Geniza Lab

Letter in Arabic script from the nineties of the eleventh century. Avraham b. Sahlan, the grandson of the person with the same name known to have been the head of the Babylonian congregation until the year 1030, wrote the letter to a friend in Alexandria, urging him to send him a poem (qasida) the latter composed. Avraham, a cantor and a poetry fan, attaches a comical poem composed by him, written in praise of Hiba ben Nahum. (Information from Frenkel)

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Nissim of Qayrawan to the Tunisian port of Qabis, c. 1000. The letter concerns legal questions asked by the addressee from Sherira and Hayya Gaon. Verso: Address and an unrelated literary work in Judaeo-Arabic, badly faded. (Information from CUDL)

Letter. Appointment of a general administrator of the qodesh, ca. 1150. Copy of a decision taken in the court presided over by Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya by which Yesha'yahu ha-Levi is appointed general administrator of the properties belonging to the qodesh. After an enumeration of different kinds of property, the decision stresses the full prerogratives and the immunity of the appointee from any interference with his activities by the court. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 259 #49)

Letter. The writer explains how a certificate written some hundreds of years earlier was found again after it had been missing for a long time. This certificate was a description of the state of the qodesh and its properties at the time. A section of it, referring to the appointment of Yeshayahu ha-Levi as general administrator of the qodesh, is copied by the writer of this letter; it was printed above Document #49 (T-S 16.63 verso, section a). Besides, the document contains valuable evidence about the second appointment of David Maimondes' grandson, as Nagid. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.479 #145).

Letter from Yosef and Nissim, the sons of Berekhya, in Qayrawan, to the merchant, Yosef b. 'Awkal, in Fustat (was written after Avraham b. 'Ata' accepted the position of 'Nagid', in the year of 1015, and before Yisrael b.Shemuel b. Hofni became to be a Gaon, 1017 (Mosseri L-162 accompanied this letter with all the enclosure) (pp)

Deed of gift. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. Dated: First decade of Kislev 1429 Seleucid, which is October–November 1117 CE. In which Sayyid al-Kull Moshe is given a little house (duwayra) by his mother, as well as the leasehold of an accompanying empty plot of land (sāḥa) connected to the house and owned by the government (under the auspices of the Dīwān al-Jawāmiʿ wa-l-Masājid). Also signed by Menashshe b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Detailed Karaite marriage contract of Elazar b. Shemarya and Rebecca bat Yosef. Dated Tishri 1512/ September 1200, Cairo. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 409)

Letter from Shemuel the Third b. Hoshana, Jerusalem, to Shemarya b. al-Hanan, the leader of the Babylonian Jewish community in Fustat ca. 1010. Shemuel writes to introduce the young Natan b. Avraham. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Ismail al-Andalusi, in Sicily, to Yoshua b. Natan al-Andalusi, in Fustat. Dealing with business matters and listing prices of goods in Sicily. Dated ca. 1050 (Gil's dating). (Information from Ben-Sasson, and from Gil)

Marriage contract between Eli b. Qimoy and Sutayt b. Yair, written by Shemarya b. Elhanan. Dated 1306/ 994-5. (Information from Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, p. 272)

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Part of a ketubba for Ratab (רתב) bat [...] b. Isaac ha-Kohen ha-Sar and Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen [b. ...]. Dated Marḥeshvan 1604 (= 1292 CE) in Fusṭāṭ. The names of witnesses are not preserved. Written under the jurisdiction of David b. Abraham Maimonides. There is a decorative heading in larger letters in which many of the letters are decorated with crude fleurs de lis. (Information from CUDL)

Large fragment filled with Arabic script. It appears to be a Jewish prayer: "yā Allāh" (l. 6), "I thirst for your mercy like the ground thirsts for water" (l. 17), "for the sake of the covenant with our fathers Ibrāhīm Isḥāq and Yaʿqūb..." (margin, ll. 12–13). Needs examination.

Bill of release written by Hillel b. ʿEli (1066–1108 CE). Location: Damascus. Names mentioned include: Avraham b. Yeshuʿa, Yehuda b. Moshe the Damascene cantor, Menashshe b. Yefet ha-Kohen, Shelomo b. Moshe, ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi, Ḥalfon b. Yiṣḥaq, the scholar Levi b. Netanel the cantor, the Nasi David b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya, Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen, Yeshaʿya b. Menashshe, Yehuda b. Moshe the cantor, Shelomo b. Mevorakh he-Ḥaver, Mevorakh b. Natan ha-Kohen, Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver, Menashshe b. Sibāʿ ha-Levi, Wahb b. Yeshuʿa, Aharon b. Moshe, and Meshullam b. ʿEli ha-Kohen. At the bottom of the document Shelomo b. Yosef ha-Kohen signs ‘Shelomo ha-Kohen son of a Gaʾon … grandson of Shelomo Gaʾon, descendant of Aharon’, although his usual signature - Shelomo b. Yosef Av - was apparently meant to placate the son of his father’s rival to the gaonate, David b. Daniel, in whose court he participated. In this instance, however, Shelomo decided against his customary diplomatic signature and emphasized his father’s credentials. (Information from CUDL.)