This letter, dated 1324/1906-7, concerns trade issues. No information is known about the sender, Muḥammd b. ‘Abd al-Qādir b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Bāyish (?) Nalqībā (?) b. Maḥmūd b. ‘Alī. As for the recipient, al-sayyid Muḥammad al-‘Alim b. al-sayyid Muḥammad al-‘Ābid b. al-sayyid A‘zīz b. al-sayyd Aḥmad al-Ḥabīb, the letter records that he is the nephew of a certain al-shaykh al- sayyid Abū Na‘āmat, also unidentified.

The folding lines of the leaf indicate how the letter was folded in Timbuktu. It was folded in portrait position into five equal parts starting from the bottom. The resulting slip was in turn folded into three adjacent rectangles and on the central, front rectangle the recipient’s name was written. Once unfolded, the recipient’s name appears in the verso of the leaf in central position. This is most likely the common way of folding private and commercial letters in Timbuktu. Some of these letters were also folded in four rectangles with the recipient’s name written on the front quarter – thus appearing, once unfolded, on one of the rectangles on the verso.
The top and the bottom margins are torn, missing both about two lines.

Dimension of the leaf: 15,9x20 Text surface: 12,1x18,3
Black Ink.

Mauro Nobili, Shahid Mathee, Aluka, Savama-Dci