מכתב: Unknown (excavation images 1974_P04_04A-05 and 1974_P04_05A-06)

recto

1. In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate.
2. (This is) my letter to you, my father, who is dear to me—may God prolong your life and cause your strength, your support, your happiness,
3. your safety and your wellbeing to endure—and (I have written this) while missing you greatly, may God bring ustogether in the happiest circumstances in his kindness and grace.
4. He has the power over that and is able to do it, God willing. What I wish to inform you of, my father, is that wehave arrived in Soba
5. safe and sound. I lack nothing by the gracious kindness of God except the opportunity to see your gracious face.
6. I wish we did not lack it or were not bereft of it. All we have in our power is something missing that is longed for. Please make an effort to
7. send us your news with whomsoever may happen to travel to the land of Nubia. We would be happy about thatand be able
8. to be informed about what he knows about your situation. We are only meeting one another by chance. If the king had
9. come to us in Soba, we would not have stayed in the country more than a month or two months, but they/he—(We are) with
10. the merchandise that we have for the king and his army, but we have found that there is only little (business) in the land.
11. We are in good health. We arrived in Soba in the last ten days of the month of Ramaḍān in the year
12. four-hundred and eighty-five (25th October–3rd November 1092 AD). I am writing this letter on the tenth day of Shawwāl (13th November 1092 AD). I send you
13. warmest greetings. Greetings to my mother. Greetings to my children and my family. Greetings to my brother ʾAbū al-Durr.
14. Greetings to my grandmother and maternal uncle. Greetings to ʾAbū al -Qāsim and Muḥammad. Greetings to ʾAbū al-Ḥasan
15. and Ṣabīra. Greetings to Yaḥyā and Qāʾid. Greetings to the elder ʿAlī.

verso

1. Greetings to ʾAbū Jaʿfar and ʿAlī. Greetings to all our neighbours. Greetings to everybody who asks after us.
2. My brother-in-law sends you greetings.

verso, address

Right Column

1. May this letter arrive from ….. and from my brother-in-law
2. and from my companion ……………

Left Column

1. …………
2. May it reach Bū Ḥasan.