Eliezer Sussman ben Rabbi Abraham Corit

The 1546 CE earthquake is described in a letter found in the Cairo Geniza. The letter, written in Hebrew, was composed in Jerusalem and, based on agreement between the date and day of the week reported and concerns expressed due to continuing aftershocks, was probably written shortly after the earthquake. The writer appears to be Eliezer Sussman and the recipient his son Avigdor ( The Geniza Lab at Princeton University, Bodl. MS heb. c 64/1). Eliezer had arrived in Jerusalem in November 1545 CE - ~2 months prior to the earthquake (Ambraseys and Karcz, 1992). Although the letter is considered authentic, Braslavsky (1938) and Turnianski (1984) disagree about who wrote the letter and when they wrote it (Ambraseys and Karcz, 1992).