University of Pennsylvania, Halper 332

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Metadata

DS ID:

DS26012

Shelfmark:

Halper 332

Title:

Letter to the three sons of Suleiman ben ʻAli, Fustat

Letter

Author:

Saʻadia ben Joseph, 882-942

Saadia Gaon WIKIDATA

Place:

Orient

Date:

10th century-11th century?

Language:

Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic

Hebrew WIKIDATA

Judeo-Arabic WIKIDATA

Material:

consecutive, complete; stained

Physical Description:

Extent: 2 fols. (bifolium: recto=1r|2v; verso=2r|1v): consecutive, complete; stained

Note:

Published from this source by Schechter: Saadyana / S. Schechter [ed.]. Cambridge : Deighton and Bell, 1903, no. VII, pp. 24-26; Jewish Quarterly Review, v. 14 (1914) p. 43, 59-61; H Borenstein, Sefer ha-yovel ... li-khevod Naḥum Soḳoloṿ. Warsaw, 1904, p. 81; M. Gil, Be-malkhut Yishmaʾel bi-teḳufat ha-geʾonim / Mosheh Gil. Tel Aviv : Tel Aviv University, 1997, vol. 2, p. 17-19, no. 5.
The beginning of the epistle is missing. The fragment opens with a complaint of the Gaon about not hearing from his students for six and a half years, and mention of David ben Abraham, an agent of the Yeshiva (Sura) in Egypt.
The rest deals with the two days added by the Gaonate to Kislev and Marḥeshvan in the year 921, a decision rejected by the Erets Israeli Gaon Ben Meir, causing great controversy. The Gaon urges his students in Fustat to accept his decision.
The content of the epistle ends after a third of fol. 2 verso. The remainder, under the heading אלענואן ערבי, records the mail information in Arabic characters, including the addressees, Sulieman ben ʻAli ben Suleiman, and his two younger brothers ʹAziz and Salim(?), and the sender (l. 3) Saīd ben Yousef Ras al-Akal.
This is not the original epistle, as it is in codex, not mail format.
Cairo Genizah Collection (University of Pennsylvania. Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Library).
Cairo Genizah Collection (Dropsie College. Library).
Sulzberger.

Keyword:

Personal correspondence

Correspondence

Talmudic academies

Iraq

Middle East--Babylonia

Saʻadia ben Joseph, 882-942

Jewish calendar

Hebrew letters

Institutional Record:

https://find.library.upenn.edu/catalog/9940420103503681

IIIF Manifest:

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3ms3kk66/manifest

Holding Institution:

University of Pennsylvania