Geniza Lab

Continuation of a long business letter sent from Alexandria to Cairo. Dating: Ca. 1235 CE, based on the date of T-S Ar.54.66 which is by the same sender (and may even be the first two pages of the present letter). This is either the third folio of the letter, containing pages 5 and 6, or the second folio, containing pages 3 and 4; the Greek/Coptic numeral for "3" appears at the top of recto. The sender gives the prices of merchandise in Alexandria, such as indigo, olibanum, cinnamon, brazilwood and pepper and of the taxes and other dues that have to be paid to trade in the city. The sender's mercantile contacts extended into Marseilles and Genoa. The letter mentions Rabbenu Menaḥem, the son and successor of the judge of Cairo Yiṣḥaq b. Sason. The letter also contains the earliest known reference to Jews from the Touat region of Algeria; see S.D. Goitein, “R. Isaac b. Ibrahim Al-Tuʾātī (ca. 1235): The Most Ancient Reference to Jews in the Touat,” Revue des études juives, vol. 140, no. 1-2 (January-June 1981): 193.) (Information from Goitein, Letters, 56–62, and Goitein's notes.)

Legal deed for the purchase of a house by a descendant of the Ṭabāṭabā family. Dating: early 5th/11th century. See also T-S Ar. 38127 (early 6th c AH), which mentions a house in Fustat in the khiṭṭa of Tujīb known as "the house of the Banī Ṭabāṭabā." (information from Khan, ALAD, p. 88-90)

Accounts in Arabic

Deed of sale. Dated: Last decade of Rabīʿ I 512 AH, which is June 1118 CE. Sale of a one-fourth of a new portion of a small house (duwayra) in Fustat by Ḥassan b. Shabbat the Jew to ʿAlī b. […]. Verso: Legal document concerning the same individual. (Information from Goitein’s index card and Khan.)

Legal document. In Arabic script. Fragment of a contract made before a Muslim notary about a bible (al-Tawrāh) codex of twenty-four pages. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

A faded and much damaged Arabic letter or legal document.

Legal deed for real estate, Mamluk period, with lots of archival process. 710s-750s AH

Account of building operations ca. 1200. List of expenditures, recording the daily amount of construction work lasting two weeks, of which the details for six days are preserved. The main items refer to preparation of mortar and plastering. Written in a calligraphic hand, the accounting was perhaps intended for public display. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 396 #107)

Private account of Barhun b. Yishaq ha-Tahirti. Around 1050. Contains financial report with Abu al-Khier, who is Musa b. Barhun ha-Tahirti, the writer’s uncle. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #388) VMR

An Account.

Twenty orders of payment in the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen & one fragment of accounts: Fol. 1: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 3 ounces of apple syrup. Fol. 2: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1/2 raṭl of oxymel. Fol. 3r: Remnants of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Fol. 3v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of lemon syrup and 1 ounce of rose. Fol. 4: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 5r: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Related to the India trade; mentions the Kārim fleet, worrying news, and someone named Abū l-Saddād. Fol. 5v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 6: The addressee is to give the bearer lemon syrup (the left side of the fragment is torn away). Fol. 7r: Note in Arabic script. "Send us. . . lemon. . . ḥalāwa. . . obtain for me pomegranate syrup." Fol. 7v: Abū l-Ḥasan is to give the bearer 1/2 raṭl of rose syrup and 1/4 raṭl of pomegranate syrup. The same instruction is written in Arabic script and crossed out. Fol. 8r: Remnant of a letter or possibly state document in Arabic script. The ends of two lines are preserved: ...لعبك من الخاصة... Fol. 8v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 raṭl of rose and lemon syrup. Fol. 9: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 3 ounces of lemon and rose syrup ("none other"). Dated: Kislev 1451 Seleucid, which is 1139/40 CE. Fol. 10r: Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The first few lines and the upper margin are preserved. Muslim/Musallam sends his regards. Almost all the content preserved is formulaic. Fol. 10v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer lemon and rose [syrup]. Fol. 11: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 12: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 13: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 14r: Lower part of a petition in Arabic script: "...to your slave my son Faḍāʾil, and please bestow favor on me with this great favor, and the reward and recompense will be from God the exalted. Do not delay, for I await deliverance from God and from you. I wish you the utmost peace." Fol. 14v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1/2 raṭl of oxymel. Fol. 15r: Remnants of accounts in Greek/Coptic numerals. Fol. 15v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of pomegranate oxymel. Fol. 16: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 raṭl of oxymel. Fol. 17: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of oxymel syrup. Fol. 18: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 19: Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. This is the sole fragment under this shelfmark that does not include an Abū Zikrī Kohen order of payment. Fol. 20r: Sulaymān is to give the bearer, the cantor Abū Saʿīd, 15 (ounces?) of rose (syrup?). Dated: Nisan 1451 Seleucid, which is 1140 CE. The contents of the order are repeated at the top in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. All this is crossed out. Fol. 20v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd) ("none other"). Fol. 21: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of some kind of syrup. On verso there are remnants of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Two bifolios from a ledger of accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. The hand may be known.

