Letter to Matsliaḥ ben Solomon ha-Kohen

This petition has been dated to the period of Matsliaḥ ben Solomon ha-Kohen, who served as head of the Jews from 1127 to 1139 and claimed the title of gaon due to his family’s leadership positions in the Palestinian academy. The unnamed widow describes the poverty that ensued after her late husband’s family mistreated her. Her misfortune was common among young wives in Fustāt (Old Cairo) whose husbands were lost or had died on business travels. The widow twice asks Matsliaḥ for financial support and for redress due to the physical violence that she suffered at the hands of her husband’s family. This letter adopts almost all the structural features of an Arabic petition, as was common in such documents.