Geniza Lab

Letter from Ṣamṣām, a prisoner in Nāblus, to al-Qāʾid Muʿizz (according to the body of the letter) or to the heirs of Ṣārim al-Dawla, in Cairo (according to the address, which also specifies "to al-Bāṭiliyya, under the cross-street bridge (sābāṭ) of the house of Muʿizz al-Dawla"). In Arabic script. Of note, there are few details about what it is like to be a prisoner in Nāblus. The letter mainly consists of a complaint about a lack of letters and the sender's isolation and cut-off state. He may be particularly disconsolate about having to pray alone. He urges the family members to respond quickly with their news and the news of who is alive and who is dead and news of a certain Murhaf ('and spare me nothing'). Edited by Claude Cahen, “Une lettre d'un prisonnier musulman des Francs de Syrie,” in Etudes de civilisation medievale... melanges offerts a E. R. Labande (Poitiers, 1975), 83–87. Transcription and translation (into French) are available on the Arabic Papyrology Database: https://www.apd.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/apd/show2.jsp?papname=Cahen_Prisonnier&line=1. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) AA. ASE.

Recto and verso are both late family letters in Judaeo-Arabic by the same writer, perhaps to different recipients. The writer goes into great detail about ongoing court cases regarding a certain building, some of which involved Muslim courts and a Shāfiʿī judge. The city Nāblus is mentioned (the "dear boy" Naṣr Allāh traveled there). Other names mentioned include the son of Abū Qays; Mūsā; Farjūn; the son of Abū Sharīf. The ashrafi is the currency used.The writer states several times that he is worn out. ASE.