The Scroll of Evyatar: David ben Daniel

When not three years had passed, David, son of the Daniel who has been compared to Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon, and Jehoiachin and their company, came down—he was then about twenty years old—to establish relations further with a lowly family, a youth, to the splendor of the Nile [Fustāt], and to join himself to them, and he came as far as Damīga [Damīra?]. He was suffering from serious illness in an aggravated state, from scurvy and hunger and thirst and nakedness, and lacking everything. The pious elder Matsliaḥ ben Yefet ben Zawb‘a in Damascus found him in his plight and took pity on him. He thought to do him good and kindness, so he offered him his support in Damīga. He hired a proper teacher, and Master Abraham the scholar to teach him [David] the language of the Bible, for this scholar from Naphtali [Tiberias] would give sayings of beauty. He [i.e., Matsliaḥ] betrothed his orphan daughter to him [i.e., David], fed him, and clothed him for two years, after which he had fine garments made for him and let him ride in his chariot. He appointed him two servants to run before him. They sent to Egypt in large coaches. He arrived there at Hanukkah to form connections with them. R. Mevorakh, dignitary of the Lord’s people, the prince of princes, strength of the house of Israel, extended himself to do him kindness, as well as R. Josiah his cousin, the son of R. Azariyahu ha-Kohen, head of the yeshiva of the diaspora. They collected 120 dinars on his behalf, and he pressed them to return a gift to his orphaned fiancée, daughter of the same righteous man who had done all this kindness to him. At the same Purim, he [i.e., David] sent her a writ of divorce by the hand of Tsedakah ben Nafī‘ and considered sending payback to her father. He mocked him with words until he was frightened. His cousin R. Josiah pressed him until he married the daughter of the ruler at that time. He paid him back also by preaching about him, spreading the word in all the synagogues, words of slander about him and all his friends. He further swore that he would not live in the same community and expelled him from several places as one to be shunned. He thereupon aroused himself to deliver payback to the prince of princes, the dignitary of the people of the Lord, the strength of the house of Israel. He incited against him the son of al-Kayr the proselyte to complain about him to the government, and he mocked [or, slandered] him to kill him. But the merit of Torah of the dignitary of the people of the Lord stood for him to save his soul from the fowler’s trap, from the destructive plague. He was banished to Fayyūm [in Egypt] for a whole year and to No-Amon [Alexandria] until the expiration of his term. The lord was angry at him over the affair; in order to do benefaction to the righteous, he restored him to his station and to his medical office.

As for the master of payback, he will be paid back as he dealt with others. As he grew stronger, his heart grew haughty, and he forgot the Lord and His great goodness. He smote the precentors¹ with a strap upon the gates of the regular house of prayer, and egregiously fined them 100 dinars. He ruled over No-Amon and Hanes and Caftor [Cyprus] and the Splendor of the Nile [Fustāt]. He imposed a tax on them in the wicked, forcible perversion of judgment, which stood as a staff of wickedness, to melt them like wax. He imposed his terror in the land of the living, sending to Ascalon, Caesarea, and Haifa fickle emissaries and gonorrheal, leprous, and infected messengers. Similarly, in Beirut and Jubayl² [or, and its boundary], he sent his representatives, who seized control of them on his behalf. He imposed taxes on them with unprecedented severity. Tyre opened itself up; he stretched forth his hand to assault it and deposed its head of yeshiva. He oppressed them severely and appointed as tax collector Aviram the administrator, son of Dathan. He delivered the people of the Lord in the hand of the government and cast aspersion on the Torah. He perverted judgment, and his tongue slandered the many and honored. He oppressed the protégés of the head of the yeshiva until he had driven them from their abode and they became wards of heaven; he angered their Maker and prevented them from studying Torah. Some of them we know died as a consequence, and their plea ascended to heaven; God heard their outcry and God remembered His covenant. He incited slaves against their masters in order to bring about their release. Aviram went out from there with his hands on his head. In the year 1403 [1092], Tyre was restored to its proper state.

He sent against it Hillel ben al-Jāsūs, who took a stand in that place, here and there. They pursued Av[iram?] to kill him, but the Lord delivered him from their hand, for He remembered His holy pact with Aaron His holy one and all the priests who served in His sanctuary, and He concealed him to gain his freedom. They ruined his house and his field. He set his face toward the territory of Asher, without propriety, and the prosperous community of Naphtali. He set his eye on the life of the third [Levi?] and the sustenance of his dependents. He sent against them Aviram the confirmed extortionist, who knew no shame, whose foot was heavy on No-Amon for deceit, and [who] had come for illness and disgrace, who had filled his measure to capacity in Tyre, and [whose foot was heavy] on Acre on the coast.