T-S 24.6
Letter from the Jewish community of Palermo to the Jewish communities of Qayrawān and al-Mahdiyya, specifically addressing Elḥanan b. Ḥushiel and the Nagid Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram as heads of the community in Qayrawān. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. The writers praise the good deeds of Abū Saʿīd Khalaf/Ḥayyim b. Yaʿaqov ha-Sefaradi and his son Nissim. Thanks to their connections with the authorities, they saved many Jews from punishment after they did not pay taxes. They also saved merchants’ possessions after several ships sank in the water. In addition, they influenced the authorities to cancel a decision to expropriate part of the Jewish cemetery area. The letter mentions other individuals including a certain Natan, Avraham b. David b. Labrāṭ, Shemuʾel b. Moshe, Abū l-Faraj, who is on his way to Egypt, Moshe b. Yaḥyā the Perfumer, and ʿAmmar b. Yehoshuaʿ al-Ḥalabī. Signed by Shemuʾel b. moshe, David b. Levi, Shemuʾel b. [...], Sahlān b. Yehoshuaʿ, Yose[f] b. [...], [...] b. [...]el, Avraham b. Ḥayyim, Yehuda b. Eliyyahu, Eliyyahu b. Yona, Eliyyahu b. Avraham, [...] b. Yaʿaqov, Nissim b. Avraham, Mattityahu b. Yon[ah], [...] b. Yaʿaqov, Pappos (!) b. Shabbetay, Shabbetay b. [...], [...] b. Yehuda, Yiṣḥaq b. Yiṣḥaq the Cantor, Yiṣḥaq b. [...]. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #236.) Published by Jacob Mann, "The Responsa of the Babylonian Geonim as a Source of Jewish History," JQR New Series Vol. 9 (1918), 139–79.
Editor: Ed. Moshe Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael (in Hebrew) (1997), vol. 2.