Geniza Lab

Bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: Fustat. Dated: Tammuz 1590 Seleucid = 1279 CE. Written and signed by ʿImmanuel b. Yeḥiel (active ca. 1231–79). Also signed by Shela b. ʿAmram. Husband: [...] b. Nadiv ha-[...], of Fustat. Wife: Sitt al-Dār bt. Yiṣḥaq, of Banhā al-ʿAsl. There is confirmation of receipt on verso, signed by the same two witnesses as on recto.

Letter from Moshe b. Abudarham, probably in Rashid, to an unknown addressee. In Hebrew. Dating: Second half of the 16th century, based on Avraham David's assessment. The writer's son-in-law bought a 'tower' in Alexandria, and the writer plans to move in with him. He wishes to leave Rashid in part because "it is a waystation and people from Fustat are always passing through." Information from Avraham David via FGP.

Letter from Mardūk b. Mūsā, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: January 26, 1048, based on Gil's assessment. The writer confirms receipt of two letters from Nahray and gives directions on business matters, including that when a certain Abu ‘Amr arrives, Nahray should take 16 dinars from him. The writer also requests that Nahray purchase two books with high-quality paper for him, remarking that he has already written to Ḥalfon to buy a cloak (kisā'). Well wishes are sent to Abū Isḥāq Barhūn and Abū ʿAlī Ḥassūn. Information from Gil. EMS.

List of several dozen donors to the public appeal (pesiqa) for the kharāj (here probably meaning capitation tax). Last line contains a reference to Abū Mūsā Hārūn al-jahbadh.

Detailed account in Judaeo-Arabic, much of it for expenses entailed in the dyeing of silk.

Notebook of a marriage broker. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew with Coptic numerals. Dating: 1511 CE (1823 Seleucid). Enumerates the circumstances attending the marriage of certain persons named, chiefly concerned with invoicing the brides' trousseaus. Gottheil suggests that these are Qaraite documents. Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 179.

Business letter from Shelomo to Yosef Ḥalūfī, in Fustat. Dating: Second half of the 16th century, based on Avraham David's assessment. The letter deals with several business matters, especially the sugar trade. Also mentions 1000 Venetian swords.

Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). In Arabic script. Dated: 2 Shawwāl 454 AH, which is 9 October 1062 CE. In which a Muslim acknowledges that he no longer has any claims on a particular Jew. Muḥammad b. Muṣṭafā b. ʿAbdallāh the baker (al-farrān) acknowledges that he has received from the Jew Isḥāq b. Abū Saʿd b. Maḥāsin the cake maker (al-kaʿkī) all the money owed by Isḥāq and by Ibrāhīm b. Barakāt. Witnesses: Aḥmad b. Sulaymān b. Aḥmad; Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. al-Manṣūr. On verso there are 3 lines in Arabic script from a document acknowledging a debt. Presumably a draft, as the scribe left the text of the document unfinished. (Information from Khan's edition.)

Settlement between Shelomo b. Yehuda and Natan b. Avraham, ending the four-year schism of the geonut. Drawn up in Jerusalem. In the hand of Ẓadoq ha-Levi b. Levi. Dating: Late 1042 or early 1043 CE (Goitein and Rustow); or October 8, 1042 CE (Gil). By the terms of the agreement, Natan was deposed and demoted to Av Bet Din, and Shelomo b. Yehuda was reinstated in office. "The terms lean in Shelomo's favor, except for one item: the creation of a board of five overseers to regulate the affairs of the yeshiva, including the Gaon (Shelomo) and the Av Bet Din (Natan)." Information from Rustow, Heresy, p. 321, and from Gil.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning Abū Zikrī and pepper.

Bifolio from a court ledger. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Three records at least: 1) Settlement of a complex marriage dispute involving Abū Yaʿqūb b. Yosef Ibn al-Dhahabī, his daughter, and her husband Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Avraham b. ʿOvadya. The father-in-law and wife must fulfill some condition involving property rights, and if they do not, she will be divorced without a right to her ketubba. If they do, the ketubba stays as is. On the other side, the husband Abū l-Mufaḍḍal undertakes not to beat her or insult her or demand "the fruits" of the property. Dated: Tammuz 1453 Seleucid = 1142 CE. 2) Long inventory of valuable goods. Dowry list? Spans front and back of a single folio. 3) Details of the sale of a female slave. Her name: Jinān. Buyer: Mufaḍḍal b. Abū Saʿd b. Ṣibyān. Seller: Netanʾel b. Yiṣḥaq. Price: 34 dinars. 2 dinars will be paid in Tishrei 1454 Seleucid = 1142 CE, and the remaining 32 dinars in monthly installments of 1 dinar. The guarantor is al-Labbān b. ʿAbdallāh. Jinān has a 2-year-old daughter named Wafāʾ, who will remain with the seller (separated from her mother).

