Geniza Lab

Letter in Hebrew, with an extensive Judaeo-Arabic note, in a different hand, in the top margin. Mentions a pinqas. Written on Thursday, 8 Tishrei (unclear if the year is given). Dating: late. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Ḥasan b. Sahl (aka Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū l-Ḥasan aka Yedutun ha-Levi). Very deferential ("I am illuminated by the light of your opinions," etc.). Asking the addressee whether or not a certain Torah reading should be read for the benefit of the addressee—אן יקאל עליה תורה הלילי(?)—or not. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Recto: a chancery decree in Arabic script, two lines only. Written around the text on recto and also on verso is the liturgy for Rosh ha-Shana, including the ʿamida for the additional service and a reshut, אחג כפתי ובער. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a certain Mūsā, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. The sender, who is apparently engaged to a minor girl soon to reach maturity, asks Eliyyahu to intervene with his future father-in-law Bū Zikrī b. Netanel b. Hillel so that Bū Zikrī does not try to delay the wedding any further. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter fragment mentioning R. Judah, and pleading for a reply. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment from Moshe to 'my brother.' In Judaeo-Arabic. He asks him to bear the hardship (yatajashsham al-ʿanā) and spend the night . . . "in his house where I am dwelling." Cryptic.

Damaged and torn. On recto draft of a court record written by Shmuel b. Saadya Halevi (1165-1203). The date given in Mosseri Catalogue (1039) is wrong, and is based on Gil's publication of a document with the same shelf mark (Palestine, II, no. 189) which is another document. Mosseri catalogue is referring to this document and mentioned Shmuel b. Saadya Halevi. Names on recto: Abu al-Faraj b. Abu Nasr, Abu al-Hasan al-Zajaj known as Ben al-Matar. On verso the bottom part of a legal deed signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Based on this data we can date this document to 1165-1181. AA

Part of a letter. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a letter or possibly a legal document, mentioning a bill of exchange, quantities of money and the names Ibn Ṣaḡīr, Abū l-Saqr (?), Ibn Meʾir, Abū Sahl, the Ḥaver Abū ¸Kathir (Efrayim b. Shemarya), a synagogue and a date, 16 Adar. (Information from CUDL)

Segment of a letter, probably from Fustat to Jerusalem.

Informal note. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer wants the addressee to obtain a letter confirming the receipt of the 2 1/6 dinars from Manṣūr b. Dā'ūd, and to inform al-Shaykh al-Sadīd that the writer has written him several letters and not received a response, and to obtain the six [...] from him.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Probably 11th-century mercantile.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Probably ca. 14th–16th century. Mentions money to be given to the recipient; Alexandria; an amir; and a muḥtasib. Needs further examination. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Salāma b. Mūsā Safāquṣī (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat), ca. 1062. Contains information on the movement of ships, and on a significant damage to one of the ships, causing losses to Nahray. Salāma b. Mūsā Safāquṣī hopes to find out from Nahray b. Nissim prices of oil, flax, pepper. He laments the death of Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tāhirtī. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 450 and Goiteins notes linked below.)

Letter addressed to Sulaymān the beadle. In Judaeo-Arabic. Regarding fundraising for captives, asking the addressee to take charge of it, and also "to collect something from the women." There is some sort of registration mark at the top of the page, which resembles those used by the offices of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355) and David II Maimonides (d. 1410). The handwriting resembles that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. Needs examination

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, discussing various garments and textiles.

Business letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon b. Benaya (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat), ca. 1050. Nissim b. Ḥalfon left two money poaches in Tinnīs, to be sent to Fustat. He asks Nahray b. Nissim to pass on to Tinnīs a letter enveloped in the present letter, and to pass on to him any letters that may have arrived for him from Tinnīs. Nissim b. Ḥalfon, together with his partner Abū Saʿīd b. al-Tahirtī, sent two loads of tin and he asks Nahray b. Nissim to supervise their sale. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 956.)

Original text: Hebrew piyyutim, probably mid-12th-century based on handwriting (compare to Moss. Ia,6). Later text: A prescription in Arabic script.

Letter from a scribe to a certain Yosef. (The names Yosef and Avraham appear in the address on verso, but the surrounding text is very faded; the letter opens with a verse from Genesis about Yosef and his two sons, and the letter itself blesses the addressee and his two sons.) In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Written on vellum. Dating: Probably no earlier than 14th century, based on the hand and the names. The letter mentions R. Muvḥar and R. Shemuel b. al-Gati and discusses the copying of a muṣḥaf on parchment. On verso there is a piyyut in the hand of the writer. There is also a second letter in a different hand, in Judaeo-Arabic.

Piyyut.