Note: This database is re-populated every day at midnight, Eastern Standard Time. Information in this database may become unavalable for approximately 10 minutes while this process completes.
Tag: fez
5 records found
Letter from an unidentified Torah scholar. Dating: Likely 11th century. The writer mentions the city of Fez and people who have become affluent and are honoring him ('and the station of the Torah'). He very happily reports on the birth of a son to him—"may God keep him alive and preserve him and send him a speedy recovery(!)"—whom he named after his late father. The letter may be addressed to a woman, based on the verb endings in the margin of recto, but this part is difficult to read. On verso, it seems that the writer's brother had died without offspring. He prays that God will keep his son alive so that he can 'toil over him like my father toiled over me.' There seem to be blessings for a female family member around here (wa-razaqakum tanẓurū awlād awlādhā). The writer says he is always praying for the addressee during Birkat Kohanim. He greets Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa ha-Levi and his two sons Moshe and Yeshuʿa.
Copy of a letter from Shemuel Gaon b. Hofni to the community in Fez. The beginning of the 11th century, handwriting of Sahlan b. Avraham. Mentions tragic events that took place in Fez, including killing of community members and destroying of the synagogue. The writer sends his deep condolences. The letter was probably sent from Baghdad through Fustat and Sahlan copied parts of it. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #51) VMR
Legal document or documents. Dating: Late. In Hebrew. Mentions the city of Fez (verso, line 2). Involves a woman and her husband Yiṣḥaq. Mentions the dowry (nedunya) and 80 gold coins.
Business letter by a young Spanish merchant writing from Fez to his father in Almeria, Spain, revealing that he preferred not to use his father's house in Fez but to stay with friends instead in order to be able to declare his merchandise as destined for a local merchant. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 61-62 and Goitein's translation, attached.) After he was forced to pay the governor (qā'id) and customs inspector (mutawalli al-ʿushūr) and sundry others, "I was sick for three days out of anger and sorrow. Had I possessed here the same courage as I usually have in Almeria, I would have escaped with less than this. But I consoled myself with the solace of one who has no choice."
Small and faded fragment of a letter sent from Fez.
