Letter: T-S Ar.30.228

Description

Letter from a man to his son. In Judaeo-Arabic. In rudimentary handwriting and orthography. He reports that the 10 dirhams have arrived and that he is in good health. The only reason he didn't write before now is that he was waiting for the money. He reports that he is hoping to purchase or redeem (? אשתריה או אסתרהנה) 5 pawned books (asfār, later tafātir for dafātir), in which case he would need more money. The tragacanth (kathīrā') is with Muslim. The father objects to the son's order to purchase gallnuts (ʿafṣ), perhaps because Muslim has some already that are neglected (? muhmal). The letter is addressed to the dyer (אצבג = אלצבאג) in נוא (= No Amon = Alexandria? or maybe פוא for Fuwwa?). The Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic jottings filling the remainder of verso are mysterious; the bottom four lines in terrible handwriting are roughly the same as the first lines of the actual letter.