מכתב: ENA 2738.7

תיאור

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Recto opens in the middle of an interesting story: "Six Venetian ships arrived, bearing great bounties (niʿam ʿaẓīma), and all of our 'companions' (aṣḥābnā) [who] arrived in them honored you. They made profit by supplying (tarābaḥū fī l-ziyāda) the Byzantines (al-Rūm) and brought about terrible results....: the Muʾminīs sold for 52 2/3 per 100, and the tutty(?) sold for 4 1/6 and a dāniq per ounce. The (value) which they supplied (zayyadū) to the Byzantines in this transaction and to the government was over 2,000 dinars, and all of it was to them. They completely ground the economy to a halt (? aksarū al-ḥāl jamīʿah), outside and inside, and all by the desire of 'our friend' (ṣāḥibnā), and how he does not turn a blind eye but rather demands that everything be as it should be. And not every person can tolerate the humiliation (dhilla) and treachery (jabīna). This is what happened. The saffron sold for 50 and 51...." Further down, mentions the mint (Dār al-Ḍarb) and gold. Verso mentions a young woman (al-ṣabiyya). Then, "When I received your excellence's dear letter, I stopped everything until receiving confirmation from you in this, and I went to him and rebuked him very much about this. His excuse was the matter of Ibn Yeshuʿa, until he should finish the work...." Then there is further explanation of this work which hasn't been done and how the craftsmen are idle. Goitien summarizes recto, "A group of merchants connived with the (Jewish) Rūm, so that only the latter and the government made great profits." There is also Goitein's partial handwritten transcription and notes in the attached documents. The word מומניה is difficult; Goitein suggests but doubts maʾmūniyya (=rice porridge or almond ḥalwa) and then wonders if it could be a variant of mūmiyāʾ (pissasphalt, "mummy"), but this too would be a strange way of writing it. A third possibility which Goitein does not mention—it may refer to the Muʾminī dinars minted by ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, the founder of the Almohad dynasty, and this exchange rate of 52.67:100 would be plausible based on information from Ibn Jubayr (e.g. https://shamela.ws/book/11203/26). If this is the correct reading, the letter probably dates to around the second half of the 12th century.