Letter: T-S AS 170.278

Description

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Vocalized sparsely with Hebrew vowels. Dating: likely 11th century. The section preserves here opens with a reference to how no person (communal leader?) should be invoked in the prayer, but only the House of David. The following lines are too vague to understand well. Refers to a benefaction from Abū Kathīr Ibn al-Tadmurī for a group of people in the (Muslim?) court (majlis al-ḥukm); mentions that Abū l-Faraj ʿImrān and a group of elders occupy an equal position (? קד קאמו קיאם מסתוי) in this issue; and Abū Naṣr has 'gone down' from it. Someone closed his majlis al-ḥukm and then opened it and nobody came, and this thing is "diminishing/declining" (wa-l-amr fī inḥiṭāṭ). Refers to someone who was the reason that other people were arrested. The addressees are reassured that everything will go well. At the bottom of verso there are a few lines of faded Arabic script at 180 degrees; the unusual letter combinations and possible vowels are reminiscent of Arabo-Hebrew — but it is difficult to read anything. ASE