מכתב: T-S 8J16.27

תיאור

Letter from Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, Fustat, to his cousin Toviyya b. Eli ha-Kohen, in a smaller town, in which the writer refers to the health of the recipient’s brother’s eyes, stating “I received a note from your brother in which he complained that his eyes were in a very bad state and asked for medicaments. I went to the oculists [in the plural], informed them about his complaints, and they prescribed ointments and powders which I sent to him. However, the doctors said to me that the medicines would be of no avail, as long as he continued to work in sunlight, which his profession forces him to do.” The letter also references a ‘maker of razors’ (mawwas) and mentions Ibn al-Minqar Abu al-Ma’ali. Twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:421; 2:255, 579; and S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Friedman, India Book, 642) EMS