Scholarship on Letter: AIU XII.86

Recto

 

1. To his excellency, our dear friend, the most noble Muʿallim Ibrāhīm ʿĀdāh the revered, may God the exalted preserve and keep him.

2. After [expressing] our copious longing for your excellency, with best wishes and fecund [?] health at all times: we have received your noble letter,

3. written on the 16th past, and we praise [Go]d the exalted for your complete good health. Don’t blame us for the delay in replying, for

4. our minds have been preoccupied and our hands have been bound by the disorder: the plague that has appeared here,

5. an untimely thing, and we ask God the exalted to remove it with the coming of cold days, and that it may not last much longer.

6. We implore the protection of [Go]d the exalted and ask for your prayers, and that you not blame us for the delay in replying but accept our excuse.

7. We are apprised of your receipt of our letter informing you of our request for the remainder of the price

8. of the box of coral [payable in] Sennārī gum arabic. You got it for us and packed [it in] four baskets of known

9. weight and price and expenditure. We received the gum with the four baskets and registered them to your belovedness.

10. May we be face-to-face in affinity, and God is thanked [for] your favour and your zeal. We were hoping that the price

11. for the gum would be more than what you got it for, be- cause here, high-quality Sennārī gum has sold for a price of 23–25 per 100 ... [perhaps a unit of measure].

12. The standard measure is 60 [qirā]ṭs per basket, and prices have absolutely dropped in al-Bīkūryā [? a place name], whereas there, it is selling for a price of 20,

13. may God the exalted recompense the people with good. The [vendor’s] box of coral that we have just received is small

14. and wrapped up, and Muʿallim Bakhūr informed us, regarding you, that he will apprise you of it; if you wish [lit., ‘if you were wishing’] to appoint him [as agent] to acquire it

15. for you, inform us. The material [?] is nearby; don’t worry, and may our Lord respond with good. Our status is the same.

16. We can’t stress enough our desire to know that you are in good health.  Honour us with your service. Convey our greetings and our copious

17. longing for our dear friend Khwāja Ibrāhīm Tilki [?] and Muʿallim Mushamshir [?] and to your client[s].

Signature

1. From your loving friends,
2. Yūsuf and Fransīs
3. Zakkār

Right margin, perpendicular

1. on 18 Shaʿban 1217 [14 December 1802]

Right margin, upside-down

1. Muʿallim Samuel and Hanā, the friends, greet you,

2. May God the exalted preserve you and ... you, and peace.

Verso: Address

1. With the will of [Go]d the exalted,

2. may it arrive in Cairo the well-protected and be delivered soundly to the mighty hand of our dear friend Muʿallim Ibrāhīm ʿĀdāh,

3. the coral merchant.