Geniza Lab

Fragment of a deferent Judaeo-Arabic letter mentioning something that arrived form Damascus; something the writer sent with Yaʿqūb; Rabbenu Ḥananel; "the matter of the dyer"; and a matter that the mawlā is asked to take care of.

Letter from a man to his father. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 1238–52 CE, as it has to do with the removal of David I Maimonides from the post of Rayyis al-Yahūd (his tenure began in 1238, and he was reappointed in 1252 according to T-S 16.63). The sender reports on a circumcision that he performed on the 9th of Av for (the newborn son of) Mufaḍḍal al-ʿAnbarī, the paternal uncle of Muhadhdhab and Abū Saʿd al-ʿAnbarī. He then reports that the majlis of the Head of the Jews (=David I Maimonides) has been closed (the sender is on the side of David's opponents). R. Ḥananel has disappeared; some say that he went to Qūṣ, some say Alexandria, and some say he is hiding in Fustat. His son now gives public lectures on Shabbat and Monday and Thursday eves. "The ban of excommunication, the shofar, and the name of the Rayyis in the ketubba have all vanished from Fustat/Egypt." On Shabbat Devarim, the new Nasi, the brother of Shelomo, delivered the sermon. The same day, a decree was proclaimed, requiring Christians and Jews to wear a distinctive mark (ʿalāma and zunnār) under threat of life and forfeit of property. The sick son of Mardūk is improving; "the wife" is in her 7th month of pregnancy; the pressing (of grapes) has been much delayed this year. Information in part from CUDL and Goitein, "A Letter to Maimonides and New Sources regarding the Negidim of this Family" (Heb.), Tarbiz 34 (1965). ASE