Letter from Yiṣḥaq Ibn Ezra, in Spain, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: before Nisan, probably of 1139 CE (Goitein and Friedman), or less likely 1128 CE (Gil). Mentions someone known as "the Elephant," who also appears in T-S 13J18.19. Much of the letter is written in coded language. The sender refers to 'nonsense' caused by 'the man you know' (perhaps Ibn Barukh) and warns Ḥalfon about him (חַכִּימָא בִּרְמִיזָא). Further on, he says that a person codenamed "the elephant" (also mentioned three times in IV, 55) did not want to give "the nūn." But according to IV, 55, Ibn ʿEzra did eventually manage to take "the letter nūn" from him. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Nissim, in Qaṭya, Sinai, to Shelomo Iskandarānī, in Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: First half of the 16th century, based on Avraham David's assessment. It gives an "account of conditions in the small and turbulent caravan station on the Cairo-Damascus highway. There is much about caravans. Robbers infest the way. The Muslims have demolished a synagogue(?) and a private house of the Jews. It is as hot as the nethermost Sheol, and the writer's pen is broken" (Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 229).

Letter from Ḥassūn b. Yiṣḥaq al-Safāqusī, probably in Būṣīr, to Abū l-Ḥayy Kalīla (the father of Mūsā), in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1048 CE. Deals with business in flax. Mentions the ʿushāra of al-Qāḍī al-Yāzūrī, who would later become vizier in June 1050. The same writer wrote T-S 8J19.32, to Mardūk b. Mūsā. There are a few lines of accounts on verso. Information from Gil.

Letter from Avraham Castro (the grandson of the well-known minter) to a certain Shelomo. In Hebrew. Dating: Second half of the 16th century. Deals with business matters. The writer wishes the addressee to give employment or credit to a certain Yiṣḥaq Qājījī, "one of the influential men of Palestine," who suffered great financial loss due to bad figs. Ṭodros ha-Kohen adds a note in the margin affirming the veracity fo the letter's contents. Information from Avraham David via FGP, and in part from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 237.

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment: only a narrow strip from the right side remains. Much of the translation by Gottheil & Worrell is speculative. The letter mentions the physician of the sultan; a price of 100 dirhems; something witnessed by all the elders of Aleppo; bonesetters (raddādīn); al-Nafīs Ibn al-S[...]; Abū l-ʿAlā' ibn al-[...]; and Ibn ʿUlayq. Verso: The letter was subsequently torn, and a cantor or some other person used the back to write out in a large cursive hand, as if for posting on the wall, what seems to be the first word or the first two words of certain prayers and pizmonim. Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 100.

A letter addressed to a certain Avraham Skandarānī by his aunt, an unnamed lady who has fallen upon evil days and desires his assistance. In Hebrew. Dating: Late hand, probably no earlier than 14th century. Information in part from Gottheil-Worrell, Frgaments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 243.

Amulet in Aramaic and Hebrew against various afflictions, such as "scare-crows of the night, afflictions, fever, ague, fear of evil, the voice, the crushing of the viscera. . . and the Succuba." Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 106.

Letter (or rather three letters) from Mustaʿrib sages, in Safed, to the Nagid Yiṣḥaq Sholal, in Fustat. Dating: 1510 CE, based on the assessment of Avraham David. These letters complain of the conduct of a certain R. Moshe, the dayyān of Safed in Galilee. If we are to believe the writers, he was a rather unusually vainglorious, selfish and unscrupulous person, guilty of many acts of tyranny, misappropriation and corruption, and responsible for the perennial Safed Meat Scandal." The paper apparently bears a watermark "of the familiar hand-and-star variety, employed by many manufacturers in France, Switzerland, and Sicily, between 1490 and 1590 CE." Information from Gottheil-Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah, p. 247.

Fragment torn from what seems to be the same Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic letter (but a different sheet of it) as F 1908.44W, with the verso reused in the same manner. See join. The content of the letter remaining on this sheet includes an eloquent Hebrew introduction, greetings to "our rabbis," and then perhaps the beginning of a letter of recommendation for Men[aḥem?], from the important men of a certain city. The dīwān charged him. . . 17 Nāṣirī dirhams. . . and now he is penniless and cannot support his children.