Geniza Lab

The address on a letter from Zekharya b. Berakhel to Shemuel b. Eli gaʾon. Seems like this fragment held several letters. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #84) VMR

Recto: Letter from Natan, a foreigner from Jerba (the island off the coast of Ifrīqiyya), who claims that he has been unjustly placed under house detention by the Muslim authorities. House arrest was imposed for unpaid debts in general, not just for the capitation tax. Unable to acquit himself of the entire obligation he owed he had been paying interest for nine months as well as the fee for house arrest (payment for the guardsman, called tarsīm), the normal procedure in such cases, a form of 'debtor's prison.' He asks assistance from a notable, a Jewish courtier with connections to the Muslim government. (Information from Cohen.) Join by Oded Zinger.

An Instruction to Avraham (b. Sahlan) to find money for a poor man.

The activity of Elḥanan b. Shemarya as a judge, a holograph: warns someone that he will be banished unless he appears in court the following Monday. For another letter on the this see CUL 1080 J48.

Letter from a member of the Ibn Nufayʿ family, in Malīj, to Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Almost none of the content is preserved except the sender's apology for the poor quality (or size?) of the paper, which was the best he could obtain in Malīj.

Letter addressed to a mother. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably Mamluk-era. The sender was happy to learn that Farajallāh is well. Mentions Umm Yaʿqūb, Umm Mūsā, and the wife of Yaʿqūb. Asks for the addressee's prayers. (Information from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Letter from Alexandria to the family of Yeshuʿa b. Sahl in Fusṭāṭ. (Yeshuʿa b. Sahl might actually be the sender.) Mentions: "the wheat.... If you saw your sister, you would not recognize her... from the female slave, she threatens her with the judge (al-qāḍī) and the barracks (al-ḥujra)... three times, and her heart is not at peace... the thing which you said you sent with Fuḍayl has not arrived... do not deprive us of the maintenance (al-mawna)...." May mention legal actions. Umm ʿImrān sends greetings. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Umm Sālim, probably in Fustat, to her sister Umm Salāma, in the house of al-Ḥemdat b. Pinḥas, in New Cairo (based on ENA NS 2.11). In Judaeo-Arabic. Opens with expressions of longing; "Every day I mention you, every moment, every minute." She is worried about her son Sālim who has traveled to Byzantium. Mentions Muʿammar Ibn al-Jāzfīnī (or al-Ghāzfīnī). (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, sometimes rhyming. In which the sender asks the addressee to send him a quarter raṭl of agaricum (ghārīqūn) that ‘the perfumer’ owes him, also sending greetings to Rabbenu Peraḥya.

Letter from Yefet b. ʿE[li] the cantor Ibn al-Jāzfīnī to the dignitary Moshe b. Ghulayb ha-Kohen. The sender wishes to get a position in Alexandria, Fustat, or Cairo. He mentions his pain for the death of "the lily" (אלשושנה) of Abū Isḥāq (a daughter?), and how he offered condolences by saying that "the owner of the deposit (=God) has retrieved it." He reports that Abū l-Surūr has traveled to Aden. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides' court. NH Recto: Letter from a divorcee, the wife of Manṣūr, to the Nagid, asking him to intervene because her ex-husband has taken their child, and to forbid her ex-husband to remarry before he has paid the dues owed to her from her marriage contract. Verso: Postscript or possibly an addendum written while forwarding the letter, in a different hand, mainly in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in which a man from Tlemcen, Algeria, who had not heard from his brother in Egypt 'for years,' reports that both the country and the family were flourishing, that he had two sons, and his deceased sister two sons and a grown up daughter. Asks who is the current Head of the yeshiva and says he would like to write him a letter. Dated ca. 1050. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 239). Address, top of the page, straight line, same direction as main text.

Letter from Ḥasan b. Muʾammal, Ramla, to Abu Nasr the cockeyed, Fustat, September 1052.

Letter sent by a young weaver to a woman, probably his aunt, reporting that he is looking for a place to stay and for work. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter, beautifully written, by a woman married for 15 years addressed to Masliah, the head of the Jewish community in Egypt (1127-1138), complaining about neglect and asking him to intervene with her husband to grant her divorce and payment of her dues. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 186 and CUDL)

Letter dealing with a relationship between a Jewish boy and a Christian female slave.

Letter segment in the hand of Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Ramla, September or October 1052.

Beginning of a query submitted to Maimonides, beginning by telling about a local man who is now living in another city (the rest is too fragmentary to understand). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Request from Masliah b. Gaon to let R. Abu al-Rasa b. Rabana Yehuda ha-Ḥaver, to sing in the synagogue of the Palestinians (אלשאמיין), because of: a.) his noble descent by his father; b.) he's blind; and c.) he's poor. (Information from Goitein's index card). EMS and VMR

Letter about a banker, an honest man from a provincial town, who wasn't able to meet his obligations because his customers were remiss in their payments to him. He was brought before the head of the local police, flogged, tortured and put into prison. The writer asks the recipient, a notable, to extricate the man from this misery. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 248)