Geniza Lab

Legal document. Written and signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle decade of Iyyar 1484 Seleucid, which is 1173 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom b. Moshe ha-Levi. (This is the earliest known document from Sar Shalom's second term in office, after Maimonides held the title ca. 1171–72.) Abū l-Maʿrūf Ṣedaqa b. Shemarya has taken in the orphaned boy Hiba of his late brother Abū Saʿd al-Miṣrī, and he asks the court to grant money for him to support the boy. The court agrees to provide 10 dirhams a month out of the estate deposited in the name of the orphan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 299, 493.)

Verso: Letter from a father, unknown location, to his son Baqāʾ, in Fustat. The letter was sent to the shop of Meshullam/Musallam to be held for the addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 12th century. Written on verso of an Arabic petition to a high Fatimid official; Goitein suggests that the sender of the Judaeo-Arabic letter may have been an official in the same office (hence with access to this scrap paper). The father has sent 20 dirhams with Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, of which 11 dirhams are for the capitation tax and the remainder for his wife ("bayt"). He exhorts his son to behave well (ḥusn al-ʿishra) with the latter's mother, wife, and siblings. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) ASE

Recto: Petition to a Fatimid dignitary regarding a theft of money. In Arabic script. The archer Manṣūr b. Zakī al-Dawla (or: Rukn al-Dawla?) complains that Badr, one of the horseman of the amir Tāj al-Maʿālī with whom he was travelling, left the camp and took with him two dinars of wages that belonged to the petitioner. A tarsīm regarding these facts has already been issued. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Bu l-Khayr to the local school teacher, asking him for a loan of 400 dirhams against a security to help him out until his partner Manṣūr comes back. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Verso: Statement of sums due to Shelomo b. ʿAzzūn from Faraḥ b. ʿAṭṭiya for a banker’s note. Lists payments made with cash, with textiles, and with a sheep. The currencies are Ẓāhiriyya dirhams (r. 1021–36 CE) and Nizāriyya dinars (these are the coins of al-ʿAzīz Billāh, aka Abū Manṣūr Nizār, r. 975–96 CE). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Document in Arabic script, in a calligraphic hand, without wide space between the lines. Likely a letter. Five lines are preserved, but they are very faded. Appears to mention "the pillars of the bathhouse" (arkān al-ḥammām). Needs further examination.

Marriage contract (ketubba) with an ornate border. Location: Fustat. Dated: Friday, 14 Nisan 5532 AM, which is 1772 CE. Groom: Yehuda b. Moshe Masʿūd. Bride: Sitt al-Bayt Vieto(?). Total payments: 300 Abū Ṭāqa reals. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Letter(s) in Ladino, with occasional sentences in Hebrew. The sender of the main letter has had an attack of "mal de ojo" (evil eye? or simply an eye disease?). Most of the letter deals with business matters, including the trade in indigo (אנייר) and wine. Mentions many people, including ʿOvadya; Shemuel Amato; Moshe ʿOvadya; Moshe Botaril. Mentions places such as Alexandria and Crete. Addressed to Yaʿaqov Kapiloti (?קאפילוטי). Needs further examination.

Three long drafts of letters in elaborate Hebrew, sent from the court in Fustat. The first deals with the cantor Yiṣḥaq of Ṣahrajt who permitted a woman to marry before three months from her divorce had elapsed. Dating: Early 11th century. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter (with Fatimid petition/report formulary) sent by the shammash (beadle) of Sunbāṭ in the center of the delta to Shemuel ha-Nagid (1140–59) describing a brawl and accusing the opponents of having arranged with the wali beforehand to look the other way. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 368, 369, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter sent by the community of Fustat to a place in the Egyptian Rif, asking to help a Palestinian, as the local people had just paid the capitation tax for ninety poor men. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 95)

Letter sent from Cairo to Bilbays containing a request to contribute to the capitation tax of a poor teacher and his son. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Saadya Ha-Ḥaver, Hebron, to Evyatar Gaon, Fustat, beginning of 1082.

Legal document in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. Dating: March 30, 1077 CE. Declaration by ʿAllūn b. Yaʿīsh the Parnas, acting as attorney for the heirs of Avraham b. al-ʿĀbid, who had operated a grainstore (fāmī) in partnership with [not preserved] and who had obviously suddenly died, since there is a reference to his illness and to the fact that six dinars were found in his mandīl. Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter addressed to Mevorakh b. Yefet. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning the arrangements for the sender's upcoming marriage (e.g., the stipulations of the ketubba and the size of the marriage payments) and seeking instructions from the addressee.

Business letter addressed to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen Sijilmāsī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Barakāt Ibn al-Lebdī; Hārūn b. Rajā; Efrayim b. Ismāʿīl. (Goitein's attached notes may refer to several other documents other than this one; Goitein quotes a sender who says “I cannot undertake for the third year a voyage [to Aden]," and he makes some date calculations mentioning the years 1131, 1134, and 1135.) Goitein's attached notes also contain a full transcription.

Letter from Nahray b. Natan b. Nahray, in Alexandria, to a certain Abū Saʿīd. Fragment (upper part only). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late 11th century. The sender and his father, both residents of Alexandria, are known to have exchanged letters with their relative, Nahray b. Nissim. (Gil mistakenly identified the sender as Nahray b. Nissim himself.) In this letter, Nahray b. Natan writes that he has received a letter with a list of merchandise sent to Fustat by Abū Sulaymān Dāʾūd Ibn al-Lebdī. The list of merchandise is valuable for the study of the Indian Ocean trade. The sender says that he has sent two purses of 100 dinars each with two different messengers and asks the addressee to buy several items for him. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book I.)

Court record containing signatures of three Jewish witnesses in Arabic script, in which a Jewish woman is charged by two Muslims with being intimate with a Christian physician. They reported seeing her loitering by his apothecary practice, and spied on her for 40 days before taking their suspicions to a judge. (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society,II, p. 330)

Letter from Yosef b. Shemuel ha-Levi known as Ibn al-Lukhtūsh, probably in Granada, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, probably staying somewhere in Spain not far from Granada. Dating: October 1138 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. See also IV,3 and IV,40, other letters with the same sender and addressee. This letter testifies to the recognition that Yosef accorded to Ḥalfon as a leader with stature in the Jewish world. The sender comments on a letter he received from Ḥalfon containing things that disturbed his peace, probably meaning Ḥalfon’s precarious health and things that prevented him from setting out and difficulties in trading. The sender hopes that business with Tilimsān has reached a successful conclusion, probably a reference to the same affairs as in IV,30 (at which time the money from Tilimsān had not yet arrived). The letter also includes information on other financial matters, including money given by the author to Ḥalfon for a copyist and cantor. A greeting is sent to Abū l-Barakāt b. Harith al-Levi, who arrived in Almeria from Alexandria in August 1138 CE. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Accounts of Avraham Ibn Yiju's workshop for bronze vessels, India 1132-1139, 1145-1149. The verso of this document is III, 21.