Geniza Lab

Business letter in which the sender writes that he is concerned after meeting in Qus a business relation to whom he was able to sell three dinars worth of white linen while the buyer also paid him thirty-two dinars minus one fourth.

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef to Saadya b. Avraham Ibn al-Amshāṭī. Fragment. The letter is prefaced with three short decorated lines of biblical quotations. Address on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from the opening of a short letter or note, addressed to Abū l-Munā and speaking about the price of parchment. (Information from CUDL)

Letter, probably, in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. There is a blessing for victory over enemies at the bottom. Needs further examination.

Letter from Avraham b. Farāḥ, in Alexandria, to Abu Yūsuf Yaʿqūb, probably in Fustat. Around 1055. The addressee sold dinars that he received from the writer. The writer mentions several shipments of letters. Another person added in the margins that he stayed in Busir from Adar 5 to Adar 20. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #558) VMR

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. The writer excuses himself from something on account of his illness (ḍuʿfī) and worry (shughl sirrī).

See PGPID 5271 for description. Goitein's transcription is here, Frenkel's there.

Letter from Meir b. Hillel b. Sadoq to a prominent figure in Fustat, probably Sar Shalom ha-Levi Gaon. The identification of the writer is based on his style and handwriting. The writer is hesitant in accepting a post he was granted in Alexandria because it would entail parting from his son. The letter mentions one of the most famous jurists of Alexandria, the faqīh Ibn ʿAwf. Frenkel identifies this man with the Mālikī jurist Abū Ṭāhir Ismāʿīl b. Makkī b. ʿĪsā b. ʿAwf of Alexandria (d. 1188), who was one of Saladin's teachers. The same faqīh is also mentioned in T-S 12.290 and T-S 16.272. Dating: Before 1188 CE, based on the identification of the faqīh. The letter also mentions a blind person, a 'rabbenu ha-qodesh', Alexandria, as well as ahl al-Maḥalla.

Fragment of a letter from Yosef b. Berekhya, probably to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal, Fustat. Around 1020. Mentions a shipment of money and papers, probably question to the Babylonian Yeshiva. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #151) VMR

Recto: (1) Official letter to Damīra. In Judaeo-Arabic. The cantor Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef is requested to look into the case of Eliyya b. Naḥum ha-Kohen and his marriage to the daughter of Abū l-Ḥasan his maternal uncle. The nature of the doubts about the marriage are not fully clear; see Goitein's notes and attached transcription for more information. Verso: Additional legal/official notes, including (2) an order to Damīra to forward "rasm al-siyyum," i.e., the money collected at a siyyum, and (3) a legal record certifying that Naẓar bt. Dāʾūd gives her son 1/4 of a house which her husband had given her for her ketubba (with certain conditions). (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. Mentions Mardūk b. Mūsā.

Letter from a retired old Alexandrian merchant named Abū Saʿīd to a friend in Fustat. One side is a letter in Arabic script and the other side is a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The same scribe wrote both letters, as the Judaeo-Arabic includes a salām in Arabic script that is identical to the salāms on the other side. Both letters deal with a request to intervene with the Nagid and ask him to draw up a certificate (waraqa, nuskha) of indigence so that the sender can get support from the Jewish community of his hometown. Abū Saʿīd retired from his store about 2.5 years ago, still owing money. He was declared a pauper, and that matter was resolved. But he is still being sought for the capitation tax for his grandson. Someone (Abū Saʿīd? the son? the grandson?) has been absent from Alexandria for 12 years. It is not sufficient for the Nagid to certify that Abū Saʿīd is poor; the Nagid is also supposed to write a few lines explaining the circumstances. Perhaps in this way he will obtain relief ("since I might be regarded as an absentee (ghā'ib)"). Notably there is no hint of shamefacedness. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes; see those notes for further information, references, and a draft translation.) ASE

Letter from Ibn al-Nasr (the son of the eagle?) to Abū l-Maḥāsin al-Tājir, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer includes a request for medicinal substances. He also urges the addressee to return quickly to his mother, because she has been afflicted lately with 'what cannot be described,' and she would have perished were it not for the solicitude of friends. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE.

Fragment of a general prenuptial agreement in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. The agreement contains remarkable conditions that favor the woman: the bride demanded to live separately from her husband's sisters. In addition, the husband vows to behave well toward his wife and not to beat her. The husband also vows not to forbid the wife from leaving the home. The wife received as a gift a part of her mother's house and the husband vows that her mother will be allowed to live with them. The husband must transfer the rent paid for his wife's share of her mother's house to his mother-in-law for five years. The wife may do as she pleases with her wealth and the husband has no right to it. There is also a special condition that specifies that the groom must provide any medical and burial expenses for his mother-in-law.

Business agreement from Egypt, concerning raisins. The parties include Raḥamim and Avraham. It is signed by Yosef b. Ṣefanya Kohen. Dated: Monday, 11 [...] [5]305 AM = 1544/45 CE. Conceivably the same people as in T-S 13J7.30, a 16th-century letter in Ladino from Avraham Mayo, also involving a Raḥamim and the raisin trade. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter in which the sender addresses a cantor, who has been sick, and whom the writer has not recently seen, and from whom he now requests some liturgical hymns (yotzrot) for Passover. "Letter in the handwriting of Hillel b. ʿEli to an unnamed cantor, expressing regret for a missed meeting and asking him to send the Yoṣrot for Passover so that he may copy them." (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment. Upper left corner only. Addressed to important people (al-shuyūkh al-afāḍil). In Hebrew (for the introductory blessings) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body).

Address of a letter to Eliyyahu the Judge. None of the body of the letter remains on this fragment.

Letter fragment from a man to his wife. In Judaeo-Arabic. Partial translation by Joel Kraemer: "I have sworn an oath not to wash the clothes I wear until I return to you, nor cut my hair, drink wine or enter a bath until I come home. People know how I am constantly weeping, crying out and sobbing. By the Torah of Moses, peace upon him, I have not forgotten you, nor have I ever replaced you with someone else, or forgotten your piety and love; may God not let me die out of desire for you. I entreat you not to forget me in your prayers ... I wish to treat you with kindness, may God fulfill my hopes in this regard. I ask that I should be able to bedeck you with jewels beyond every woman in Sicily." See also Med Soc, III, p.193, note 157.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. The first four lines are preserved. Needs examination. Verso: Informal note. In Judaeo-Arabic, in a rudimentary hand. Asking the addressee (al-Maghribī Isḥāq?) to convey something to a certain scribe or secretary (kātib), perhaps asking him to write a letter for Ibn Sayf(?). Also mentions a court and a deposit (?wadāʿa; the word is normally wadīʿa) and bringing Bū Saʿd with him. Needs examination.