Geniza Lab

Letter from Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, in Alexandria, to his son Faraḥ b. Ismāʿīl, in Būṣīr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Gil suggests 23 September 1056 CE. This is because the letter was written on 12 Tishrei, likely the same day that Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ wrote T-S 10J15.4 to Nahray b. Nissim. Gil dates T-S 10J15.4 on the basis of its similarity to BL OR 5542.9, which was written when Monday fell on the 27th of Elul, which apparently happened in 1053 CE and 1056 CE, and of the two he believes 1056 CE to be a better fit. The letter possibly contains information about Nahray’s eye disease, a report that Ismāʿīl will soon travel to the villages to buy linen, and the news about the bad events that are happening in Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #491) VMR. Nahray is known from other letters to have suffered from ophthalmia, but it is not clear that his eye disease figures in this letter. Gil reads, "bi-mā tabaqqarat lahu ʿaynuhu, wa-innahu ʿalā ʿayn mā tarāhu" (r5–6), and translates, "that his eye split open and he stands to lose his vision in one eye." However, when the phrase עלי עין מא תראה appears in other Geniza letters it seems to refers to a temporary not seeing or not being seen, e.g. "do not buy anything if eye-does-not-see" (T-S 13J26.22) or "if my son turns out to be a worthless employee, get rid of him ('make him eye-does-not-see')" (T-S 24.78). The second clause in the sentence in this letter could also be wa-anta ʿalā ʿayn mā tarāhu, meaning '[you received word from Nahray about X] without having seen him.' The first clause is difficult to read; the form "tabaqqara" does not appear in Arabic dictionaries, and it is possible that the word ʿaynahu is actually ʿaybahu. In sum, both the reading and the meaning of the sentence are obscure, but it is likely that there is no information here about Nahray's eye disease. Corroborating evidence for the absence of illness is that Ismāʿīl wrote to Nahray on the same day (T-S 10J15.4) and two days later (T-S 8.66) and did not send good wishes for a recovery. ASE.