Letter: T-S NS 338.16 + T-S 6J10.7

Description

Letter from an unnamed woman, in al-Mahdiyya, to her brother, probably in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is concerned with family matters. She insistently urges her brother to come home. E.g, "Do not think, O brother, that the longer you stay in that land, your money will increase and your livelihood will multiply. O brother, the profit in you being well is [greater?]... than you being in a foreign land... and your money will not increase as much as you think." She alludes to the loneliness of their mother, especially after their brother Yosef married and moved to al-Jibāl (the mountain region of Tunisia), where he now has two boys (possibly twins), and after another brother, Mevasser, got married in Palermo earlier that year to the daughter of their relative Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Mazmīzī. She sends greetings (twice) from her husband and her children Zikrī, Farrāḥ, Barakāt, and Umm al-Yaman. She reports that she has taken Zikrī out of school (the kuttāb), and he is now working as a dyer. Their brother Yosef recently came to visit her in al-Mahdiyya, and he is doing well. Abū l-Muʿammār their brother-in-law sends his regards; he recently traveled to Sicily without bringing any goods with him. Join: Oded Zinger. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) ASE