Geniza Lab

Letter from a Ifrīqiyan merchant writing from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat) in which the writer outlines his problems with the capitation tax and notes that after Nahray’s intervention he paid two dinars this year, which he would not have minded, if other had been treated in the same way. Furthermore, “the tax-gatherers (ḥushshār, “ralliers”) and the director of the jaliya are not to blamed; all this is entirely the work of the Jews.” The opening formulae of the letter is preceded by the basmala in Aramaic-Hebrew form: בשמך רחמנא כתאבי אטאל אללה בקא מולאי (In Your name, O Merciful One, my letter, may God prolong the life of my master). (Nahray, 118; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:385, 611; and Esther-Miriam Wagner, “The Weakening of the Bourgeoisie,” in From a Sacred Source: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif,” ed. Ben Outhwaite and Siam Bhayro, Brill, 2010, 345-6) EMS