Letter to Her Sister

Unknown Woman

Early 12th Century

About This Entry

This Judeo-Arabic document, preserved in the Cairo Geniza, records the requests that a dying woman made to her sister concerning the guardianship and education of her young daughter. The behavior of the letter writer and her own mother were marked by their piety, and the writer hoped that these traits would be imparted to her daughter. The other woman set to receive an inheritance in this text, Sitt al-Sirr, appears to be an older child who had some unspecified falling out with her mother. This text is also significant because it appears to be written in the hand of its female author rather than dictated to a male scribe, a rarity for Geniza texts. Abū ’l-Barakāt was, apparently, a physician. It is possible that this letter was never sent, as it lacks a closing formula.

Colorful illustration showing two facing seated figures in robes and long turbans, one bearded and writing on a scroll with a pen and the other gesturing.

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This is to inform you, my lady, dear sister—may God accept me as a ransom for you—that I have become seriously ill—with little hope for recovery—and I have dreams indicating that my end is near.

My lady, my most urgent request to you, if God, the exalted, indeed decrees my death, is to take care of my little daughter and make efforts to give her an education, although I know well that I am asking you for something unreasonable, as there is not enough money—by my father!—for maintenance, let alone for education. However, she has a model in our mother, the saint. Do not let her appear in public, and do not neglect her Sudanese nurse, Sa‘āda, and her son, and do not separate them from her, for she is fond of her and I have willed the Sudanese nurse to her.

However, the younger slave girl, ‘Afāf, shall be given to Sitt al-Sirr—but nothing else—and this only after our debts to Abu Sa‘d and others will have been paid. Cursed be he who acts against my dying wish.

[I say this], for I have noticed more than once that you like the elder one more than the younger one; however, you know well that I took an oath more than once—and the last one in her presence—that I shall not will anything to Sitt al-Sirr, for reasons that I cannot mention, but which you know.

My lady, let Abu ’l-Barakāt—may I be his ransom—come and treat me, for I am in a very serious condition.

Please do [pl.] not act against anything I have mentioned to you [pl.]. Cursed be he who separates the old servant from my younger daughter, by selling her or otherwise.

My lady, only God knows how I wrote these lines!

Source: JTS ENA NS 48.6.

Translated by S. D. Goitein.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Unknown Woman, “Letter to Her Sister,” trans. S. D. Goitein, in S. D. Goitein, “Side Lights on Jewish Education from the Cairo Geniza,” from Gratz College Anniversary Volume, ed. Isidore David Passow and Samuel Tobias Lachs (Philadelphia: Gratz College, 1971), 85–87. Used with permission of the publisher.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.