Letter: Yevr.-Arab. II 1454

Letter Yevr.-Arab. II 1454

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Letter from Dāʾūd [...], possibly in Jerusalem, to his 'brother' Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov the physician (Samawʾal b. Yaʿqūb al-Mutaṭabbib), in New Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic, with an introduction in Hebrew and the address in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 16th or 17th century. The sender excuses himself for failing to write by citing a problem he had in the brain (al-dimāgh) which descended to his chest, and which required 7 or 8 months of purging. He is tired of the dressings and ointments, and is is scared of the barbers (muzayyinīn) of Jerusalem, because he has no experience with them. One barber diagnosed him with a fistula (nāsūr) and treated both him and the husband of his daughter Raḥel. The sender went somewhere else (Tyre?) for one month to convalesce. Greetings to and from numerous people in the family. Mentions ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, the beadle ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḥakīm, al-shaykh al-sadīd, al-shaykh al-saniyy Farajallāh Ibn al-Nushuww, the sender's maternal aunt Raḥel, Mūsā Ibn Khaṭīr, ʿAbdallāh al-Qayyim, Ibn Juwayhira, and many others. Resembles Yevr.-Arab. II 1457 and its associated letters in terms of the vivid medical details found in it.