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Read more at: ‘We have seen the mountains shaking’: Fatimid humanitarian relief and the earthquake of 1033

‘We have seen the mountains shaking’: Fatimid humanitarian relief and the earthquake of 1033

In December 1033 CE – late afternoon on the 12th day of the Hebrew month of Tevet – a terrible earthquake shook Palestine. Across the region, cities were levelled and a tsunami wave arrived on the Mediterranean coast. The events of that day and its aftermath reached Egypt soon afterwards in a letter written by the scribe Solomon ben Ṣemaḥ.