Fol. 3: Legal document. Left side of an agreement with a wife that she would receive the rent from the middle story of a house, but if it was unoccupied it would be her loss. Dated: 1436 Seleucid or slightly earlier, which is ca. 1124 CE. Names Isḥāq b. Makhlūf al-Nafūsī; a Lebdī; and [...] b. Abū ʿUmar al-Ṭabīb. In the lower margin, at 90 degrees: "Efrayim b. Elʿazar ha-Ḥazzan, Sitt al-Kull bt. Yaḥyā." (Information from Goitein’s attached notes.)

List, eleven names preserved, each donating the same amount, including a perfumer/druggist, a banker, a katib, and a murid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, App. C 27)

Torn fragments from an account. Only few visible word preserved. AA

Recto: Letter of appeal for charity addressed to al-Rayyis Yūsuf. In Arabic script, calligraphic with large letters. Asking him to bestow two garments (thawbayn) on the sender, since his family is almost dying from the cold. Verso: Letter from a certain Yūsuf who is ill. In Judaeo-Arabic, with erratic handwriting and spelling, difficult to read. He explains why he couldn't come. He says that he even loaded up his donkey and set out, but then was overtaken by sukūna (a medical term that appears in other documents but whose meaning is not entirely clear) and an attack of colic (qawlanjiyya). He feared that he wouldn't make it through the night. Unclear if or how the two letters are related to each other. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Letter to a certain Yiṣḥaq. In Judaeo-Arabic. Long and full of interesting details, but parts (especially verso) are faded beyond legibility. Dealing with personal issues and mentioning people such as a qāḍī, al-Ḥilwānī, Yaʿqūb Ibn Qihāya(?), Moshe al-Ḥabashi, and al-Rayyis. AA

Formulary for writing Judaeo-Arabic letters. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Aden, 1131 This document is a draft, or more precisely, partial lists that Ḥalfon wrote to himself, and based on them, he obviously intended to write a letter with orderly instructions to so-and-so. The certificate begins in the middle of the sentence, and there must have been at least one page before it that was not preserved. The writing is difficult to decipher (and translate), and the fragmentation of the things and the closed and sealed style make it more difficult to understand the matters. In the first part of the certificate, Ḥalfon describes the interest of Masmun b. Hassan or his messenger in the letters that arrived, and also mentions the matter of delivering other letters. Mentioned ben Jumayhīr (̇גַמַאהִר) (line 25), who, as is known from document ח7, ח8, ח10, objected to mentioning the 'authority' of a successful person in the prayer. The general tone of these lists indicates that they were written at an earlier stage of the affair than that known from the previous documents. A sign of this is Ḥalfon's doubt about whether he will return to Egypt or go to India (line 35-36). He may be telling about what happened the night after the day the foreigners arrived in Aden (line 24-25). Rabbi Yaʿqūb’s letter, mentioned in line 7, is probably one of the letters of Yaʿqūb b. Sālim mentioned in document ח5, line 14 onwards, and it becomes clear, therefore, that document ח6 was written after document ח5. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Various lists, probably from account. On leaf 1, a draft of a letter. Some names are written at some of the accounts: Yosef, Abu Yunis, Abu Birr, Musa's sister, Husam, Muhamad al-Qadi, Ya'aqub, Fakhr al-Din, Umm Umar. AA