Letter to a Merchant

This Judeo-Arabic letter, written during the early stages of the Almohad conquests of North Africa, primarily concerns business matters. The unnamed author wrote shortly after the death of the Andalusi scholar Joseph (here, Yosef) Ibn Migash. This is a rare eyewitness account of the Almohads, a Muslim religious movement that took hold among the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains. They quickly conquered much of North Africa and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), requiring Jews in their new territories to convert and bringing to an end the flourishing Jewish communities of those areas. This trader, however, does not seem particularly alarmed by the spread of Almohad rule, except for its effect on the price of lac, a resin.