Geniza Lab

Letter (or rather three letters) from Mustaʿrib sages, in Safed, to the Nagid Yiṣḥaq Sholal, in Fustat. Dating: 1510 CE, based on the assessment of Avraham David. These letters complain of the conduct of a certain R. Moshe, the dayyān of Safed in Galilee. If we are to believe the writers, he was a rather unusually vainglorious, selfish and unscrupulous person, guilty of many acts of tyranny, misappropriation and corruption, and responsible for the perennial Safed Meat Scandal." The paper apparently bears a watermark "of the familiar hand-and-star variety, employed by many manufacturers in France, Switzerland, and Sicily, between 1490 and 1590 CE." Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 247.

Letter from the Egyptian physician ʿAfīf b. Ezra, in Gaza (detained there en route from Cairo to Safed), to Shemuel b. Yequtiel al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew opening. Dating: The beginning of the 16th century. The letter is a plea for help. ʿAfīf reports that Shemuel's letter arrived and was read aloud to the congregation of Gaza, which prayed for him (r19–22). He continues with an account of the illnesses afflicting his family members (r23–v1), all of which he has described in previous letters but has not received any response. "The family had been in the Mediterranean port for two months at the time of the writing of the letter, kept there by illness. The son was gravely ill {with bārida (chills) and sukūna (stupor?) and a nearly unstoppable nosebleed (ruʿāf mufraṭ)}. ʿAfīf says that he had sold everything, including his clothing, for the boy's treatment. The wife was confined to bed (marmiyya), unable to see, hear, or speak {"like a stone thrown on the ground"}. Seven times ʿAfīf cries out "Oh my lord Samuel," imploring him to answer this letter, which was preceded by others that had gone unanswered. Now he promises that this would be the last one, asking the addressee at the same time not to force him to send still another one, for writing such a letter was an ordeal, and finding a carrier for it almost impossible. {"Send me a response before I no longer have a response or need a further letter. O God, o God, o God, I have melted like a candle. 'My heart is become like wax; it is melted in mine inmost parts' (Psalms 22:15). . . . I cannot write a letter and send it but that my heart melts. . . . Every letter that I write is with great distress. I can barely find with whom to send it but that my heart gives out (yanqaṭīʿ) from walking."} ʿAfīf rejects with indignation the charge that he had brought this disaster upon himself (ʿamila bi-rūḥihi) by his own fault (probably by disregarding the warning that the family would be unable to make the journey). Practicing as a physician in Safed (which at that time began to assume its role as a major holy city) was done "for Heaven's sake." No doubt his inability to gain a livelihood in Cairo was another reason." (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 86, notes 196–203.) ʿAfīf additionally reports that the righteous R. Pereẓ died on the same journey. Apart from the implied request for direct financial aid, ʿAfīf asks Shemuel to stand security for his sister in Fustat, who is to sell off ʿAfīf's share in a family property that brings in two half-dirhems (muayyadis) per month. ʿAfīf wishes to return to Cairo, but does not have money for hiring a donkey. ʿAfīf b. Ezra (also known as Yosef the Egyptian), along with his traveling companion R. Pereẓ, also appears in F 1908.44XX, lines 70–94. Information from Goitein (note card and Med Soc V). ASE.