Geniza Lab

Letter from the teacher Bū l-Ḥusayn Yehuda (b. Aharon?) Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to his third cousin and brother-in-law the physician Yeshuʿa b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in the hospital in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 12 Elul [4800+]168 = 4968 AM, which is 1208 CE (although Goitein's index card says 1217 or 1228 CE, maybe because he was working from a photostat). First section (r5–34): Yehuda specifies the steps he has taken to ensure the addressee's success in the study of medicine in Fustat/Cairo in order to begin practicing in Alexandria. (The pronouns are somewhat confusing in this letter, and it is not out of the question that 'my brother' refers to someone other than the addressee.) Yehuda previously sent instructions with the boy Muhadhdhab b. Merayot al-Kohen. Yehuda advises the aspiring physician to present letters of recommendation to the wālī, to the qāḍī, to al-Muwaffaq, to Ibn Tammām the supervisor (al-mushārif), and to Ibn Ṣadaqa (Goitein says this is a well-known Samaritan physician). Whoever wishes to study with them must study in Fustat and gain his 'certificate of good conduct' (tazkiya) in Fustat. He should strive for nothing but the tazkiya and spare no expenses, because if he obtains the tazkiya, then he will have obtained everything, and he will quickly recover the money that he lost. Yehuda has also enclosed three additional letters with the bearer of the present letter, one of which is a letter from Ibn Alqāsh to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd the aspiring physician's professor (ustādh). Yehuda has also sent 5 letters with the gentile Manṣūr al-Ḥarīrī who is, a relative of the wife of Ibn al-Tinnīsī. 3 of these are from the faqīh Ibn ʿĪsā: the first is a response to the letter from the aspiring physician, the second is a letter of recommendation to a man called al-Sharaf in the hospital, and the third is a letter to the son of the faqīh Salāma Ibn al-Aʿmā (this one is unrelated to the aspiring physician). The other 2 of the 5 letters are from Yehuda himself, one addressed to the aspiring physician and one to the professor al-Sadīd. Yehuda wants to write a letter to al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq Ibn al-Dimyāṭī but doesn't know his Hebrew name (Goitein understood "fluency"), so he asks the aspiring physician to send a letter with that information. There are further instructions about Ibn al-Tinnīsī and obtaining a ruqʿa in the hand of the judge (al-dayyān) from the Qaraite al-Shaykh al-Thiqa. Second section (r35–48): Yehuda has sent several additional letters with ʿUmar the animal driver (al-mukārī) because he was worried about his brother. Yehuda is in distress from the capitation tax. Ibn Ruzayq told him that the addressee had guaranteed it for Yehuda. Yehuda argued with Ibn Ruzayq about this, and Yehuda secretly went to the Christian tax administrator (ʿāmil) and obtained an 10-day extension. It seems that the question is whether they ought to pay Yehuda's brother's capitation tax in Alexandria; Yehuda thinks the money would be wasted, since he can't believe that it hasn't already been paid in Fustat, a month in a half after the deadline. The Christian told him that he heard from someone that Yehuda's brother had already paid it to the treasury (bayt al-māl) and that the receipt (wuṣūl) should arrive soon. Yehuda is desperate to know soon, because they are already 'under threat' (taḥt al-tahdīd). Third section (r49–end): Yehuda describes a shameful matter in Alexandria, namely, how the government banished the scholar and merchant Yosef al-Baghdādī as a result of false accusations made by associates of the judge Anatoli. Yehuda had previously sent an update on this matter with ʿUmar al-Baghdādī. There was an initial denunciation to the Jewish judge somehow involving a convert and a claim that Yosef threw watermelon rinds and urine at someone (v3–4). Then there was a scene in the synagogue involving the tearing of clothes and Yosef either genuinely fainting or pretending to faint. Anatoli, Seʿadya al-Ḥasid, Hilāl (probably the brother of Meʾir b. Yakhin), and the allies of Anatoli were also there. Yosef was then denounced to the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn as someone who curses the Jewish law and who must be banished from the city. So the amir sent 'the black slave' and his attendant (farrāsh) to search for Yosef, calling out, 'Where is the foreigner who is cursing people and their ancestors?' Yehuda attempted to conceal Yosef from the search party by saying, 'This is a humble scholar and teacher who would never do such a thing.' But their informer Ṭāhir al-Dimashqī told on Yosef, and Yehuda received a reprimand for obstructing the government's justice. There follows a detailed description of the expulsion of Yosef. (Information in part from Frenkel, Goitein's index card, and Goitein, Med Soc II, 250.) ASE