מכתב: AIU XII.116

תיאור

Fragment of a mercantile letter in Arabic script. Relatively large (the bottom 22 lines are preserved + 4 lines in the margin + remnants of the address on verso) but poorly conserved, and the first 11 lines are difficult to read. ENA NS 48.2r (PGPID 5408) is a copy of a section of this letter (ll. 17–22 of the main text and l. 1 of the margin) in Hebrew characters, omitting only the blessings for the prophet Muḥammad. Therefore the sender is likely Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan, and the document dates to 1136–39 or 1145–49 CE; see PGPID 5408 for further discussion. In the letter, the sender explains that he has no need for a certain item and that the addressee also has no need for it; mentions commodities including betel nut, raisins, the unidentified DRKY (الدركي) from the ruler of Dahlak (al-ṣāḥib Dahlak), and other undeciphered items; mentions a sum of 60 Malikī dinars; the arrival of the Kārim fleet in Aden; a group of "stray merchants" (tujjār mutawwahīn) and their trading activities; an extremely high price for a commodity whose name is difficult to read (150 dinars a bahār); and the same issues discussed in ENA NS 48.2, including how the governor (al-mālik al-sayyid) Bilāl b. Jarīr bought up all of the DRKY for his own use, leaving none for the other merchants, and the economic setback (labṭa) this year. ASE