Letter: T-S AS 156.237 + T-S AS 156.238

Description

Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, Aden, after his return from a difficult voyage to the southern coast of India, to ʿArūs b. Yosef. Before its second arrival at Kūlam, the ship evidently had two nākhudās on board, 'Alī Nāwak, who disembarked at Fāknūr, and a second nākhudā who subsequently died at sea, and who had evidently been the one responsible for navigation. After his death, the ship remained without a "head" and without charts (as well as something else, which cannot be deciphered due to a lacuna). "We intended, on our way home, to travel to Aden, but riots and bloodshed occurred, and [who]ever was in the town fled. The [shipmas]ter, namely, 'Alī Nāwak, wan[ted] also to flee, but I discovered this ... and I informed [X about it] ...We loaded the textiles and the iron during the night, for he (Nāwak) had the power to keep us back (by refusing to sail). Finally, we all fled to Fāknūr... , where 'Alī Nāwak disembarked and remained, while we went on in the same ship to Kūlam and stayed there for some time. The captain had been ill while still in town, but we sailed for ten days.... God granted us safety, but the captain had a stroke and died. We threw his body overboard into the sea. So the boat remained without a commander and a ..., and we had no charts. After twenty days we arrived in Kūlam ... The ... and the manager came on board and took the ship from us, confirming its rights to its proprietor, being afraid of 'Alī Nāwak. . .. Two captains traveled with us, after they had signed documents (confirming their obligations) towards us, and we set sail." (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, pp. 127–28) Full translation in Goitein, "Portrait of a Medieval India Trader: Three Letters from the Cairo Geniza," BSOAS 1987, 455–56, 459–63. MR