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Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat ,

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11 January 1052 CE. Apart from business matters, this letter contains information about the struggle over the position of Rosh ha-Yeshiva upon the death of Shelomo b. Yehuda. It appears that the Maghribīs are very involved in this struggle. Yisrael mentions in passing that the remnants of his illness are still with him (r7). Information from Gil. ASE

Letter from Marduk b. Musa in Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. (c. July 1048 CE). Marduk expresses outrage as he reports on the opening of a bundle of commodities passing through Alexandria on its way to Fustat; the goods included a qintar and forty ‘jarawi ratls’ of wax and a bundle of silk (khazz). The letter also mentions an order for earthenware goblets (‘saghar’) with gold luster in Fustat. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:337, 487; 4:149, 394; Jessica Goldberg, Trade and Institutions in the Medieval Mediterranean, 173) EMS

Letter from Moshe b. Yaʿaqov, Jerusalem, to his wife's brother Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: 28 July 1053 CE. Additional echoes of what we found in the previous letter (T-S 13J6.22), after having received a letter from Nahray in the interim. Moshe heard that Nahray had sent money, clothing, and myrobalan with Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Baradānī, but these have not yet arrived. Moshe recently recovered from an illness (iltiyāth) and is still weak. Avraham ha-Ḥaver has also been sick. Information in part from Gil. ASE

Letter from Barhun b. Salih Tahirti in Fustat to his cousin and partner, Barhun b. Moshe Tahirti in Alexandria, reporting about merchandise sold in Fustat and requesting that more be bought in Alexandria. He also has some personal requests. The letter was written over a period of five days. It also deals with the market fluctuations for the period. In a postscript Nahray b. Nissim writes that he is moving from the Tahirtis' house into a rented space of his own. This indicates a dating of the latter around 1050, from the early years of Nahray's involvement in the commercial life of Fustat after his arrival there ca. 1045. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim, Egypt, to Abu al-Faraj Yeshu'a b. Isma'il.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1062 CE (Gil). Topics: trade in oil, cumin, paper, books; the serious illness of ʿIwāḍ b. Ḥananel; and the dire situation in al-Mahdiyya. Nahray was very worried about ʿIwāḍ, but he ended up improving (lines 6–7). Cf. T-S 10J10.27, from 1060 CE, in which ʿIwāḍ himself writes to Nahray about his intestinal bloating and how he is scared and does not know what will happen.

Letter probably sent from Malīj to Nahray b. Nissim.

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: March 1062 CE. Among other matters, Yisrael reports that he is in bad shape: he was sick with congestion (nazla), a cough (suʿāl), and eye pain (wajaʿ al-ʿaynayn), although now he is feeling somewhat better. He asks Nahray to obtain bitumen (qifār) from Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa, and send it to him, "for this is the most helpful (drug) for me." ASE

Letter from Ismail b. Yitzhak ha-Andalusi, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1065. Blessings for the holiday. The writer asks to pass an attached letter to his mother and brother in Spain. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 285-287, #512) VMR

Letter from Moshe b. Yaʿaqov, Jerusalem, to his wife's brother Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: June 1053 CE. The letter is mainly about arrangements for the long-deferred pilgrimage of Mūsā b. Barhūn al-Tāhirtī to Jerusalem. On verso, amidst family greetings and business matters, Moshe conveys his wife's urgent request for myrobalan for her to drink. There are no details about why she needs it, but presumably it is as medicine for an illness.The block of text containing the order set off from the previous block. At least four letters from Moshe to Nahray survive: see also T-S 13J13.5 (from March), T-S 13J17.18 (from July), and Halper 411 (May 1054 CE).

Letter from Nahray b. Nissīm, Fusṭāṭ, to Barhūn b. Ṣāliḥ al-Tāhartī, probably in Egypt, ca. 1045, concerning business between the two. Mentions a shipment of pearls. Nahray sends his blessing to Khalfa, from the Tāhartī family, for his marriage to a woman from the Uqba family. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, pp. 711-714, #242). VMR. Nahray anxiously mentions to Barhūn that he has already paid the Amīr's emissary Abū Ishāq 150 dīnārs in Fusṭāṭ and it concerns him that the Amīr is still demanding the same from him in Alexandria. "If, God forbid, he continues to demand payment from you after he knows that it was already collected from me, then you will certainly remind him of his own letter to his emissary Abū Isḥāq, so that he will return to us what he has taken from us." YU.

Letter from Nissim b. Yiṣḥaq al-Tāhartī, in Sūsa, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1052 CE. The letter mentions the connections that Nahray has with the Tāhirtī family as well as business matters with two Muslims, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and his son Abū ʿAbdallāh (Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ,
s s
I. 39 and margin). It mentions also Nissim b. Ya'aqov, who leads a center of learning in Qayrawān. The writer respects Nahray and will try to get him the books that he wants. Nissim opens the letter by conveying his concern for Nahray's eye disease, and his happiness that Nahray's condition is better now than "when the doctors frightened you regarding it" (r4–6). Later, in the context of Nissim's troubles this winter, he conveys the news of a woman (identity unclear) who is very sick (recto, right margin). (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, 3, pp. 319–24, #389)

Letter from Awad b. Hananel from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1060. In the handwriting of Avraham b. Abi al-Hayy and concerning business matters, specifically a shipment of nuts that was send by the writer to Nahray, and a shipment of oil that Nahray sent to the writer. Also mentions several other goods, and an apartment belonging to Nahray in Alexandria, in which the writer lives. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, #567) VMR

Recto: Deed of sale written by Natan b. Avraham Av. Location: New Cairo. Dated: Tuesday, 5 Kislev 1420 Seleucid, which is 10 November 1108 CE. Sitt al-Aqrān bt. Yosef ha-Kohen, the wife of Yehuda b. ʿAllān, sells her Nubian female slave Naʿīm to Sitt al-Munā bt. Natan/Hibatallāh, the widow of Nahray b. Nissim, for 20 dinars. There is a clause stating that Yehuda b. ʿAllān permitted (? amḍā li-zawjatih) this sale. Witnessed by Menaḥem b. Shemuel, Yaʾir b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen, and Ṣemaḥ b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. Verso: Subsequent deed of sale in Arabic script. Sitt al-Munā sold Naʿīm to the Christian physician ʿAbd al-Masīḥ b. Maqāra(?) b. Hārūn for 20 dinars. Dated: First third of Dhū l-Qiʿda 508 AH, which is March/April 1115 CE. Witnessed by Hibatallāh b. Ḥasan (=Netanʾel b. Yefet?). (Information from Goitein's index card, Aodeh, and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, 918.)

Letter from Barhūn b. Yiṣḥaq to Nahray b. Nissim, January 27, 1047

Letter from Barhun b. Ishaq Tahirti (Mahdiyya) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat) June, 1047.

Letter from Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1058. Mentions several goods including silk, copper, and seashells. Mentions family matters. The writer is concerned about family members and especially about girls that became orphans. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 215-224, #367). VMR

Power of attorney from Yisrael b. Yosef Januni to Nahray b. Nissim to collect the debt owed by Menashshe b. David, Qayrawan, ca. 1055 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim and Barhun b. Ishaq. 1061. Details about shipment of silk and linen cloths and a partnership in trading pearls. Mentions the news about the death of Isma’il b. Barhun al-Tahirti. Also mentions that the trading with Sicily is still happens despite the events in the island. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #295) VMR