Letter to Abraham Ben Yijū

Born in Aden, Yemen, to a family of Persian origin, Maḍmūn ibn al-Ḥasan was one of three sons of Abū ‘Alī Ḥasan (Yefet) ibn Bundār, a Jewish community leader and official “representative of merchants,” acting for foreign merchants in local matters and facilitating their trading activities. By 1140, when he was appointed nagid and official head of the Jews of Yemen, Maḍmūn had succeeded his father as representative of merchants. He supervised the harbor of Aden and the collection of customs, while also owning ships, outfitting others for the Muslim navy, and engaging in long-distance trade himself. He was a business partner of Bilāl ibn Jarīr al-Muḥammadī, the Muslim governor of Aden, which in the twelfth century was ruled by the Fātimids; he built and outfitted ships for the governor’s fleet. Maḍmūn had three sons, named Ḥalfon, Bundār, and Yefet. He flourished in the 1140s and 1150s, employing several clerks, and many documents by and about him survive in the Cairo Geniza.