Letter to ‘Alī Abu ’l-Barakāt ibn Rawḥ

As for that [Purim] evening of ours, may God bring such events about for you repeatedly in years to come and grant you the merit to build His Temple—as they [sic] performed miracles for our ancestors in those days, so may He do for us—a better evening has never been witnessed. There assembled in the majlis about four hundred men, and in the adjoining room even more than these. There was not a single Rabbanite or Qaraite who did not attend. It was an excellent thing the likes of which has not been seen. There were perhaps thirty candelabra with more than two hundred candles and about thirty lamps and twenty lanterns, and the whole world was illuminated. And gentiles were in attendance, and the scroll [of Esther] was read from thirty scrolls in expert readings.

[Above the line:] Not a soul remained in the Babylonian synagogue, and only about twenty in the Palestinian, and at the house of the man from Fez [Shelomo b. Yehuda, who had evidently been reduced to holding prayer services in his home], fewer than ten.

In attendance there were perhaps two hundred Qaraites, every notable among them. The learned Qaraites came out among the people, and the people rejoiced at the unanimity of the affair and at the presence of the two parties together. And I prayed for the two parties together, and people departed rejoicing. And everyone agreed that there had not been a Purim like this one since the days of [Menashshe] ibn al-Qazzāz.¹

And it was a good thing, the two communities saying with one voice, “Blessed be the Lord who has united the two parties by your hand and in your majlis!” And the people’s joy was great.

Source: JTS ENA 4020.6.