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*כתאב ?כתאב |
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Join: T-S 12.30 + JRL SERIES B 2367
T-S 12.30
Recto/verso:
Section:
Fragment of a letter composed circa 1236 CE by Abu l-Ḥasan Yedutun b. Abu Sahl Levi, at one time the cantor of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat, who signs his name Ḥasan b. Sahl. The letter is a detailed explanation of the funeral and financial arrangements following the death of his father Levi and his brother Moshe, with the aim of exonerating himself from the accusations of Abu l-Bayan and Abu l-Fadl (the sons of Moshe?) that Yedutun “took the property of their father and grandfather.” Yedutun’s father, Levi he-Ḥaver, died on the 24th of Tishrei in 1211. His brother, Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, died on the 20th of Adar in 1212. (This is consistent with the information from T-S NS 264.98, a letter written by Moshe, indicating that both Moshe and Levi were alive in 1206.) We also learn that Abu l-Mufaddal the judge died in 1212, only a month or so following the death of Moshe. Yedutun repeatedly refers to his own illnesses, claiming that he was too ill to have had any part in the disposition of the estates, let alone steal more than his share. He notes in the postscript, again emphasizing his physical infirmities, "It has been 24 years since my brother Musa died. [If there is substance to their claims,] how have they ignored this matter for all this time? ... Every penny that falls into my or my wife/family's hands goes to [Abu l-]Bayan... and it is the same with Abu l-Fadl." This letter clarifies an ambiguity discussed by Shulamit Elizur in her article, “Individual Mourning and National Solace in Early Liturgical Poetry,” Ginzei Qedem 7 (2011), pp. 16–24, in which she presents T-S NS 135.3b (Yedutun’s elegy for his father Levi) and T-S NS 325.135 (Yedutun’s elegy for his brother Moshe). Each poem mourns multiple deaths—a father, a brother, and a judge—in addition to the main subject of the elegy, and this letter clarifies that Yedutun indeed lost a father, a brother, and a judge in rapid succession. Join: Alan Elbaum. ASE.
Ed. S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions. Partial transcription on FGP https://princetongenizalab.github.io/goitein-notes/6F.2.2%2012.1-300/T-S%2012.3%20%28PGPID%203122%29.pdf; also ed. Alan Elbaum, (2019). 12/2019, remainder.
Type: Letter