מכתב: T-S 8J15.19

תיאור

Lower part of a letter, possibly a postscript to a preceding letter (there is a wide space before l. 1). Probably sent from Damīra to a family member in Fustat. The letter illuminates important aspects of silk manufacture and trade. The sender informs the addressee that he had previously sent 18 dirhams (evidently to purchase silk), "but the customers blamed the silk greatly and rebuked the servant (i.e., me) very strongly, attributing it (the poor quality of the silk) to my inability. Specifically, the laʿāliʿ [this term probably refers to untwisted silk, based on being contrasted to mabrūm here and in other documents] was all tow (Ar. mishqa), and the crimson twisted silk (mabrūm) was coarse (ghalīẓ). It (word of this?) did not spread at all. It arrived in Damīra, 12 (dirhams) of profit. A person was present who claimed that the lord kindly sold to the servant less than what he could sell (?). As for the combing of the untwisted silk into tow (Ar. tamshīq al-laʿāliʿ), this was attributed to the craftsmen who made the untwisted silk (Ar. laʿlaʿūhu) out of a middling robe without the lord's knowledge. Judge every man favorably." The sender appears to be implicitly blaming the addressee for the low-quality goods he had sent but is offering him an out (in the spirit of judging favorably). See also Goitein's index card ("the recipient had sold him for less than he usually did"). Reused on verso for piyyut, starting על מה יציר תיגע עצמך. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE