Geniza Lab

Accounts of a druggist. In Arabic script. Items include tamarind, various pastilles (aqrāṣ), chebulic myrobalan (kābulī).

Document in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Letter (or petition or report) in Arabic script. Mainly the formulaic beginning is preserved with the sender's prayers for the addressee's longevity.

Spell book in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter in Arabic script. Addressed to [...] al-Malikī al-Nāṣirī. Dating: Probably Mamluk era. Needs examination for content. 'warada l-musharraf al-karīm al-ṣādir ʿan al-majlis al-ʿāl... wa-ʿalima jamīʿ ma sharaḥahu wa-ammā mā dhakarahu bi-sabab al-bighāl...'

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, the uncle of Nahray b. Nissim, in Alexandria, to Nahray's son, Abū Saʿd Nissim b. Nahray, in Fustat, ca. 1066. The letter relates many commercial matters and mentions Avraham al-Derʿi as Natan's commercial competitor in coral trade. From Nahray's title and from the fact that Nissim is already grown up and involved in trade, one can conclude that the letter was written in the late nineties of the 11th century. Doc. #43 in Nahray's archive. Mentions various goods: silk, clothes, pearls, lapiz lazuli and tin (Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 439).

Fragment of a large letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Referring inter alia to a Nile voyage in the entourage of al-Malik al-Afḍal (1095–1121). Excerpts from recto: "...send it with whomever is available, and I will pay him the price of two nights of [...].... The only reason I did not send the saddle and the reins was fear that you would not be happy with that... I hired a donkey (with) a driver from Qalyūb nearly to Shaṭnūf, to the place of the noble barges (al-ʿushāriyāt //al-saʿīda//), and we went down and stayed several days, and we encountered terrible frights on the Nile. When we arrived in Manūf, the king (al-mālik) //may God make his reign eternal// embarked, along with my master (mawlāya) as well as my master Abū l-Mufaḍḍal, and they traveled to al-Maḥalla. I stayed in the barge, and a murshid(?) stayed with me, and there was nobody to send a letter with, which is the reason for the cutting off of my letters. The day that my master arrived from al-Maḥalla, I wrote a letter and sent it with Salāma al-Shīrajī, and it was concise... because I did not have enough time...." The continuation of recto deals with trade in clothing and textiles. The letter resumes on verso as follows: "We entered Alexandria.... Abū l-Mufaḍḍal took back (? istaʿāra) his seal/decree (?? sijill) and gave me a female donkey and informed me what happened with the Frankish female slave...." Then mentions purple cloth (urjuwān) and the merchant Abū l-Afrāḥ. In a postscript, "I was informed about the deliverance of Abu Saʿīd's wife, praise be to God for this. As to the girl's death, nothing can be done about it. May God soon give them a male child instead. Congratulate them all on her deliverance" (Med Soc III, p. 228 note 26). ASE. NB: Goitein's attached transcription belongs to another fragment.

Letter by Raḥamim b. Nissim to ʿArūs b. Yosef about dealing in purple and indigo.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Mūsā b. Muwaffaq primarily to his son Yehuda, but also to a certain Abū Sulaymān, telling him to come visit his sister. He sends regards to a large number of people. There is an addendum or draft of a different letter or petition in Arabic script (from "Mūsā the Jew," presumably the same man who wrote the Judaeo-Arabic letter). Dating: Probably Mamluk-era, based on handwriting, formulae, and layout. Needs further examination. NB: The metadata and transcription in FGP belong to a different shelfmark, Gil, Kingdom, IV, #430, which, at the time Gil saw it, used to have the shelfmark DK 228 d-e. The current shelfmark for that fragment will take some work to figure out.

Letter from Maymūn b. Khalfa, Palermo, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. 18 August 1056 (Gil). Describes the movement of goods and ships to and from Sicily. The government of Sicily imposed on Jewish merchants in Palermo a customs import duty (ʿushr), normally imposed only on foreign merchants, because resident Jews cooperated with their foreign partners and declared incoming goods as their property. A judge and other Jews were sent to prison. The writer reproaches Nahray for his dealings with a resident of the island, Sulaymān b. Shaʾul. Also mentions "the ships (plural!) of Abū ʿAbdallah Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ:

Detailed, beautifully written letter of a silkweaver, Abū Saʿd b. Avraham, to his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ, asking for instructions as to the pattern wished for the garments ordered, and many other details. The yarn sent to the writer through one Nāṣir was entangled (mukabbal) and had to be put into order (ḥll); he had not woven the garment ordered, because no clear instructions had been given with regard to the pattern (numūdhaj); a later message, delivered by one Ṣedaqa—of course different from the receiver of the letter said 'yurīduhu bisakākīn,' 'he wishes the pattern with knives,' an instruction which seemed to the writer insufficient. As usual, the manufacturer also trades with finished products. He offers good sūsiyāt and local arḍīs (pl. arāḍī) of utmost thinness (margin l.2) but not of the pattern alluded to. Information from Goitein's notes (to be found with those attached to PGPID 6565). For additional documents involving Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ (unless there were two), see: Bodl. MS heb. b 11/3, Bodl. MS heb. d 66/96, ENA NS 21.9, T-S 8J33.11, T-S 10J6.11 (ed. Weiss, "Ḥalfon," #138), T-S 13J18.4, T-S 18J1.21, T-S 8.125, T-S 8.131, T-S 28.17 (ed. Ackerman-Lieberman, "Partnership Culture," #56) where we find Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ b. Dāwud al-Raqqī and, perhaps, T-S 13J17.8, which is addressed to Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa b. Ṣammūḥ b. Sason. Information from Oded Zinger's dissertation, p. 166, notes 119–23. ASE.

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yosef to Netanel b. Yefet regarding goods sent by Ḥasan b. Bundār. Location: Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97 CE. ʿAmram mentions his ophthalmia ('it seems as if I have found slight relief') and the wretched woman (ʿaguna for ʿaguma, as in CUL Or.1080 J24) who suffers pain in the joints of her hands and feet (this woman and her arthritis also appear in T-S 13J23.10). ʿAmram excuses himself from paying his respects to the Nagid on account of his ophthalmia, so he asks Netanel to represent him. ʿAmram makes the same request of Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy in Halper 394 and of Nahray b. Nissim in Bodl. MS heb. d.75/19. ASE. See Med. Society II, 478, Section 18. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. Ismāʿīl al-Iṭrābulusi, Ascalon, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Circa 1060. Discusses the import and export of goods through Ascalon. (Information from Gil, Palestine, Vol. 3, p. 186.) The writer has been suffering from a severe case of ophthalmia (ramad), "but even so I have never neglected my correspondence (r6–7).

Letter to Judge Elijah from Alexandria containing a request to send back a man whose daughters were in prison-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Fragment of a double query, presented to Avraham Maimonides about (1) a man who keeps a female slave—not for service—although he was married and a father of children. (2) a man who had a Christian female slave accept Judaism but lived with her out of wedlock. This seems to be another version of the same two questions contained in T-S 10K8.13. Information from Goitein's note card.

Detailed letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Simḥa Naysābūrī, Alexandria, to Abū l-ʿAlā Sā'id (i.e. ʿŪllā) b. Yosef ha-Levi the Trustee of the rabbinical court of Fustat in Fustat. (Gil's ID based on handwriting.) Dating: ca.1120 CE. The main topic of the letter is a great disaster that befell the writer and many other merchants. Of a convoy of five ships, three, carrying a load to the value of about 200,000 dinars, were lost. In the ship carrying the writer's goods, there were ten Jews, prominent in their home town (most probably Tripoli), who, in addition to merchandise to the value of 7,000 dinars, lost all their money, belongings and even clothing. The writer's cargo amounted to 500 d., of which 320 d. were his own and the rest on commission. One of the Jewish travellers, Abū l-Faḍl b. Abū l-Yumn al-Dimashqī, known to the addressee from a previous visit to Fustat, perished. As the writer obviously was hit hard by that disaster, he asks his friend to take steps to coerce merchants owing him money—Siman Tav (not Tov), Abū Manṣūr, and Jaʿfarī—to fulfill their obligations. In addition, the letter deals with many other business affairs. In a postscript, the writer reports that the banker (ṣārafī, to be pronounced ṣayrafī) Abū l-Maʿālī died bankrupt, owing people about a thousand dinars, to Jews alone about 600, and to the writer 27d. Many other names mentioned. Main merchandise: silk and other textiles, corals, but also wax and millstones. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

Inventory of a part of a drugstore prepared by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu - see Goitein Nachlass material

Letter of a father to his son in Damietta (written by a scribe), reporting about a lawsuit and urging him to stay with his mother until her confinement. Information from Goitein's note card.

Petition from the wife of Abu'l-Faraj the Silkweaver, to Shemuʾel ha-Nagid b. Ḥananya (in office 1140–59). She is an "unprotected woman" (marʾa munqaṭiʿa) whose father could not support her and whose brother was a young boy with no connections. She explains that she “got stuck” with a man who was not ashamed of the bad things people had said about him (or maybe of the bad things of which he himself speaks?). The petition was written after a legal proceeding in which the Nagid ordered the husband to restore the ketubba to its original wording (apparently the husband had decreased the sum stated in the ketubba). However, now the husband has taken an oath that he would restore only ten dinars, a lower sum than previously agreed upon. The husband apparently managed to ignore the Nagidʼs commands by finding someone who supported him in his claims. The wife had been getting advice from her congregation and from the local judge, but, she writes, she is fed up with words and no action. The judge, for example, told her brother to leave the matter until Sunday, but “Sunday came and nothing was done for my issue except postponement.” She complains that she is treated “as if it was I who has done something unpermitted” (ḥattā ka-annī qad ʿamiltu shayʾ lā yanṣāgh (!) – for the last word (=yanṣāgh) see Blau, Dictionary, 379). Even a ruling of the Nagid was subjected to a process of negotiation at the local level until it was watered down to ineffectiveness. The same matter is also mentioned briefly in T-S 10J17.22. (Information from Zinger, "Women, Gender and Law" (PhD diss), 248n139, lightly revised by MR.) Alternate description based on Goitein's notes: Complaint to Shemuel ha-Nagid (his titles occupy 7 lines) by the wife of Abū l-Faraj, the silkspinner (qazzāz). Her husband had left her and her little daughter without provisions, however, he was not without means. His female slave she claims had been adjudicated to her, but was kept by her husband in his sister's house. The judge, to whom the complaint was made first was not effective in securing her rights. (some corrections by AA)

Letter from Binyām (Binyamin) of Rosetta, probably in Alexandria, to Abū Saʿīd the gallnut merchant, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing urgent instructions to sell or to send certain drugs, metallic dyes, and medical plants, ca. 1120. See Bodl. MS heb. d 66/52, esp. r8–10, for their identities. Goods named in this letter include afsantīn (wormwood); kundus (baby's breath); zunjufr (cinnabar); sunbul (spikenard); quṣṭ (=qusṭ, alecost or costus); martak (litharge); salaqūn (red lead); jullanār (pomegranate blossom); qiṭna or qaṭina (a cryptic term which may simply be a derivative of cotton, but in this form means 'omasum' according to the dictionaries); אבר (either abār, meaning lead, or ibar, meaning "needles"); khaskhāsh abyaḍ (white poppy); 1000 dūdīyya li-l-misk (Goitein suggests astringent kermes worms); qurashiyya (Goitein suggests "odoriferous claws"; Lisān al-ʿArab says it is a type of wheat); and asārūn (asarabacca), which [in Rosetta, probably] is going for 1 dinar, due to demand from the Andalusians. The writer will promptly send money, or if the addressee desires, he may take the payment from Abū Naṣr b. Shaʿyā. Information largely from Goitein's attached notes. Cf. T-S NS 321.60, same sender and same addressee. ASE.