Scholarship on Letter: ENA NS 48.8

Recto, main text

Recto, Main Text:

1. 1-4: I [hope]

2. to receive [from you, my lord—may]

3. God [make permanent] your honored position!—[a letter, in which you honor me by asking me to take care of any of ]

4. your needs and propitious affa[irs . . .] [This is to inform you of ]

5. my (his excellency’s servant’s) hardships [caused by the illness of my father in the month of . . . until]

6. his death, which was in the month of Adar—may he f[ind mercy! And I suffered, after]

7. his death, oppression at the hands of the rulers. And aside from that, [. . .] we have suffered

8. here in the city and the entire land of Yemen tremendously high prices

9. and scarcity. Millet and wheat reached here a dinar for three mikyāls,

10. and even for a smaller quantity. All of the foodstuffs are costly, from the first to

11.  the last. May God, the Exalted, make the outcome of all these

12. matters good! The land has again become frightful now

13. for us, because of Sultan ʿAlī b. Abu ʾl-[Ghārā]t, since

14. Sultan Sabaʾ waged war with him and too[k . . .]

15. and destroyed al-Khaḍrāʾ, which was his (ʿAlī’s) stronghold [. . . He]

16. left it only after extreme hardship [. . . which included. . . .]

17. and burning houses and plundering warehouses. Thank God, w[ho saved (?)]

18. the land. He (ʿAlī) had been a great oppressor of the people. The

19. Sultan Sabaʾ died shortly after this. And the land is still frightful.

20. We pray that God, the Exalted, make the outcome good. I sent

21. with Abu ʾl-Yumn a shipment to you and to the late Abū

22. ʿImrān b. Nufayʿ. You, my lord, happened to travel, with the protection

23. of God, and Abū ʿImrān passed away. And the condition of my lord al-Ḥalabī [. . .] nor

24. what he had with him and that with which he transacted, by God’s de[cree]. All of this is because of my bad

25. luck. Then the man die[d]. I received a letter from Sheikh Abū

26. Zikrī, who wrote that in a court session I, your servant, obtained (was awarded) seventy-seven

27. dinars minus one sixth. Perhaps this is one half of the (value of the) goods. But,

28. thank God, the Exalted, whatever was obtained from it is profit.

29. Last year I wrote a power of attorney to the illustrious Sheikh

30. Abū Zikrī, who acts in kindness to me and all [our comrades],

31. because of his esprit de corps, generosity and virtue. Please accept for [your] estee[med self...] 

32. best wishes for your well- being.[...]

Recto, right margin

[...] Your s[ervants] my children, all of them, greet your excellency with best wishes for your well-being.}