Letter: T-S 10J17.4

Recto

I(n the name of the) M(erciful) Your slave Joseph b. ʿAllān

the Alexandrian 

kisses the ground before the [l]ofty, most illustrious seat of the master R. Ḥananel the wise and discerning, son of his honor, greatness and holiness (our) ma(ster) and t(eacher) Samuel the precious elder, the munificent benefactor, may his end be better than his beginning and may he live a long life to see living offspring from you, and may He make your own reputation a good one in this world and the next. 

I inform you that I am from a good family. My father is one of the India traders, and God favored us. Your father knows my father and brother Futūḥ, who recently went on a journey to Yemen and died on shipboard. The elder Maḍmūn took his money and transferred it to his heirs in the port (Alexandria). When he (my brother) was setting out on his travels he made a bequest of something to me, if his time should come, namely, that I should be paid something out of his estate. But no docum[ent] to t[h]is effect was properly executed and recorded, for we were drinking at the time. Your slave went up (to Fustat) to appeal to his excellency our lord, may his glory be exalted. The latter wrote a number of letters to the community on my account, hoping I would be provided with something to take back to support my family, which consists of nine souls. 

Now that I am starving and thirsty and without clothing or anything else, I ask God and you to "cover" me with a robe so I can enter the synagogue to hear "Kadosh" and "Barukh" in the presence of the noble God, having in the past been used to wearing "niṣāfī" and "ṣābūrī" and "mutakhkhat." May He save me from a cycle (of misfortune). And may your welfare increase.