מכתב: T-S Ar.39.386

תיאור

Letter of appeal from a man, unknown location, to Musallam (or Musallama) Abū ʿAlī, the wakīl of Shams al-Dīn Ildakīz al-Birṭāsī, in Minyat Bāsik in ʿAmal al-Sharqiyya (present-day al-Minya in the district of al-Ṣaff in the province of Giza). In Arabic script. Beautiful handwriting. Dated: 7 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 644 AH, which is 23 July 1246 CE. The sender asks the help of the addressee, "because, as everything is so expensive, he has contracted debts, and himself eats only bread and onions. Presumably, there was a wakīl in every iqṭāʿ, and each of them enjoyed prestige and wealth, similar to that of the Shaykh Musallam." Information from Rabie, Financial System of Egypt, p. 65.