The Maid and the Letters

It is told that after Rav Shmuel fled Córdoba he opened a spice shop in Málaga, near the palace of the vizier of Granada, Abu al-Kasim ibn al-Arif. A maidservant from the palace began coming to the shop and asking him to write letters for her. The vizier came to hear of the learned shopkeeper through her.

From there one step led to the next. Rav Shmuel was given the post of tax collector, then that of secretary, and in time he became assistant vizier to King Habbus al-Muzaffar. A simple request for letters opened the way to the highest office a Jew held in Spain.