Letter: T-S 16.150

Description

Verso: Drafts of at least half a dozen letters and other texts in Arabic script. One letter (written between the lines of another one) is to the writer's maternal aunt (khālatī sayyidatī al-ʿazīza). This one contains only expressions of longing. The letter around it is addressed to a dignitary and may report that someone has been captured (qubiḍa ʿalā X jazāhu allāh), and may God expose the works of a certain group of dogs (jamāʿat al-kilāb). Another letter by an official titled Nāṣir li-Dīn, to the wazīr who is also the supreme judge and chief Dāʿī beseeching him to look out for him. Another text block is the beginning of the muʿallaqa of Imruʾ al-Qays ("Qifā nabki...") Another text block, located in the margin at 90 degrees to the muʿallaqa, names one of the parties from the Judaeo-Arabic legal document on recto, or perhaps his brother: "...and the slave was employed with Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Sahlawayh b. Ḥusayn in the ṣināʿa (arsenal? manufacture?)." Dating: recto contains a legal document from 1057 CE, so this side is probably later. Merits further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)