Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef b. Natan al-Ḥalabī to Moshe Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Only the upper portion of recto and the address are preserved, entirely consisting of poetical praises.There are two unrelated notes on verso. Unpublished. Noticed by Goitein and rediscovered in 2017 by Amir Ashur and Oded Zinger.

Lower fragment: Legal document. Location: Tinnīs ("the island of Ḥanes"). Dated: Tuesday, 8 Ṭevet 4861 AM, which is 11 December 1100 CE. Ṭayyib b. Faraj known as Ibn Qaysarānī acknowledges receipt of 26 dinars from Mukhtār b. Shela, of which 8 belonged to Mukhtār and 18 to Mubārak b. Ibrāhīm b. Ayyūb. The rest is torn away. Verso: Official note of some kind in Arabic script. "The slave of... my master the noble qāḍī Abū l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-[...]." (There are also Hebrew pen trials on verso.) Needs examination.

Upper fragment: Bifolio of accounts. Listing names (e.g., ʿAlī al-Tinnīsī and the Andalusī cantor), precious items, and amounts. Possibly accounts of an 11th-century Maghrebi trader. Many of the lines are crossed out.

Letter from 1131, official, to 'the gate of the yeshiva' that is the yeshiva of Masliah Gaon. The carier of the letter is Yeshua b. Yaaqov. Very wide line spacing. Probably was written by Nathan b. Shelomo Hakohen. On verso a piyyut. Dated 1131

Lower fragment: Possibly an address of a letter. To Yehuda b. Peraḥya (Ḥemdat ha-Yeshiva Rosh ha-Nedivim) b. Ḥalfon. On the other side, there is a title of a piyyut for Yom Kippur written by Rav Nisi (רב ניסי) Aluf

Upper fragment: Letter from Shela b. Mevasser to Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Yefet. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1094–1111 CE. About a sum of dinars which Mevorakh b. Seʿadya (here called Sar ha-Sarim) had sent for Shela but which did not arrive. Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn קדורה came and told Shela that he had mistakenly given the money to Abū Sahl (probably Menashshe) Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif. The addressee is asked to wait for Abū Sahl and obtain the money. If Abū Sahl is delayed, Mevorakh should be informed. (Information from Frenkel.)

Letter from Natan b. Avraham to Berakha b. Ravah, Fustat, February 1039.

Inventory of the goods belonging to the judge in Sunbāṭ, Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe. Dated: 26 Tishrei 1462 Seleucid, which is 1150 CE. T-S K3.32 (listing the books) and ENA 4020.60a (listing the goods) are part of the same inventory.

Letter from Avraham al-Muʿṭī and Yosef b. Ezra to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. Should be included in the addenda to India Book IV. Most of the substance of the message is lost.

Letter from Shemuʾel b. Sa'adia (not the dayyan and scribe) to Moshe the representative of the merchants.

This shelfmark includes 3 unrelated fragments. Upper right fragment, recto: Bottom left corner of a letter in Hebrew sent from the community of Aleppo (צובה) to another community. In Hebrew. Mentions Efrayim, a dignitary (sar) named Abū Manṣūr ha-Gizbar ("the treasurer"), [...] ha-Kohen b. Ṭoviyya. Upper right fragment, verso: Agreement between [...] b. Abī Qida (? קדה) and Mukhtār b. Bushayr concerning a load of brazilwood (baqqam) that is worth over 1000 (dinars?). They will split (profits?) equally.

This shelfmark includes 3 unrelated fragments. Bottom fragment: Validation of a legal document. Signed by [...] b. Avraham, Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq, and Efrayim b. Meshullam. None of the main document is preserved.

This shelfmark includes 3 unrelated fragments. Upper left fragment: Legal record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dated: 1440 Seleucid, which is 1128/29 CE. Inventory of certain objects deposited by Nājiya bt. Abū l-Khayr with the parnas Abū ʿAlī against the promise to bury her in specified clothing. (A previous description on PGP referred to this as a trousseau list.) (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. On parchment. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1441 Seleucid, which is 1129/30 CE, under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. The case involves a gift, Sitt al-Karam, Abū l-Munajjā, and a female slave named Rasm.

