[Letter to Abraham ben Nathan, "the Seventh"] : manuscript.

Format:

• Book

Contributor:

• Cairo Genizah Collection (University of Pennsylvania. Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Library).

Language:

• Hebrew
• Judeo-Arabic

Subjects (All):

• Abraham ben Natan, 11th-12th century--Correspondence.
• ʹOvadyah ben Shemaryah, 11th-12th century--Correspondence.
• Avraham ben Shemaryah, 11th-12th century--Correspondence.
• Yefet ben Shemaryah, 11th-12th century--Correspondence.
• Hebrew letters.
• Laudatory poetry, Hebrew.

Genre:

• Personal correspondence.

Penn Provenance:

• Cairo Genizah Collection (University of Pennsylvania. Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Library).
• Cairo Genizah Collection (Dropsie College. Library).
• Sulzberger.

Physical Description:

• 1 folio : tears
• Paper 34.6 X 13.7 cm material applied: black ink ruling method: columns:1 lines: 38 (recto).

Contained In:

Cairo Genizah Collection

Place of Publication:

[al-Maḥalla], [publisher not identified], [late 11th century-early 12th century?]

Language Note:

• Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. Hebrew
• Hebrew. Oriental semi-square hand in black ink.

Notes:

• Folded and addressed in mail format.
• The letter opens with a paragraph of at least 20 lines of panegyric blessings in Hebrew. The 18 remaining lines are the content of the letter in Judeo-Arabic, which is also laden with honorific terms.
• The writers express their longing for Abraham yet decline his invitation to visit him in Syria (אלשאם), as they will be staying in al-Maḥalla (in the central Nile delta), with friends from Aleppo for another two months.
• The addressee, referred to as חמדת הישיבות, also received the letters in Cambridge TS NS J 131 (from the Nagid Mevorakh ben Saʻadia 1094-1111); Oxford Bodleian Heb. d. 68 (Cowely 2878) fol. 29; Cambridge TS 13J 15 fol. 24 (from Solomon ben Yeshua, the same hand as the previous); TS 10J 11 fol. 16 (there: b. Nathaniel); TS NS J 24 (from his brother Araḥ); TS 18J 4 fol. 2; TS 13J 15 fol. 24.
• He appears in a list of dignitaries in British Library Or. 5535 (Margoliouth, vol. III no. 1131). A biographical sketch of him was assembled by M. Cohen, Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt, 1980, pp. 130-131.
• Verso contains the name of the addressee, and the names of the writers, Obadiah, Abraham and Japheth the sons of Shemaryah. This is followed by a standard Arabic salutation in Arabic characters.
• Forms part of: Cairo Genizah Collection.

Cited in:

Halper, no. 382

OCLC:

1366218754