University of Pennsylvania, Halper 378

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Metadata

DS ID:

DS26176

Shelfmark:

Halper 378

Title:

Letter to Ephraim he-Ḥaver ben Shemarya

Letter

Author:

Eliyah ben Shelomoh, active 11th century

Eliyah ben Shelomoh WIKIDATA

Place:

Orient

Date:

1025-1047??

eleventh century (dates CE) AAT

Language:

Hebrew

Hebrew WIKIDATA

Material:

complete; faded, erasures

Physical Description:

Extent: 1 folio : complete; faded, erasures

Note:

In mail format; recto has 42 lines of text, plus one of signature, almost filling the page.
Verso contains the names of the addressee and sender, in two columns of two lines. In the poetic segment (ll. 2-11), verse endings denoted by a punctus.
The author, whose name indicates that he originated in Constantinople, was a captive, redeemed by the Fustat Jewish Community. He has taken a loan from the non-Jews. He now asks for the aid of the head of the Community, in the wake of an unspecified tragedy.
His Hebrew is florid, his script is that of an expert. The letter opens with a panegyric poem of six strophes. Regards are sent to Ephraim's scribe Yephet (b. David)
Ephraim ben Shemaryah served as the head of the Erets Israeli community of Fustat, (in whose synagogue the Genizah was housed) in documents between 1020-1047 (see E. Bareqet, Shafrir Mitsraim, 1995, pp. 100-121, = Fustat on the Nile, Leiden, 1999, pp. 129-160). He earned the title "he-Ḥaver", as in this letter, in 1025 (Bareqet, ibid. p. 104, idem. 135).
Cairo Genizah Collection (University of Pennsylvania. Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Library).
Cairo Genizah Collection (Dropsie College. Library).
Amram.

Keyword:

Personal correspondence

Correspondence

Laudatory poetry, Hebrew

Efraim ben Shemarya, approximately 980-approximately 1060

Hebrew letters

Institutional Record:

https://find.library.upenn.edu/catalog/9940420563503681

IIIF Manifest:

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p36d5pw0t/manifest

Holding Institution:

University of Pennsylvania