Scholarship on Letter: T-S K25.279

recto

(1-5) . . . and in the sukka. . . the conflict broke out, and they erected mangonels against the city. On the day of Simḥat Tora they took the city and plundered it, and they took them as captives: him, his brothers, his sister, and his frail(?) wife (6-10) Sitt al-Ruʾasāʾ the sister of al-Nasi al-Fakhr, m[ay his glory] b[e elevated]. 

He said: They had a boy just over two years old, like the children. . . the young man on. . . from the Jews of the city, because he served them(?).

He said: Together with the people of the city, we were (11-15) several thousand men, women, and children, and they drove us before them like it was the Day of Judgment.

He said: When we arrived at Wādī ʿUmayr, the women could no longer walk from their fatigue from carrying their children.

He said: The Tatars took the babies and threw them onto the road (16-20) in the. . . and they took in their [hands] the baby boy and threw him down off of the shoulder of the woman carrying him.

He said: The baby was wailing and crying out “bābā bābā,” and his father Shelomo tried to pick him up, but they wouldn’t let him. The people and the animals trampled them, along with the babies they had thrown down (21-22) and those who could no longer walk. 

He said: His wretched, frail mother kept screaming and screaming, and she remained. . . .

verso

(1-5) . . . may God the exalted content us with this and have mercy upon us for His sake and for the sake of His servant David. We are in a very difficult state from the inflation: we buy 1 raṭl of br[ead] for 13.5 qirṭās. We are in great distress. Everything (6-10) which the boy al-Nasi al-Fakhr, m[ay his glory] b[e elevated], possessed, clothes and other things, he has sold. Every week he. . . and spends it on us, may God the exalted. . . . [He cannot find?] any work in medicine, and for this reason his livelihood has dried up. We were receiving maintenance but it has been cut off. If we receive anything, it is only (11-15) a trivial amount, for everyone has turned away from us, and they do not show us any great love. The physician Barakāt, al-Tifʾeret, m[ay his Rock] p[reserve him], and the master the physician al-Fāḍil. . . . [the . . . of] the physicians. . . and other notables apart from them (16-20) approached me and proposed, “Let us obtain a rescript for you, and you will be our head and our judge and look after our affairs.” I thanked them for this. . . and when they came back to me and [...] in the matter and commenced upon it, I met with the notables and others and said, “I may be unable to do this (21-22) for various reasons, firstly. . . .”