Cairo Genizah : Letter

Solomon b. Judah (Gaʾon)

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Part of a letter, c. 1030 CE, written by the scribe Solomon b. Ṣemaḥ, on behalf of the Gaʾon Solomon b. Judah, to Sahlān ‘Head of the Row’ b. Abraham he-Ḥaver, in Fusṭāṭ. The Gaʾon seeks the help of the recipient in motivating the leading members of the Jewish community in Fusṭāṭ to intervene on behalf of two scholars from the Yešiva of the Land of Israel who are being held prisoner in Damascus, and whose condition of release, as explained by an official called ʿAdi b. Manasseh (called Ibn al-Qazzāz, i.e. ‘son of the silk merchant’), relates to the lifting of a ban on the Karaites. Quoting from Ruth 2:12, Psalms 107:14, 20, Jeremiah 45:3, Isaiah 59:9, Psalms 31:11, Genesis 42:4, Joel 1:2-3 and Amos 3:9. The address on the verso is in Arabic: to our lord Abū ʿAmr Sahlān ‘Head of the Row’ b. Ibraḥīm, to Fusṭāṭ, by the will of God, the shop of Barhūn (i.e. Abraham) the perfumer. </p>