Letter: Bodl. MS heb. d 75/17

Description

Original document: Letter from [...] b. Shemuel to Abū Naṣr Mufarrij b. Ḥusayn b. Shuʿayb. In a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script (for the text in the margin). The sender has been ordered to pay 50 dinars to Abū l-Khayr, a request that he cannot refuse. He asks the addressee to make the payment via the jahbadh (government treasurer) Abū Najāh b. Yūḥānas (אבו נגח בן יוחאנס אלגהביץ). The 50 dinars should be taken from those that are hidden in dār al-ṣarf ("the house of money-changing," see Med Soc IV, p. 28). Goitein identifies this Abū Najāh with the well-known monk Abū Najāḥ (b. Qannā or Fannā in the chronicles), who acted as advisor to the caliph al-Āmir, ca.1125–28 CE. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) The addressee may be the same as the one mentioned in Bodl. MS heb. c 28/62 (PGPID 9298). Secondary document: Accounts in Arabic script on verso. Several numbers are mentioned, and potentially dates.