מכתב: ENA 1822a.1

תיאור

Recto with the address on verso: Letter from a man whose name is too faded to read, near al-Mahdiyya, to his 'brother' ʿArūs b. Yosef, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender is certainly a family member but may not be an actual brother (it looks like his father's name might be [Hi]lāl or [Bi]lāl rather than Yosef). The sender complains about his difficult circumstances and poverty and old age and presumably goes on to ask for money, but the specifics of his request are quite faded. "If you saw me you would not know me (cf. T-S 12.261 and T-S 6J6.19) on account of old age and lack of resources, and how I have to go up to al-Mahdiyya twice a day and the husband of [...] paternal uncle and my maternal aunt and my mother are (burdens) on my neck, and I have no strength but through God. I am worn down: even the prosperous are worn down in al-Mahdiyya, how much the more an old man without property or someone to take pity on me (? ḥanīn). By the truth of this letter, I do not take from the Muslim with whom I am staying any more than 2 gold qirats, and if it is enough for weekdays, there remains Shabbat and holidays and clothing. The qinṭār of flax has arrived with Ibn al-Futūrī, may God reward all of you and preserve your son for you." He goes on to swear "by the bread and that which is between us" not to neglect his request. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)