Geniza Lab

Letter from Musa b. Abi l-Hayy from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1055. Mentions details about changing coins and business between the two of them. Also mentions money that was sent to Alexandria to Yisrael b.Natan (Sahlun), Nahray's cousin. On the other side Nahray wrote a comment about a mistake in Musa's calculation. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 480-483, #446). VMR

Letter from Perahya Yiju to his brother Shemuel. Written probably in al-Mahalla around the seventies or eighties of the twelfth century. Perhaya copies questions on religious law and asks his brother to obtain authoritative answers for them in Fustat.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Ṣedaqa b. Khalaf b. Fuhayd, in Tyre, to Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. al-Sheviʿi. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late 11th century or early 12th century, based on Goitein's assessment. The letter relates that after the death of the writer's father, his brother Fahd, who worked in the local mint, had been deceived by a newcomer Abū Manṣūr Baghdādī. It further discusses large sums of money (hundreds of dinars) owed or handled by a man who was found dead on the sea shore. Some say he committeed suicide, some say he was murdered. The writer requests a rescript from al-Mālik (al-Afḍal?) to the Qāḍī Thiqat al-Dawla. Information from Goitein's note card for this shelfmark and for BL OR 5566B.5. ASE.

Fragment of a letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli b. Amram, Fustat, mentioning the successful visit of Eli ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver b. Yehezkel in Fustat on behalf of the Yeshiva. Also mentions things about an "aguna" (עגונה - a woman who is "chained" to her marriage because her husband refuses to grant her a divorce or who is missing). (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 692-693, #376) VMR

Petition from the daughter of Hilāl 'Shaykh al-Yahūd' of Ashqelon to Yaḥyā ha-Sar. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38 CE). Gil identifies the addressee as Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and dates the letter to ca. 1135 CE, but does not offer any justification for this identification. The addressee is identical with the addressee of T-S 20.120 (also a Yaḥyā ha-Sar with some of the same titles: שר בית ישראל זקן התפארה הוד השררה), which may date closer to 1100 than to 1138, as it mentions a figure close to the governor (wālī) named Ṣārim al-Dawla, a relatively unusual title which was held by a Fatimid ruler in Ashqelon under Badr al-Jamālī and his son al-Afḍal ca. 1100 CE. In any case, the sender of this petition is asking for financial support for herself and her children, because she used to be supported by her two brothers in Ashqelon (one is named Saʿd and serves as 'khādim al-yahūd'), but the two brothers are facing difficulties of their own and have cut her off. (Information in part from Gil.)

Document in Arabic script, probably accounts.

Prescription in Judaeo-Arabic, it seems for hemorrhoids (arwāḥ, see Blau's dictionary, p. 264).

List of names in Judaeo-Arabic (recipients of charity?), including many women. Needs further examination.

Recto, with address on verso: Letter from Saʿdān b. Ḥ[...] to his 'brother' Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā b. Yiṣḥaq(?). The addressee had sent a letter reporting that he had gone to Alexandria and to Tinnīs. His family members are upset at him. "I read [your letter] to Sitt Faraj and she screamed and cried, and she still suffers the remnants of an illness, because she had ophthalmia that caused her to scream, may God protect her. She asked to me to write to you but did not want to inform you about [the illness] except with great anguish (ḍīq sadr)." They rebuke him for going to these places when there was no need, and urge him to come back quickly.

Letter from Musa b Ya'qub, Tyre, to Abu al-'Ala Yusuf b. Daud b. Sha'ya, Fustat. NB shelfmark was incorrect in old PGP (Or. 1082 J42 instead of Or. 1080 J42)

Power of attorney to receive four dinars from Abu al-Muna, given by Yakhin b. Elazar of Minyat Zifta to Yosef al-Miqdasi b. Allun. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of recommendation for a poor woman.

Letter from one of the followers of Natan b. Avraham, from Jerusalem, fall 1038. Fragment.

Accounts for the distribution of bread for the same period as in T-S K15.25 (1241/42 CE), for the thirteenth through the eighteenth weeks of the liturgical year. The accounts contain only the liturgical name of the week, that of the collector (jābī al-mezonot, changing every week), the sum delivered by him, the amount spent on bread (in the seventeeth week: 28 1/4 out of 54 dirhems) and the balance. Salaries and so forth were obviously distributed by another official. Information from Med Soc II, Appendix B, #51 (p. 453).

Document with a few lines of faded Hebrew script. Perhaps a remnant of an address?

Letter to someone addressed as mawlāy al-rayyis. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Mentions al-Maḥalla and Ibn al-Ḥabrāwī. Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with business matters. Mentions Ṣadaqa and Yūsuf. Verso: Possibly another document in Judaeo-Arabic, but it is extremely faded.

Legal document. Scribed and witnessed by Hillel b. ʿEli. Location: Fustat. Dated: Sunday 10 Tevet 13[..] Seleucid. The body of the document mentions a divorce that took place in Kislev 1393 Seleucid, which is December 1081 CE. The document itself was therefore drawn up between 1081/82 and 1087/88 CE. The case involves Barakāt b. Mubārak al-Tinnīsī and Ḥisāna bt. Ibrāhīm. Concerns the alimonies (two waybas of wheat, etc., per month) of a widow who was free from her obligations. It appears to be a summary of the court's ruling, and there is a note at the bottom, "We, the court/judges, received this copy and the copy of the original, and...." The former husband was from Tinnīs, and the witnesses were people from Palestine and Syria, and other foreigners. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter fragment from Daniel(?) b. Yaʿīsh to Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva. In Judaeo-Arabic.

Recto: A few words in Hebrew. Verso: A few words in Arabic script.