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Authors: Amitav Ghosh

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16
‘[Therefore], I ask you':
I have made the word ‘brother' plural here to preserve the implied sense of the passage.

17
‘I heard of what happened':
I have translated this passage directly from Braslawsky's transcription (Cf.
Zion, 7
, p. 138), (T–S 10 J 10, fol. 15, lines 41–44 [verso 5–8]).

18
‘I wished to ask':
Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr., d. 66, fol. 139, recto, lines 6–12.

19
Such were the misfortunes:
The chronology of this period of Ben Yiju's life is not easy to establish. The document T–S 12.337 appears to have been written some three years or so after T–S 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 T–S 12.337 was written in 1152–3 or thereabouts.

20
‘I wrote a letter to you':
T–S 12.337, recto, lines 4–6.)

21
‘I did all … in my power':
T–S 12.337, recto, lines 6–8.)

22
‘As for Mubashir':
T–S 12.337, recto margin.

23
.… the joyful name Surûr:
‘Surur' was of course, the diminutive for Far
ia (Pera
yâ), and both names derive from roots that have the connotation of ‘joyfulness' (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 ‘Abû Surûr' or ‘father of Surur'

24
‘two children like sprigs':
T–S 12.337, recto, line 13.

25
‘And the elder':
T–S 12.337, recto, lines 14–16.,

26
Dhû Jibîa:
G. R. Smith,
Ayyûbids and Early Rasûlids
, p. 66.

27
‘The news reached your … slave:
T–S 10 J 13, fol. 6, lines 13–17. The second part of the quotation (lines 14–17) 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 … a Hebrew poem:
T–S 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 ‘the gracious sage', ‘the head of the community' and other such honorifics to address him. Cf. T–S 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 (T–S 10 J 9, fol. 24), but Goitein was of the opinion that the drafts were written after Ben Yiju's departure from India, ‘probably in Yemen' (S. Shaked,
Tentative Bibliography, p
. 100).

30
Yet there must … have been anxieties:
The letter in question is Bod. Lib. Ox. MS Hebr. d. 66 (Catalogue n. 2878), fol. 61. Lines 10–15 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 Najâ
ids (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, ‘The Middle Eastern Case: Is There a Marriage Rule?', (
Ethnology
, 13, pp. 293–309).

33
‘Shaikh Khalaf [ibn Ishaq]':
T–S 12.337, recto, lines 20–25.

34
‘and we will rejoice':
T–S 12.337, recto, line 19.

35
‘Address your letters to me':
T–S 12.337, recto, lines 30–32.

36
‘Suliman and Abraham':
T–S 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, ‘The 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. 327–330).

39
Sulîmân ibn
a
rûn:
Mentioned in Ben Yiju's second letter to Yusuf (T–S 12.337, recto, lines 25–6)

40
In this instance, … in a letter:
In his letter home Surur evidently spelt this name as ‘Ben Si
lûn'. Goitein points out in his translation of this letter, that the name is identical with ‘Ibn
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 (T–S 12.337, lines 25–26.)

41
The letter … was a short one:
The letter contains a reference to one ‘Abû'l Fakhr al-Amshâ
î' who was a family friend, and Surur's contact in Fustat.

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