Geniza Lab

One of two drafts (the other is Moss. Ia,7) of a curious and obsequious letter from a man whose handwriting is known, apparently to a man named Yahya b. Khalid who has a son named Abu l-Mahasin. In this version: he describes how he saw the recipient in the kitchen on Sunday and an idea occurred to him that the recipient approved of (possibly to travel to somewhere other than Bilbays?). However, the writer decided it would be better for him to travel to Bilbays. He has not traveled yet, because it is unthinkable to travel when the doors of the house are still in their sorry state: the main door needs to be fixed, and the door of the upper floor/apartmnet needs to be replaced completely. He alludes in very vague terms to his personal difficulties (according to the other copy, a febrile illness since Friday). He then gives his excuse for not having come to attend the recipient (before he traveled?) as requested; he says merely that he had a good reason (in the other copy, he cites his fever) and that he cut off his prayers and tried to fulfill the command. He goes back to the matter of the doors to explain why he has not yet left the house. Other letters that may be in his handwriting (distinctive in part for including Arabic diacritics over Hebrew letters, e.g. two dots for "t" and three dots for "th"): T-S 12.346, T-S 8J15.20, T-S 12.652 (dated after 1165/6), and T-S AS 151.22. ASE.

Letter from Ashkelon to Bilbays about the ransom of a captive.

Letter in which a physician traveling from Cairo to Damascus describes how he was honored by the Jewish judge of Bilbays. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 227, 228)