מכתב: NLI 4°9463.9

תיאור

Letter from Ḥasan b. Isḥāq, in ʿAsqalān, to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn b. Yaʿīsh al-Parnas, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. The sender writes on a Thursday, after arriving in ʿAsqalān. He is staying in the funduq of the qāḍī Ibn Khiḍr. He ran into Ḥaffāz (may God preserve him) while en route to visiting Ibn al-ʿAni ("son of the poor man"). Ḥaffāẓ took grave oaths (aymān ṣaʿba) that cannot be violated and took the sender into his home and embarrassed him with hospitality. "He did everything in the world to make me leave my house, but I didn't let him, because my chest is constricted from my separation from my father and my family, and my eye weeps day and night, for my father left me(?) in Ramla... and I do not drink wine or cooked food (i.e., due to the pain of separation)." The sender had asked Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAmmār to purchase something for him. He says that if he were able to return the gold, he would do so. He has sent previous letters from Tinnīs and from Ramla, but has not received a response, "and I do not know if this is disdain or anger or (merely) a delay." A certain woman had asked the sender to buy her a muṣḥaf, but the cheapest he could find was for 3 dinars, and if he purchased it he would not have enough money to continue on his journey. Regards to the sender's sister and to Sitt al-Ahl and al-Baghūḍa(??) and to Abū Kathīr. The last line of the letter reads, "Hopefully Abū Manṣūr will arrive with my father. By God, we have suffered tremendously from his indecency." The addressee of the letter is well-known from many other Geniza documents; see the index of Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, under ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Parnas b. Ḥayyim. (Information in part from NLI catalogue: https://www.nli.org.il/he/manuscripts/NNL_ALEPH997007966688605171/NLI#$FL128464597.) OZ. ASE