PER H 86
Recto/verso: verso
Informal note from Ibn al-Ḥarizi (apparently the famous Spanish Hebrew-language poet Yehuda al-Ḥarizi) to Eliyyahu the Judge. Dating: Before 1225 CE and probably after ca. 1215 CE. (Our main source for the biography of al-Ḥarizi is Ibn al-Shaʿʿār al-Mawṣilī, whose section on al-Ḥarizi has been published and discussed by Yosef Sadan in Peʿamim 68.) In Judaeo-Arabic, with many crossed-out phrases and interlinear corrections. He had intended to travel by sea from Alexandria to ʿAkkā in Palestine, but he is preoccupied on account of his books and effects worth 7 dinars that he has left in Alexandria and cannot bring with him. He fears they will be damaged if he has them sent with a muleteer. He has been forced to do something himself (travel with them? travel without them? the preposition "ʿan" is confusing here). He wants Eliyyahu to ask Ṣadaqa the Jew to help him, or at least stay in his place "until I return from Alexandria." He also fears that the goods won't reach him if he goes ahead to Bilbays (spelled בולביס) east of Cairo and waits for them. He says there is no need for Eliyyahu to come resolve the matter himself. He sends regards to al-Rayyis al-Muhadhdhab. On recto there is Hebrew poetry in a different hand, at least one poem by Yehuda ha-Levi. (Al-Ḥarizi tore up the literary text in order to get a blank page for his letter). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) This letter was edited by Blau and Yahlom in Masʿe Yehuda (2002), 271–75. A note in Goitein and Friedman, India Book II, p. 459 n. 8 (and English edition p. 521 n. 8) indicates that there is some disagreement about the interpretation of the letter (or at least its opening). ASE
Editor: Ed. S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions https://princetongenizalab.github.io/goitein-notes/6E.2.4%20AIU_%20Manchester_%20P.%20Heid_%20PER_%20Philadelphia/PER%20H%2086%20%28PGPID%207031%29.pdf.
