منشور رمز لأبي الخير سلامة
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Written to my brother, the shaykh Abū al-Khayr Salāma—may God prolong his life, continue to support and guard him, and grant him success and blessings—from our residence in Alexandria, in the month of Shaʿbān. May God seal the month with happiness and make increase and abundance easy for him in his wealth and trade. May the peace that continues to encompass trustworthy men like him cover them, as a consequence of the purity of their lives and of his. Praise belongs to God, Lord of the worlds; His blessings upon His Messenger, the best of the prophets, and upon his pure and blessed household.
My brother, reports have reached us of changes in trading conditions in your district. We have heard what became of people formerly counted among our pure and trustworthy companions, until they fell into betrayal in their selling and disobedience in their conduct. Through the weakness of their minds they incurred the greatest losses.
As to the cotton you carried last year, which the people of Tadmur (Palmyra) intercepted, its affair has passed. God has compensated you in the trade you previously undertook, and placed the greatest blessings in it. Remain firm in your trustworthiness and purity of soul and spirit. Do not mix your merchandise with inferior merchandise. May God set upon everyone who does that the afflictions and contagious diseases of their lands, and allow them no fruit from the trading in which they engage, but take from them all the blessings it might have brought.
We sent to Shaykh Abū al-Fatḥ—may God protect him—some dabīqī cloth and sharab, with bundles containing fine Adeni garments and cloaks of the finest Chinese work, and instructed him to put them up for sale as God makes possible and provides. He must not invent excuses about their sale, even in al-Jazīra, nor say, “This has become unsalable, while that has found a buyer.”
Information has reached us concerning Abū al-Ḥulā†1—may God deny him a good reward and hasten his punishment for the betrayal of his companions. We entrusted something to ʿAmmār—may God be pleased with him—and then delivered it to the agent, insisting that it be put forward for sale, as we instructed him. But that heedless man ordered inferior merchandise offered first, and mixed what he possessed of the fourth kind of merchandise with the corrupt wares of treacherous and dishonest men. He returned to the betrayal he had formerly learned and practiced with the agent and his earlier accomplices. May God expose the one who betrayed his own soul and corrupted dealings, withdraw His forbearance from him, and unleash upon him and others like him the swords of their Roman neighbors, the polytheists.
We also received a letter from the faithless administrator Ḥasan, who lives at Kaftīn. It contained nothing that could excuse him. It mentioned the Sindian devil, who had returned to what the devils among the pretenders and dissenters had taught him. I learned that he had declared himself the lesser Dāwūd, an impious, corrupt, treacherous and dissolute man. May God curse a people who permit such falsehood to be spoken about themselves! If these were not defiled souls whom God had exposed to the world through their filth, they would never have been deceived in their property by a base liar, destitute of riches and money. Their trading with him brings only weakness, degradation and loss. God's punishment is nearer and shall descend upon the traitors, together with the torment of the Fire.
We had already sent to Shaykh Abū al-Fatḥ—may God preserve him—goods bundled with the bales of linen. He should watch their sale carefully, without delay or negligence. In our judgment he is a pure, trustworthy, and reliable person. Whoever sells against his direction or rejects his word is a deceitful and treacherous man, accursed.
As for Ḥarmāsh†2, may God call him to account for his offense: he betrayed through his lack of trustworthiness and wasted his own soul in the matter of the letter. I find no grounds for restoring him to favor. The sharab and dabīqī fabrics, however, promise an excellent result when carried. Linen, by contrast, is now costly and heavy to transport, and burdens the merchant with excessive expenses. As for myrobalans, cinnamon bark, ginger, and all the other spices, their trade routes have been cut off, and their merchant has fallen into financial distress.
Do not mention him in any correspondence.
My brother Abū al-Khayr, be particularly diligent in conveying this letter to Abū al-Ḥulā, so that he may perhaps return from the betrayal, reprehensible actions and arrogance he has adopted. God has made us independent of whatever merchandise has reached you, praise be to Him, for the abundance of what we possess throughout the regions. We have lost confidence in that man and entrusted his affair to God, the One, the All-Compelling. He avenges the religion against treacherous, wicked enemies.
Whatever property God has delivered safely to him and returned is God's gift to him. As for whatever the agents of tyranny and oppression have taken, God will destroy those agents and hasten disgrace and requital upon whoever has committed injustice.
Praise belongs to God, the Destroyer of the traitors, the One who distinguishes their deeds and hastens their disgrace for the offenses they have committed, and draws near their exposure before their appointed deaths arrive.
Completed. Praise belongs to our Lord alone, and thanks to the Qāʾim of the Age, His servant.
TEXTUAL ENDNOTES — EPISTLE 101
†1. Printed p. 765 reads أبي الحلى. The consonants are clear, but vowel pointing or an independent biographical identification remains uncertain; Abū al-Ḥulā is provisional. †2. Printed p. 766 names حرماش. The source treats this as an individual, not a fabric. The printed consonants are legible, but name vocalization and one accompanying idiom need specialist checking.