מכתב: Bodl. MS heb. b 3/26

תיאור

Letter from Alexandria to a merchant in Fustat (Gil) or from Fusṭāṭ to Aden (Goitein). Dating: 1065 (Gil) or c. 1100 (Goitein). Gil's description: the letter contains a list of the prices of different goods and mentions collecting debt in Aden and persecution of merchants from Genoa in Alexandria. Goitein's partial translation: "The Sultan [al-Malik al-Afqal] imprisoned the Genoese, which caused great consternation among the Rum [here: Europeans in general] and no goods can be sold because of this. It looks as if this recession will last long, so that everyone's business has come to a halt." Goitein continues: "The imprisonment of the Genoese most probably was connected with the great Genoese exploits during the Crusaders' conquest of the Syro-Palestinian coastal cities (Caesarea, 1101; Acre, 1104; Tripoli, 1109; Beirut, 1110). That Genoese merchants should have frequented the marts of Old Cairo at a time when their fellow citizens attacked vital ports of the Fatimid empire seems strange to us today, but was perhaps looked upon differently in the early years of the twelfth century." Information from Med. Soc. 1:45.