Letter to the Jewish Community of Fustāt (II)

The increase of our iniquities caused the hand of the Arabs to strengthen its rule, until, growing bold, the tyrants of the city, its notables, its elders and the qadi there, called “the Nephew of Abu’l-Sayyar”—May the name of the wicked rot!—conspired to cut off our water supply. For they said, “How can the Hebrews drink from our water?” And whenever we called on a leader or governor to reopen our access to the water, they would gather and attest that “They have no share or legal right over our water.” This went on until the arrival this year of the governor called Haydara “Treasure of the Realm.” We saw that his hand ruled over the people of the city and the surrounding area. So we sent our emissary to Egypt to obtain a letter and a decree to deal with three matters: to reopen the water supply to us as it was previously; to allow us to slaughter in the market according to the law, because they [i.e., the locals] had prevented us from slaughtering; and that the collection of tax should be from the beginning of the month called al-Muharram until the month called Du-‘l Hijja, and they should not take tax from us until the beginning of the year. Our emissary came back and brought with him the decree dealing with the aforementioned three points. We took the papers and we went, a group of us, to the governor Haydara. He took the decree and some letters that we had brought to him from the “Notable of the Realm” and other important people in the government, and he read them, before throwing them from his hand and seeking to obtain a bribe for doing all that they contained.

And so we went away afflicted and troubled, and we made a collection from every side and corner until we had given him a great many dinars, thus depriving the poor, the orphans and widows, after cries, trouble and distress. We also gave bribes to his officials and retinue, until we had been refined like the refining of silver and the testing of gold. After all this he sent for an elder called “the Preacher” who testified before him that the Jews had previously enjoyed rights to the water . . . And so the day came that he reopened the water for us, and all the elders, the young men and all the notables of the city gathered and testified before him saying: “They have no legal right to share our water and they have no share among us in this city.” He replied to them: “My lord the Caliph has spoken and has enacted a decree: I will not negate a word of it until you bring me from him another decree like this one but an annulment of it.” When they heard this, everyone got up from in front of him in shame and reproach. He said to the qadi of the city: “Look I have reopened the water for them; now I am returning to you alone the edict concerning their slaughtering because you alone can enact the edict.” The qadi left him as he was and the next day our destitution began. The governor heard of the arrival of soldiers [to his jurisdiction] and so he sent word to the Jews and sought to obtain the tax for the forthcoming year, five months in advance. He said, “I desire two hundred and fifty dinars from you. I will not speak to you again till after the end of next year . . . ”

Source: CUL T-S 13J26.13.