מכתב: T-S 10J6.4

תיאור

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Missing the top of recto and the address on verso. Dating: Goitein dates it to ca. 1210 CE, based on the repeated reference to Abū l-Tāhir in connection with the Rayyis; he identifies the former as the beadle Abū l-Ṭāhir b. Maḥfūẓ (active ca. 1183–1223) and the latter as Avraham Maimonides. However, the letter also mentions Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Qamḥa who is known from a document from 1156 CE (PGPID 31842). The sender places an order for 12 irdabbs of wheat as well as different types of wine products (nabīdh, khamr, muwallad). The sender may have been a physician and/or a person of some importance. He alludes in vague terms to various dealing with the Rayyis ("you may speak to the Rayyis in my name"). He also admonishes, "Your mother should not fast (as an expression of mourning for the dead), for this will impair her health." (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 435–36.)