Letter: BL OR 5557K.9

Letter BL OR 5557K.9

Tags

Input date

In PGP since 2022

Description

Letter or official correspondence, in Arabic script. Almost complete with the top honorifics missing. The writer confirms receiving 4 dīnars (of tax?) and he set apart 86 dīnārs for paying the wage of a Turkish man. Several letters were sent at the hands of Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥāq to the Amīr Ṣafīyy al-Dawla and towards Alexandria seeking the fulfillment of their requests. If there is a delay in responding and he remains in town, he will be left with no means of survival, nor anything to consume, and he and everyone around him will perish. "وان بقي في هذه البلدة بلا معيشة تحصل له ولا شي تقتات به تلف المملوك وتلف من وراه". Needs examination.

BL OR 5557K.9 recto

recto

Transcription

Yusuf Umrethwala and Alan Elbaum, unpublished editions (n.p., 2022).
  1. [بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم]
  2. […………………………….اطال الله] بقاه وادام تأييده وعلاه وتمكينه وسلامته
  3. شاكرا لله تعالى ولها ولما حصل الخرج (الجرح؟) بالاربعة دنانير وهو من الله تعالى ومنه فوزن العـ[ـبد] شهد الله
  4. منها ستة وثمنين درهما اجر[ة]؟ لكرار؟ للتركي بين ابو الذر قرابة الشيخ ابو الفضل وبقيت اربعة وسبعين
  5. بعثناها(؟) في هذا العشرين يوم الا قد كانت حضرته الاجلية ادام الله سلطانها وعدت عبدها
  6. على يد الشيخ ابو يعقوب اسحق كتب الكتب الى الشيخ صفي الدولة بن بولس(؟) والى الاسكندرية
  7. وهو يسل ويتضرع بانجازها وقلع المملوك من البلد فان حاله //اهل// هذا الرجل حال فسحة (؟) لعل يحضر [ما
  8. يعود به عليهم لستر (؟) ما وجهه وان بقي في هذه البلدة بلا معيشة تحصل له ولا شي تقتات به
  9. تلف المملوك وتلف من وراه وربما تغتم عليه وجميع الاصحاب فتحرص بتعجيل كتب الكتب لخروجه
  10. الى ما يوفقه الله او معيشة يوجد(؟) بها وقته فهو على صعوبة لا يـ[ـعرفــها الا الله تعالى وما [له
  11. قدره الا الدعا والشكر ليستجاب الله تعالى في الممل{ك} صالح الادعية فيه ان[شا الله] برحمـ[ـته]
  12. ولها … الله عزها رايها الموفق ان شالله
  13. والحمد لله وحده على عباده المصطفين

Translation

Yusuf Umrethwala, PGP Translations (n.p., 2023).
  1. [In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate]
  2. [May God prolong] his existence, preserve his support, glory, strength, and safety,
  3. expressing gratitude to God Almighty and to him (the addressee). When the tax was received, it was four dinars, and it was from God Almighty and through him. The slave weighed them and bears witness to God,
  4. from it are eighty-six dirhams as payment for Karar (?), the Turk, between Abu al-Dhar and the Abu al-Faḍl the elder. And the remaining seventy-four [dirhams]
  5. we sent them in these twenty days, except that his eminence, may God preserve his glory, had promised his slave,
  6. at the hands of Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥaq, who wrote the letters to Ṣafī al-Dawla bin Bulus(?), and to Alexandria.
  7. He asks and implores for its approval and the removal of the slave from the city, for his situation // the people // like this man, is unfortunate (?) may he bring what
  8. will help him return, and cover him from what he is facing. If he remains in this town without a livelihood, he won't find anything to sustain himself;
  9. the slave will perish, and the ones around him will also perish, and perhaps difficulties will surround him and all his associates. Therefore, please expedite the writing of letters for his departure
  10. to what God wills or a livelihood through which he can spend his time. He is in difficulty that [only God Almighty knows, and nothing is his power
  11. except for supplication and gratitude, so that God Almighty may respond in the slave the best of prayers, [God willing] by his mercy,
  12. and to him may God [protect] his glory belongs the lofty resolution regarding this, God willing.
  13. Praise be to God alone, [and blessings] upon his chosen servants.