Cairo Genizah : Letter

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter sent by the leaders of the Jewish community in Ashqelon, who are currently in Egypt seeking help for their community. They describe the difficult circumstances in Ashqelon a few months after the Crusaders' capture of Jerusalem. The fortified city of Ashqelon had not yet fallen, but the residents were struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and the need to make large payments to the Crusaders to ransom back Jewish captives - men, women and children - as well as books and scrolls pillaged from the synagogues of the Holy Land. Despite the terrible circumstances, they take solace in the fact that that the Crusaders appeared not to have mistreated the women. There are notes by the writers and forwarders of the letter in the right-hand margin on verso, including its writer Isaiah ha-Kohen b. Maṣliaḥ, David b. Solomon, and Ḥanina b. Mansur b. ʿUbayd.</p>