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A Handbook and Reader of Ottoman Arabic

 | 
Esther-Miriam Wagner

II. Reader

21. Arab merchant letters from the Gotha collection of Arabic manuscripts

Boris Liebrenz

Texte intégral

1Arabic letters concerning personal and business matters abound in the pre-Ottoman period, but become extremely scarce afterwards. Since the early 19th century, the Forschungsbibliothek Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha (Germany) has held seven volumes of merchant letters dating from the middle of the 18th century until 1806. Numbering more than 1,600 letters, this repository seems to be the largest one preserved from the period.

2The writers and addressees are both Christian and Muslim and examples of both will be given here. There are some overlaps, but in general the Christian letters cover a network of merchants of Syrian origin that operated between Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Damascus, with mentions of further extensions to Istanbul, Cyprus, and Rhodes. The letters by Muslims (with few Christian examples) belong to several networks of Muslim merchants centred in Cairo. In the case presented here, the network revolves around two brothers Abū Qaṣīṣa and letters are exchanged primarily between Jedda, Suez, and Cairo.

lamlam kānlamlam huwa bāqīšūlayšminšāntāʾ marbūṭatāʾpleneʾalifhamzaqul lahūqillu

3The address differs between the two networks in layout and sometimes wording. Those from the Red Sea and Egypt are written in one line at the top of the verso side. The Syrians write several lines at the centre of what was the outer side of the folded letter. The same can be observed from other contemporary letters from the Ottoman Empire north of Egypt. This formal feature appears to mark a general division between letters written in Greater Syria and north of it (of which the Syrian merchant diaspora is an Egyptian extension to the south) on the one side, and those coming from Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and further south, on the other.

Transcription

MS Gotha orient. A 2837, doc. 1

  • 1 Theresia, according to other letters.

4Fransīs Bernard Dumyān to his cousin Giovanni Rūk / Rocco and his maternal uncle Yūsuf Anṭūn Tarjumān Talāmās / Giuseppe Talamas in Damietta. The writer’s unnamed sister1 is also mentioned in the internal address.

  • 2 The matter is taken up again in Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, Ms. orient. A 2837, no. 27 (dated Ṣafar (...)

5The details of the matter reported in this latter are not always clear to me.2 Yet the contours of dramatic events revolving around two fierce legal cases taking place in Rosetta are evolving. They first pitted Fransīs against a powerful consul, while he believes he has the whole community of consuls on his side, securing documents from as far as Istanbul. The second case is that of a murder that had taken place in the Frankish quarter and sees the consuls united against the city’s governor, who is unable to present the murderer.

6MSig. Guiseppe Talamas Incaricato dell’Agenzia d Spagna opera altiss. Giovanni Rocco in

7Damietta

Recto

Righthand Margin

  • 3 This short-lived Republic of the Seven Islands or Septinsular Republic comprised several islands of (...)

8Note3

Top Margin

Verso

Translation

9With His blessing

10May it arrive at the harbour Damietta and be expedited to the hand of his excellency our cousin the master

11Juwānī Rūk and our maternal uncle the master Yūsuf Anṭūn Tarjumān Talāmās,

12the esteemed, safe and sound.

Recto

13(1) May the Exalted protect them!

14(2) Amen.

15(3) [To] his Excellency our sister, our cousin Signor Juwānī, and our maternal uncle Signor Yūsuf, the esteemed.

16(4) After expressing the longing for you with exceeding yearning for your Excellency, what we have to put before you (5) is this: you previously received a letter regarding the mint of Rāšīd by hand of the master Baṭrūshī, in which we informed you (6) about our arrival to put you at ease. God willing, it reached you and you are fine. Now (7) we want to report to your Excellency on the issue of the consul when he found all the consuls in support of us (8) because, unlike him, they were not driven by greed for money. Said consul answered to the crowd: (9) “It is true that I sent after him so that he would appear. But right now I have no claim against him, as he has none against me. (10) We had cited him to court at […] a consul who wanted him in the presence of all the consuls, (11) which he refused.” It is clear that this is a man who knows his ways and won’t stay blemished because of that. (12) His intention is to pocket the down payment—533 ½ [piasters and] 3 [miṣriyya] plus expenses—but—God willing— (13) with the presence of loving friends, he will be thwarted, with the mediation of Corfu. Because all the consuls have sealed papers for us, (14) also the heads of the monasteries of the Europeans (Ifranj) and the Orthodox (Rūm). We delivered them to Corfu for the Senate first […]. (15) And for good luck, the father of the esteemed Father Diyūnīsiyūs, guardian of the Orthodox, His Excellency (16) directed them to his father, too. And also a letter from him to the Principe according to our answer. We ask God (17) Praying for you Fransīs

17(18)…

18(19) Barnā Dumyān

19(20)– (21) in the year 1219.

