Geniza Lab

Will, in which the testator grants a lot of valuable property to various people in his family, including a kānūn sharābiyya (a syrup-maker's brazier?) and a female slave named עב[...] to one of the women in his family.

Letter from Umm Abū ʿAlī, in the Rif, likely near Damīra, to her son Isḥāq, in Fustat. The latter may live with his aunt and uncle, as the letter is addressed to the writer's sister’s son, Abū l-Munā. The writer is ill, and she repeatedly tells Isḥāq to tell Umm Abū l-Munā to send myrobalan and a medicinal syrup back with the messenger, presumably to be furnished by Abu l-Muna’s father who is a maker of syrups (sharābī). Isḥāq's wife seems to be pregnant (the writer is waiting for "khalāṣ zawjatak"). The writer invites her sister Umm Abū l-Munā to visit her in the village by promising plenty of watermelons to eat. This letter is mentioned in Mediterranean Society, I, p. 121. The Arabic address reads: "yaṣil hādhā l-kitāb ilā waladī al-shaykh Abū l-Munā b. Abū Surrī al-sharābī min khālatihi Umm Abū ʿAlī ... dār al-wāzīr (or wāzīn?)." ASE.