Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef b. Peraḥya (Ibn Yiju) ha-Dayyan to his paternal uncle Shemuel ha-Melammed (who has a son named Elʿazar), in Fustat (c/o the shop of Abū l-Makārim in murabbaʿat al-ʿaṭṭārīn). In Hebrew (for the introduction) and Judaeo-Arabic. On the sender and the addressee and their family, see Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, pp. 84–89. The addressee is known from documents ca. 1152–76 CE. Apart from the elaborate opening blessings, the letter has two topics: (1) "I have great longing for you and am compelled to write to you, but you—by God, you are not seized by longing, for I am not something that is longed for, I know that myself... I write twenty letters and do not receive a single response. But what can be done? "All the brethren of the poor (do hate him)" (Proverbs 19:7)." (2) Greetings to numerous people: Abū l-Maʿālī and his son Shelomo and his mother; Abū l-Bahāʾ; Abū l-Munā; (here there are condolences for a bereavement); Abū l-Fakhr; Abū l-Makārim; Abū l-Riḍā(?); Abū Isḥāq; Abū l-Khayr; an unnamed woman; and three more women (Umm Abī l-Khayr, Umm Manṣūr, and Sitt al-Fakhr). (Information in part from Goitein's index card and various citations in the India Book.)