T-S Ar.43.71
Memorandum (tadhkira) for a trader named Mufliḥ b. Binyamin Ibn Ahwāzī. In Judaeo-Arabic. In which he orders a scarf (radda) with his son’s name (Yaʿaqov b. Mufliḥ b. Binyamin) to be embroidered on it in Hebrew script. This fragment contains additional accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, as well as a recipe in Judaeo-Arabic for a kind of wine (nabīdh al-dā[..]). The trader is based in Aden, as a note in Arabic script on verso reads "wazana/wuzina ilayhim fī furḍat ʿAdan," referring to a payment made in the customshouse (furḍa) of Aden. Goitein writes, "Another order for a garment embroidered with a name, presented by a father to his son, written, as usual, in Arabic language, but Hebrew script, raises problems. It is an incomplete draft of a memo to be sent from Aden to Egypt. I translate in full, line by line, so that the reader may be the judge:
(1) Memo from the sheikh Mufliḥ [Successful]: (2) A Dabīqī scarf (radda)
(3) five cubits long and
(4) five spans broad
(4a) of highest quality,
(5) bordered by two embroidered inscriptions (maḥshiyya bi-ṭirāzayn)
(6) each running from one edge to the other (ḥiwālayn kull ṭirāz)
(6a) the first
(7) written in Hebrew script:
(8) Yaʿqūb b. R. Mufliḥ
(9) b. R. Binyamin
(10) [Given] to Ibn Ahwāzī."
For further information on tirāz, see Stillman, Arab Dress, 120–37. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes; Goitein, Med Soc IV, 197–98; and Goitein and Friedman, India Traders p. 428 n. 80.) ASE
Editor: Ed. S. D. Goitein, India Book 7 (in Hebrew); also ed. S. D. Goitein, unpublished editions https://princetongenizalab.github.io/goitein-notes/5B.1.2%20India%20Book-%20trade%20docs%20291-end/T-S%20Ar.%2043.71%20%28PGPID%209219%29.pdf.
