State document: T-S NS 38a.126

Description

Petition, in Arabic script. Apparently from a Muslim sender (there are the standard prayers for Muḥammad in the last line) to a Jewish addressee (something has to be arranged before the onset of the Sabbath, dukhūl al-sabt, ll. 7–8). Most of the formulaic beginning is torn away, so only the body is preserved. It reads roughly as follows: "I hereby inform you that I heard that you were looking for me, but I was in the castle and could not come to you. Then I woke up on Thursday and went to Cairo, but I couldn't find you, and I also went to the castle and couldn't find you...." The reason the sender is looking for the addressee has something to do with cassia fistula (khiyār shanbar). On verso there is Hebrew liturgical text. ASE