Letter to Avraham b. Shma'ya on verso, continuines on recto. Some words between the lines in diferent hand and pen. On recto a darft of poetic dirge in memory of Ḥalfon mentioning the traders. Some more jottings and pen trials, and the name Nethanel b. Yefet.

Copy of a petition to the caliph al-Ẓāhir (matn only) against acknowledgement of the Iraqi authority in Palestine. Dating: original document ca. 1030, but this copy may be several decades later. Discussed in Khan, JRAS, p53; Rustow, Heresy and elsewhere; Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 347. Previous description (Goitein's?): Shelomo b. Yehuda to al-Mustansir defending his position against Yūsuf al-Sijilmasi, the Iraqi leader in Palestine. In the same hand as ENA NS 13.15 and T-S K25.244.

Text of an oath to be taken in court

Letter from Makārim b. Mūsā Ibn Nufayʿ, in ʿAydhāb, to (his son-in-law?) the ḥaver Yeshuʿa b. Yoshiyya(?) the descendant of Shemaʿya Gaʾon, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Shortly after ca. 1141 CE, since it mentions a receipt for the capitation tax for the year [5]35 AH. The sender has arrived safely in ʿAydhāb in the middle of Ramaḍān. He has booked passage to Aden in one cabin (bilīj, originally a Malayan word) in the ship of al-Dībajī together with Nahray (b. ʿAllān, cf. BL OR 5566D.6) and (Makhlūf b. Mūsā) Ibn al-Yatīm. They have taken care of their business and intend to travel onward after the holiday. He mentions: a piece of copper to be sold; that the large Bible codex should be kept safe from the mice; that the gallnuts should be sold; and that the bottles (qamāqim) should be sold if they can fetch a certain price, but otherwise they should be given to Bū Naṣr to make rose water in them. He leaves instructions for taking care of his capitation tax: "as for the capitation tax, there remain with / owed to me 3 (dinars) with Hiba from before. I received from him the receipt (al-barāʾa) for a dinar and change (dīnār wa-kasar, cf. the same expression about the capitation tax in T-S 13J25.6). It is now with Thābit but lacking a registration mark (ʿalāma). And for the year [5]35, 1 dinar and 2 qirats and 1 dirham. If you neglect this for me, I am lost. 'If you see them smoking, you (should?) think they're cooking.'" (The significance of this proverb in this context is not clear.) He has sent 33 dirhams of a Yemeni commodity (חב קרץ?) with the bearer of the letter; the addressee should sell it little by little. Greetings to the addressee, an old man, and Shemaʿya; to the sender's sister and mother, to his paternal uncle and his son Zayn and his wife, to his maternal aunt and her son, to Suʿūd, and to Thābit and his brother. Thābit should be reminded to press the wine for the sender. They should all take care of 'the old woman.' Greetings to Sayyid al-Kull b. Naḥmān (known from several other documents, e.g., T-S 12.527) and to Barhūn, and then a final urging not to forget the capitation tax. On verso, apart from the address, there are two medical prescriptions unrelated to the letter, one in Arabic script (complete) and one in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 575 note 140, from the several citations in India Book II, and from Friedman, Dictionary, p. 133 s.v. דכ׳ן.) ASE

Legal document. Apprenticeship agreement. Dated December 1150 or January 1151. Location: Fustat. Written in the jurisdiction of Shemuel b. Ḥananya ha-Nagid, between Abū al-Faraj al-Musta‘mil b. Shelomo and Hillel b. Sālim. Abū al-Faraj gives Hillel 100 dirhams as an absolute debt and the latter agrees to work until the amount is repaid. If Hillel wishes to leave this employment, he must pay the entire balance of the debt. It seems that Abū al-Faraj is also to pay Hillel a wage, though the amount is unspecified. Repayment of the debt is to be recorded on the document itself. Abū al-Faraj is referred to as "his teacher", though his trade is not clear from the document; he is simply called "the [government] employee". This and the fact that Hillel indentures himself to Abū al-Faraj with the loan, suggests an apprenticeship relationship, though the nature of the work itself is unclear. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 63-64)

Marriage document. A torn and damaged Karaite ketubah. Although no complete sentences have survived, from the remaining words and phrases we can be sure that this is a Karaite ketubah: e.g החתן הבחור החשוב, ואליו תשוקתו and more. Probably 11th century. Hebrew. AA