Letter: T-S Ar.41.140

Description

Business letter in Arabic script from Abū l-Surūr b. Abū l-Munā (a Jewish man, which we learn in v5) to Abū l-Majd b. Abū l-Munā al-Dumyāṭī, in Asyūṭ. Abū l-Surūr defends himself against a charge of neglecting the addressee's affairs. He reports that as soon as the addressee departed, Khalīl became sick with a wound/ulcer (qarḥ). Khalīl paid Abū l-Surūr 68 dirhams in four installments for the shop, and continued to go to work even though he dozed all day long, and ultimately became homebound and died on the 2nd of Ramaḍān. Abū l-Surūr was unable to obtain any of the money which the deceased owed to the addressee. Ten days later, Abū Bakr al-Qasṭallānī produced a ḥujja that the deceased had owed him 700 dirhams from a qirāḍ partnership, and Abū Muḥammad b. Maḥfūẓ produced one that the deceased owed him a (non-partnership?) debt of 200 dirhams. They went to court, and the qāḍī ruled that only the holder of the ḥujja for the partnership (sharika), i.e., Abū Bakr al-Qasṭallānī, could collect his money. The shop was sold for 150 dirhams, but even so Abū Bakr only recovered half of the money due to him. (There are two asides at this point: During the time when Khalīl was sick and homebound, the clothier came to the sender, who paid him 20 dirhams. Also, the owner of the shawl (miṭrafa) which had been pawned with the addressee for 3 dirhams came and redeemed it.) Abū l-Surūr now rebukes the addressee for not having listened to him and staying with his shop. If he had followed this advice, he wouldn't have lost so much money and brought upon himself all this toil and trouble. Abū l-Surūr emphasizes that he spared no efforts in attempting to sue Khalīl for the money owed to the addressee, even when Khalīl was sick. One day, Khalīl's mother came and saw that he was distressed, and he said, "Abu l-Surūr the Jew sued me for his friend's money and said 'hand over the goods,' which wounded my soul." Whereupon the mother came to Abū l-Surūr and "held on to [his] collar (aṭwāq)" and accused him of killing her son. Abū l-Surūr says, "my soul would have left me were it not for the neighbors and Khalīl (restraining?) her." The same story repeated itself when Abū Bakr al-Qasṭallānī came and sued Khalīl. The letter concludes on a note of all's well that end's well: "If you come back, God willing, you can have a shop for 50 (dirhams) and you will do well and recoup (your losses)."