Righthand Margin

20(22) to prolong the lives of our friends. Please, always be at ease (23) about us, and don’t spare a thought on us. (24) We spend our days being invited, sometimes with the consuls, sometimes with (25) the traders. About the friends we ask God to enable us to satisfy (26) them all and that he would unite us in good spirit soon, (27) through the power of the Mother of the Lord, her beloved son, and all (28) the saints. Amen.

franjī

21(42) This is what I ask from you, with my constant prayers,

Top Margin

22(43) and greetings to everyone, each (44) by their names! Also to the brother Yaʿqūb Ġaṭṭās. (45) And from us (…) all the mothers kiss (the hands of) His Excellency (46) Our Father Bāṣilī and His Excellency Our Father Yūsuf and al-Bītrīyū, the great (47) guardian, and the guardian of Jerusalem, and al-Sanāyitū, and Father ʿĪsā, our neighbour. (48) We always ask for their intercession. This is written hastily! May your life be prolonged! (49) Extensive greetings to His Excellency the master Bāṣīlī Faḫr and the master (50) ʿAyrūt, the esteemed.

Verso

23We ask of our cousin, Senior Giovanni, (14) if he so pleases, to find a better opportunity to turn his merchandise into cash (15) than here or in Rāšīd—for Cairo we don’t know the prices. (16) The war is always an obstacle for this. Enough now! May you live long!

Commentary

24The address is in Italian and the lexicon of the writer, too, seems to show familiarity with Italian terms (l’abito, principe).

Recto

25Line 12

ʿarabūnarrhes

26Line 38

27Line 39

l’abito

28Line 48

Verso

29Line 2

Svizzera

30Line 8

badd

MS Gotha orient. A 2837, doc. 148

31Makkī Rawāy to Ṣāliḥ Abū Qaṣīṣa at the Wikālat al-Naššārīn in Cairo. The letter was presumably sent from Suez, where Makkī was posted.

Transcription

Recto

Verso

Translation

Recto

32(1) May it arrive, God willing, to the well-protected Cairo and be delivered to the hand of the esteemed and noble one, the beloved brother al-ḥājj Ṣāliḥ Abū Qaṣīṣa at the Wikālat al-Naššārīn 8642

Verso

33(1) His Excellency, the esteemed and noble one, the beloved brother al-ḥājj Ṣāliḥ Abū Qaṣīṣa, may God strengthen him!

34(2) After copious greetings for him and much longing for him, it shall not be concealed from you that we inform you that previously (3) we sent you a letter which included a cargo manifest, God willing it has (4) reached you and you looked at it and are in good health. As of today, we have forwarded to you, (5) on the dhow of al-ʿAydarūs, 15 beads, and on the dhow of al-Saʿīdī 15, and on (that of) Bā Hārūn 22. And that is the rightful passage of possession (ġilāq) (6) of the beads. We also inform you on behalf of the three captains of the aforementioned dhows, that when they are with you (7) in Cairo you can load five loads (aḥmāl) on each dhow because of the Syrian cargo (šaḥnat al-Šāmiyya) (8) that is with you. Because it has reached us that they load in Cairo and are afraid to come, (9) they will wrap the cargo in Cairo. So that you know.

35Greet on my behalf (10) the brother al-ḫājj Muḥammad Ibn Qīmū and everyone who asks after us. Peace!

36(11) al-sayyid Makkī

37(12) Rawāy

38(13) [signature]

39(14)– (16) on 5 Rajab in the year 1210 (=15.1.1796)

Commentary

Recto

40Line 1

41٨٦٤٢ ‘8642’. This number has an apotropaic function. The letters of the southern network of mostly Muslim writers who corresponded between Cairo, the Red Sea, and the Hejaz, rarely exclude it. But it is sometimes also found in correspondence of the northern, mostly Christian network.

Verso

42Line 5

Notes

1 Theresia, according to other letters.

2 The matter is taken up again in Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, Ms. orient. A 2837, no. 27 (dated Ṣafar 30, 1219), which this one must precede, since the murder is mentioned as an immediate case here unlike in no. 27.

3 This short-lived Republic of the Seven Islands or Septinsular Republic comprised several islands off the coast of modern Greece in the Ionian Sea, among them Corfu, mentioned in the letter. It was established by a joint Ottoman-Russian military intervention that took the territories from the French and it existed between 1800 and 1807, after which they were first annexed by Napoleon and then transformed into a British protectorate from 1815 to 1864.

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