Letter to His Daughter

I am writing to you, my daughter, from Jerusalem, may God keep it, with three [days] remaining in the month of Rajab. Part of what I have to tell you, my daughter, is what I think about your affairs. A fire [burns] in my heart because of you. God stands between me and the one who harmed you and made you an orphan in my lifetime. You, my daughter, must depend on people’s kindness because of the deeds of your mother. I beseech God, may He be exalted, not to forgive her the sin by which, because of her greed, she destroyed you. God will set you right from her account.

Know, my daughter, that I have sworn a solemn oath not to send you anything as long as I am uncertain about your status and do not know what to do about your situation. God knows that I have no consternation or worry other than for you. Nay, my health and my affairs are well, and my clothes do not hold me for happiness and good fortune.

Had I sought nothing but worldly gain, then I could regard myself today as a great success, for I have become the administrator of the government compounds in Palestine, for an ample salary and a good [income?]. Your maternal aunt has seen me, and her husband has too, and also Abu l-Faḍl. At my disposal are men, commandment and prohibition, and I am powerful. God has made me happier than I had been before. So good fortune has been mine and misfortune your mother’s, God be praised.

And now, my daughter, I do not know with whom you are. I do not know whether you are with the Jews, who are the stock of your father, or the stock of your mother, the non-Jews. But this I wish you to know: even if [the Christians] wanted to sell you to me, my own daughter, I would buy you and rescue you from their hands. What else could I do?