Letter: p. Heid. Hebr. 1

Description

Verso: Letter from Barakāt b. Abū l-Faraj al-Dayyān (=Shelomo b. Eliyyahu) to al-Shaykh al-Rashīd Abū l-Ḥasan. In Arabic script. Dating: early 13th century. Asking for a loan of 40 dirhams using a turban as collateral. The sender conveys his condolences on the death of the addressee's brother, who used to aid him in just this way. He prays that God does not "close your door in our face as He closed his (=your brother's) door," i.e., he is praying that God keep the addressee alive. Same sender and purpose as recto (PGPID 7038), but different addressee. See also ENA 3927.1 (PGPID 10296), which has the same sender, addressee, and purpose. See also T-S 10J8.2 (PGPID 1563), which is definitively from Shelomo and uses the same opening formulae as this letter. NB: this document is also known as p. Heid. Hebr. 898 and as P.Heid.Arab. III 42, and verso was edited by Werner Diem (https://www.apd.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/apd/show2.jsp?papname=Diem_Heid_III_42). P.Heid.Arab. III 43 (a request for 20 dirhams from Abū l-Najā) and P.Heid.Arab. III 44 (sympathy for a sick woman, addressed to Abū l-Maḥāsin) are also by Barakāt/Shelomo. (Information in part from Werner Diem's edition via the Arabic Papyrology Database and from Goitein's attached notes.) ASE