Scholarship on Letter: L-G Misc. 35

Recto

1. [My lord and] illustrious master, may God make your welfare and happiness permanent.

2. [I have to convey] to you, my dear boy, something which I shall immediately describe,

3. ... Abu 'l-Khayr was] with al-Muntaṣir. Al Muntaṣir died [and Abu '1-Khayr disappeared]. 

4. Consequently we are lacking clothing and food to a degree I am unable to describe. But

5. [our relative] Joseph was not remiss in providing us with cash, wheat, and other things. Moreover,

6. he returned to me the collaterals, which I had given him, so that I could place them with someone else. God the exalted, deserves thanks

7. and has imposed on us to thank Him. You must write him a letter of thanks.

8. ...

9. About the books of Abu 'l-Khayr I learned only in Tripoli. For the

10. crate was locked and I learned about its contents only in Tripoli …

11. I witnessed much bloodshed and experienced everything terrible. I was told that,

12. as soon as al-Muntaṣir died, Abu 'l-Khayr disappeared. He had books and I [pawned]

13. his books and yours for 5 dinars. Your letters concerning them

14. have arrived. If the Nagid—may God keep him in his honored position—manages to send 

15. 5 dinars, he will do so in the way of charity and thus ransom all the books, whereupon

16. I shall send them to you. If he (Abu 'l-Khayr) is all right, he will ransom them and send them

17. [to you]. I learned that Abu 'l-Wafāʾ was taken by the Bedouins at the time when his brother disappeared. I am

1. a luckless young woman, suffering both by the hunger of the family, and especially the baby girl, who are with me, and by

2.  the bad news I heard about my boy. If my lord, the Nagid, has sworn that he would not go to my aid

3. and visits on me the iniquities committed by Abu 'l-Khayr, have mercy upon me you, your sister, and your mother,

4. as far as you are able to do so. 

Verso

1. As far as I am concerned, by our religion, it is better to be captured by the Rūm (the Crusaders), for

2. the prisoners find someone who gives them food and drink, but I, by our religion, am completely

3. without clothing, and I and my children are starving. Now,

4. do not neglect me. Be mindful of the family bonds and the blood. Show your affection for me

5. by writing to me. The brother of this man was not remiss towards him, when he first arrived

6. here, until he sued them for an inheritance. This led to a complete rupture between them, and no one

7. of them talks to me ... Miserable days have come upon me. Must it

8. be so? At the time when I was in Jerusalem, your letters and contributions came

9. to me plentifully, as is proper between two sisters, but now you cut me.

10. I am writing these lines while the people are on the point of sailing. I have not described in this letter even a fraction of

11. my real state. Accept for yourself my greeting of peace. And may God extend his peace to my lord the Nagid and my lord the Ḥāvēr.

12. Greetings also to your mother and sister, and to his excellency, your paternal uncle. And regards to everyone under your care.

Verso, upside down

Right side:

To my lord and illustrious master [...] Abu 'l-Aʾlā, may God keep him. 

Left side:

[From] his grate[ful] A[bu '1] Riḍa. Convey and be rewarded!

Between the two lines in small script: son of Abu 'l-Khayr, son of ...