Letter to Judah ha-Levi

This Judeo-Arabic letter, sent in 1141 to Judah ha-Levi—which its author Abū ’l-‘Alā seems to have insisted (in Arabic script) be burned after reading due to its sensitive content—contains information about Judah ha-Levi’s financial struggles in Egypt and about a compilation of ha-Levi’s poems made by the judge Aaron Ibn al-‘Ammānī. Abū ’l-‘Alā also describes various incidents in which local Egyptian Jews were offended by some of ha-Levi’s poems or the wording in them, and by ha-Levi’s desire to limit the number of homes he visited, either out of a desire to protect his own dignity or due to his advanced age and ill health.