[Letter to ʻAlun ben Yaʻish, "The Benefactor", Fustat] : manuscript.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

ʹAli ben Yeḥezḳel, ha-Kohen, 11th century.

Contributor:

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

Language:

Judeo-Arabic

Subjects (All):

ʹAli ben Yeḥezḳel, ha-Kohen, 11th century--Correspondence.

ʹAli ben Ḥayim, ha-Kohen, 11th century--Correspondence.

Yehudah ben Seʹadyah. 11th century.

Yehudah ben Sigmar, 11th century.

Temple Mount (Jerusalem).

Genre:

Personal correspondence.

Penn Provenance:

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

Cairo Genizah Collection (Dropsie College. Library).

Amram.

Physical Description:

1 folio : torn, faded; 5 uneven folds; marginal postscript on recto

paper 15 X 22 cm material applied: black ink ruling method: in mail format columns: lines: 18 (recto), 6 (verso).

Contained In:

Cairo Genizah Collection

Place of Publication:

[Jerusalem], [publisher not identified], [1060?]

Language Note:

Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew, and Arabic. Hebrew

Notes:

Verso has 3 lines of postscript, plus 3 lines in Arabic characters of address.

The addressee is known elsewhere by his Hebrew name, ʻAli ha-Kohen ben Ḥayim. The writer praises "Abu Zikhri", as a great benefactor to foreigners coming to Egypt from Iraq, Erets Israel (אלשאם), Maghreb and Byzantium, particularly Solomon ha-kohen the grandson of R. Solomon Gaon, (the head of the Jerusalem Community, d. 1051, see Mann: The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine under the Fātimids / Jacob Mann. London : Oxford University Press, 1920-1922, v. 1, p. 75-152).

"Abu Zikhri" may refer to Judah Ben Sighmar, who emigrated to Fustat around 1050, or possibly Judah ben Saʻadia, who served as Nagid between ca. 1064-1075. See M. Cohen: Jewish self-government in medieval Egypt : the origins of the office of head of the Jews, ca. 1065-1126 / Mark R. Cohen. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1980, p. 133 n. 91.

The Yeshiva of Jerusalem will reward him by praying on his behalf at the gates of the Temple Mount and on the Mount of Olives. In the postscript on the verso, ʻAli sends regards to Abu Natsr of Syracuse, Sicily.

The address is in Arabic characters, the names of the three mail agents are also written. The same agents are also found on a different letter from ʻAli to Allun, Cambridge TS 12.54 (Gil. Ibid. no. 444).

Forms part of: Cairo Genizah Collection.

Cited in:

Halper, no. 397

IMHM, no. F38400

Publications about:

Published by M. Gil: Erets Yiśraʾel ba-teḳufah ha-Muslemit ha-rishonah (634-1099) / Moshe Gil. Tel Aviv : University of Tel Aviv, 1983, v. 3, p. 74-77 (no. 451), among 22 other documents related to ʻAli ha-kohen (nos. 433-455), the last of which is dated 1071.

OCLC:

1366219010