Read In an Antique Land Online
Authors: Amitav Ghosh
16
â[Therefore], I ask you':
I have made the word âbrother' plural here to preserve the implied sense of the passage.
17
âI heard of what happened':
I have translated this passage directly from Braslawsky's transcription (Cf.
Zion, 7
, p. 138), (TâS 10 J 10, fol. 15, lines 41â44 [verso 5â8]).
18
âI wished to ask':
Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., d. 66, fol. 139, recto, lines 6â12.
19
Such were the misfortunes:
The chronology of this period of Ben Yiju's life is not easy to establish. The document TâS 12.337 appears to have been written some three years or so after TâS 10 J 10, fol. 15, which Goitein has dated as being written on 11 September 1149 (
Letters
, p.
201). This plus the sequence of documents and events that follow upon it, suggest that TâS 12.337 was written in 1152â3 or thereabouts.
20
âI wrote a letter to you':
TâS 12.337, recto, lines 4â6.)
21
âI did all â¦Â in my power':
TâS 12.337, recto, lines 6â8.)
22
âAs for Mubashir':
TâS 12.337, recto margin.
23
.⦠the joyful name Surûr:
âSurur' was of course, the diminutive for Faria (Pera
yâ), and both names derive from roots that have the connotation of âjoyfulness' (cf. Goitein,
Letters
, p. 327, fn.). Farhia was also Ben Yiju's father's name which was why both he and his brother Yusuf named their first-born sons Farhia (Surur). Ben Yiju was in fact sometimes addressed by the tekonym âAbû Surûr' or âfather of Surur'
24
âtwo children like sprigs':
TâS 12.337, recto, line 13.
25
âAnd the elder':
TâS 12.337, recto, lines 14â16.,
26
Dhû Jibîa:
G. R. Smith,
Ayyûbids and Early Rasûlids
, p. 66.
27
âThe news reached your â¦Â slave:
TâS 10 J 13, fol. 6, lines 13â17. The second part of the quotation (lines 14â17) are in Hebrew, and were kindly translated for me by Dr Geoffrey Khan. See also S. Shaked's
Tentative Bibliography, p
. 102.
28
Ben Yiju â¦Â a Hebrew poem:
TâS 8 J 16, fol. 23. Cf. S. Shaked's
Tentative Bibliography
, p. 86.
29
Such documentation as there is:
Such was his position that one of his correspondents of that time used phrases such as âthe gracious sage', âthe head of the community' and other such honorifics to address him. Cf. TâS 10 J 13, fol. 6, lines 5 and 7 (I am grateful to Dr Geoffrey Khan for translating these honorifics for me). A document containing parts of three legal opinions written by Ben Yiju, suggest that he had some judicial functions within the community. They are written on the reverse side of a letter that Yusuf ibn Abraham had sent to him in Mangalore (TâS 10 J 9, fol. 24), but Goitein was of the opinion that the drafts were written after Ben Yiju's departure from India, âprobably in Yemen' (S. Shaked,
Tentative Bibliography, p
. 100).
30
Yet there must â¦Â have been anxieties:
The letter in question is Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr. d. 66 (Catalogue n. 2878), fol. 61. Lines 10â15 deal with the safety of the roads and were evidently written in answer to a query from Ben Yiju. The Yemen in this period was riven by struggles between the Mahdids and the Najâids (see G. R. Smith,
Ayyûbids and Early Rasûlids
, p. 58).
31
.⦠such marriages were commonplace:
Khalaf's relative Madmun for
example, was married to the sister of Abu Zikri Sijilmasi, who was, of course, originally from the Maghreb (see S. D. Goitein,
Letters
, p. 62).
32
Instead, he began to dream:
For a brief review of the literature on cousin marriage in the Middle East see J. M. B. Keyser's article, âThe Middle Eastern Case: Is There a Marriage Rule?', (
Ethnology
, 13, pp. 293â309).
33
âShaikh Khalaf [ibn Ishaq]':
TâS 12.337, recto, lines 20â25.
34
âand we will rejoice':
TâS 12.337, recto, line 19.
35
âAddress your letters to me':
TâS 12.337, recto, lines 30â32.
36
âSuliman and Abraham':
TâS 12.337, recto, line 34 & margin.
37
But it had other compensations:
At this time, and until well afterwards, the Jews of Sicily looked to North Africa in matters of liturgy and religion (see David S. H. Abulafia, âThe End of Muslim Sicily', in
Muslims Under Latin Rule
, ed. James M. Boswell, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990).
38
The young Surur:
My description of Surur's voyage to Messina is based on S. D. Goitein's translation of the letter he wrote home after reaching that city (Letters, pp. 327â330).
39
Sulîmân ibna
rûn:
Mentioned in Ben Yiju's second letter to Yusuf (TâS 12.337, recto, lines 25â6)
40
In this instance, â¦Â in a letter:
In his letter home Surur evidently spelt this name as âBen Silûn'. Goitein points out in his translation of this letter, that the name is identical with âIbn
a
rûn' and it seems almost certain the individual in question was the same person that Ben Yiju referred to in his letter to his brother Yusuf (TâS 12.337, lines 25â26.)
41
The letter â¦Â was a short one:
The letter contains a reference to one âAbû'l Fakhr al-Amshâî' who was a family friend, and Surur's contact in Fustat.