Letter to Abraham ben Isaac ha-Kohen

Mid-11th Century

About This Entry

In this Hebrew letter, preserved in the Cairo Geniza, the gaon (head of the academy) in Jerusalem, Solomon ben Judah, asks a Jewish court physician in Cairo, Abraham ben Isaac ha-Kohen Ibn al-Furāt, to intervene on behalf of a Muslim named Qayn ibn ‘Abd al-Qādir. The local Muslim governor had wished to arrest Qayn for unnamed misdeeds, but Solomon asserts here that Qayn has repented. Strikingly, all the figures mentioned in this document other than Abraham are Muslim, illustrating how political relationships could cross confessional lines, and how influential Abraham was at the Muslim court.

To the dear, glorious, honourable, great, holy master and teacher Abraham ha-Kohen “Prince of the Congregation”—may the Rock be his aid and his shelter’s shade, and may he crown him and help him find grace, and hope and trust in Him—son of the honourable, holy master and teacher Isaac ha-Kohen—his rest be in Eden.

Accept, our mighty Prince of the Congregation, a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation, as well as from me and from my son, much wellbeing without end.

The intention of these lines to his Honour concerns a request that was asked of me by an elder from the city’s nobles by the name Murajja, one of my greatest friends who honours me exceedingly. Men of his acquaintance came to him and asked him to make a request of his Honour. The one known as Qayn ibn Abd al-Qadir had reported that the governor, whose name and byname is Abu-l Futuh, Ruler of the District, has been seeking [his arrest] due to his earlier deeds. [Qayn] came to ask for a letter to his Honour asking this Abu-l Futuh the Ruler to do him no harm because he had already repented. And this man Qayn came and threw himself down on the floor: “I am your supplicant!”

And so I am requesting of his Honour to speak to the Ruler so that he does not harm him. And inform him of my standing with [his Honour] and of my standing with the elder so that my request will be more acceptable to him. And whatever he does to this man Qayn he also does to me, because members of his household came to the place where I am living now: they know that I am in good standing with our elder Prince of the Congregation. And may his wellbeing and the wellbeing of his honour and of his retinue and of his friends grow and not be laid. A great salvation!

Solomon the downtrodden, who looks for and awaits God’s salvation.

Source: CUL T-S 13J14.5.

Translated by Benjamin M. Outhwaite.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Solomon ben Judah, “Letter from the Head of the Jerusalem Academy,” trans. Benjamin M. Outhwaite, from Benjamin M. Outhwaite, Melonie Schmierer-Lee, and Cayley M. Burgess, Discarded History: The Genizah of Medieval Cairo (Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, 2017), 12. Used with permission of the publisher.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.