Abu l-Muna b. Ya’aqov: Letter T-S AS 166.174 (11th) (Fustat Egypt)
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Taken from: Geniza Lab ; Princeton Geniza Project
https://genizaprojects.princeton.edu/pgpsearch/?a=object&id=22478&q=zanzibar
Letter from Abu l-Muna b. Yaʿaqov (1), unknown location, to an unidentified addressee, presumably in Fustat (2). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Same writer as T-S AS 167.24; may be an indirect join. The sender says that he is unable to leave the children for some reason. He reports that the Zanzibari ship (אלמרכב אלזנגברי) has not yet arrived. Mufaḍḍal is on that ship. The sender suspects that it might be in Mirbaṭ (in present-day Oman). The sender offers to receive and hold on to any letters intended for Muḥsin. "As for the female slave (al-waṣifa), we have not found anything"—it is not clear if they are looking to purchase a slave or if they are looking for one who has run away. Mentions someone named Munajja in the margin. Very little of the text is preserved on verso. Mentions tar (qiṭran). Greetings to the addressee's son Sulayman. The final two lines are a complaint about the sender's condition (loneliness and diq al-ṣadr ('constriction of the chest')).
(1) in another letter from him called: Abū l-Munā b. Yaʿaqov al-Isrāʾīlī al-Ḥāfiẓ al-[...], (T-S AS 167.24)
(2) Fustat, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo.