Letter to the Tustarī Brothers

This letter, a rare exchange between Egyptian and Iranian Jews preserved in the Cairo Geniza, was sent from Ahwāz, in southwest Iran, in 1026. Ephraim ibn Sa‘īd and Ṣāliḥ ibn Ephraim wrote to the Tustarī brothers, a Karaite family that originated in Ahwāz before migrating to Egypt. The Iranian émigrés had maintained business and property in Ahwāz, as evidenced in this letter. The trade between Egypt and Iran centered on high-value textiles that could be transported easily, due to their relatively small size. The letter was written in Judeo-Arabic and contains both Hebrew and Arabic names. The writer, however, probably spoke Persian primarily, as he commits several grammatical errors in the other languages. Ellipses indicate lacunae in the manuscript.