Petition to Ḥesed ibn Sahl al-Tustarī

This document, sent by the Jewish community of Tripoli, Syria, to Ḥesed al-Tustarī, expresses the community’s desire to reconstruct a synagogue that had been destroyed in the wake of the repressive decrees issued by the Fātimid caliph Abū ’l-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥākim, known as al-Ẓāhir (r. 1021–1035). The Jews of Tripoli implored Ḥesed to intervene on their behalf after their original request was denied by local Muslim rulers, noting that the Jews of Jubayl (Byblos, Lebanon) had recently rebuilt their own synagogue without any protest by the Muslim authorities. The prominent Karaite Jewish al-Tustarī family included courtiers and bankers who held leadership roles in the Jewish community in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Originally from Persia, the family emigrated to Egypt, where they continued to be involved in Jewish politics, merchant trading, and political machinations at court.