Letter to Her Uncle, ‘Eli ibn Hilāl

A pregnant woman, whose name unfortunately is not included, wrote this letter with the assistance of Ḥalfon ben Manasseh ha-Levi, a scribe well documented in the Cairo Geniza and almost certainly her father. She writes to her maternal uncle, Abū ’l-Ḥasan Eli (‘Alī) ibn Hilāl al-Baghdādī, who was the deputy overseer (nā’ib al-nāẓir) of al-Bahnasā, Egypt. She asks him to procure a girl for her from the slave markets of al-Bahnasā, and she reports on the conditions of mutual friends and relatives. Ellipses indicate lacunae in the manuscript.