealing especially for her fatherless daughter, and indicates furthermore that she herself was an orphan. (Mark Cohen, Voices of the Poor, 89) EMS

T-S 8J18.19 1r

1r

Transcription

S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions.
  1. עבדתה אלדאעיה לה
  2. יתימה בן אלעאבד נע
  3. בשמך
  4. אעלם חצרה מולאי אלריס אלאגל אדאם אללה תאיידה
  5. אן קד וקעת אלדאר אלדי כנת אנא ואליתימה נתאוא פיהא
  6. וקד בקינא חאירין מא נדרי איש אלדי נעמל והו אדאם אללה
  7. עלאה ינטר פי חאל אלאיתאם והו יעלם אנני מרה מנקטעה
  8. האלכה פיסתגנם דעאי ודעא אליתימה אליל ואלנהאר לאן
  9. מא לנא אל[א אללה ואלחצרה . . . . . . . . .

Translation

Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005).

Recto

Your slave who prays for you 

The orphan girl, son [sic] of al-ʿĀbid, (who) r(ests in) E(den) 

In your name, O Lord 

I inform my master the most illustrious head, may God make permanent His support (for you), that the house in which I and the orphan girl were sheltered fell down and we were left bewildered, not knowing what to do. You, may God make your high place permanent, look after the condition of orphans. You know that I am a desolate woman about to die. You earn my prayers and those of the orphan girl day and night, because she does not have [...]. 

 

T-S 8J18.19 1v

1v
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