Cairo Genizah : Calendrical; letter

Cairo Genizah

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Recto: An observational calendar for a particular group of Karaites for the year 4810 of the Era of Creation (= 1049-1050 CE), in the form of a rotulus. The date is given according to the Era of Creation, the Seleucid Era and the Hijra Era. The calendar specifies when the new moon was observed in every month of the year and provides comparative data on the calendars of the Rabbanites and of other Karaites. The entry for Adar mentions that on Monday, 3 Ramaḍān Abū Manṣūr al-Tustarī (= the youngest of the Tustarī brothers, Aaron b. Sahl al-Tustarī) was released from prison. Verso: the rotulus was made by pasting two different letters together. The first is a business letter referring to trade in oil and the movement of ships, which mentions the cities of Alexandria and al-Mahdiyya, and Ibn Mahdī, Ibn Abī l-Šim, and Ibn Abī l-Šaʿšaʿ. The second, in a very different hand, is also commercial, and refers to Abū Saʿīd Mūsā b. Barhūn (Tahertī), Ibn Yūsuf, Abū l-Ḥasan, and Ibn ʿAwkal. </p>