מכתב: T-S AS 146.89 + T-S NS 99.56

תיאור

Letter from an India trader, possibly in Aden, to an associate, presumably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. mid-12th-century. Two fragments of the letter are preserved here; the beginning and the address are still missing. The sender conveys news of Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Amshātī, who traveled from Ceylon in a small boat of the kind known as maṭiyya, but pirates (surrāq) captured it and he was "cut off" (munqaṭiʿ). (This Abū l-Khayr Ibn al-Amshātī is not known from the published India Book documents but may be the same as the one who appears in T-S NS 305.82 (PGPID 35209).) Then, "as for Abū Naṣr, he remains (יתצל?) in India (בלאד אלהנד) . . . without success (גיר מצלחה), may God have mercy on us all." Apparently "they" (Abū Naṣr and Abū l-Khayr?) do not wish to return to Egypt (ואנמא הם לא ירידו מצר). The sender collected 15 dinars from Abū Muḥammad b. ʿĀmir as payment for goods, of which 2/3 dinar are for the addressee (and presumably the remainder for the sender). The sender collected 21 dinars from Mahdī, of which 2 dinars are for the sender (and presumably the remainder for the addressee). The sender searched for something to buy for the addressee but either did not find it or will wait for the mawsim (monsoon, sailing season) to send it. He asks for news of the "Bet ha-Midrash" and greets the addressee and his son. Verso and the margins of recto are covered with jottings in Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic. One of the Judaeo-Arabic jottings includes the name Abū l-Faḍl. The largest Arabic text block on verso is a "consignment letter" (Kaplony refers to the Quṣayr al-Qadīm documents of this type as Geleitschreiben) specifying the goods which are to be conveyed to (yusallam ilā) al-mawlā al-shaykh al-ajall al-muʾayyad al-manṣūr. The Arabic text in the margin of recto consists of commodities, including vetch (jullabān), with corresponding quantities and Greek/Coptic numerals. Join: Alan Elbaum.