Letter: T-S NS 329.999

Description

Letter from an unknown writer, probably in Qūṣ, to an unknown addressee, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century, but this is a guess. The writer describes a harrowing Nile voyage "due to the illness of the passengers and loathsome odors. Three of them ended up dying. The last one survived for a day and a half until he died. I remained in distress from the stench that wafted from him, and nearly perished." The writer then safely arrived in Akhmīm on Friday as evening was falling, so he spent Shabbat in the city. He had to pay 10.5 dirhams (of customs?) upon leaving on Sunday, after swearing that he had nothing with him except the clothes (? qumāsh) on his back. He mentions al-Shaykh Abū Isḥāq b. Mushrif/Musharraf who had paid the customs duty for the קמקין (?). The writer wished to inform the addressee of this earlier, but there was a delay of five days before he arrived in Qūṣ. "Your servant arrived in Qūṣ and experienced on the side of aṣḥābunā a measure of hospitality which I am unable to describe even in part. They kindly took an apartment for me, a place which can be locked, before I arrived. . . " On verso there is Mishna Avot. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society 1:298, 474; 5:31-2, 513.) EMS. ASE.