Geniza Lab

Accounts in Arabic script. The name Bū Ṭāhir b. Barakāt appears at the top.

Two orders of payment in Arabic script, and perhaps a remnant of a third. The first one: yadfaʿ al-shaykh al-ajall li-muwaṣṣilihā dīnārayn wa-nuṣr wa-thumn.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to 'rabbenu.' The sender seems to be without anywhere to spend the night and is asking for help. Mentions Abū l-Ṭāhir.

Letter sent from al-Mahalla by a man who is sought by the controller of revenue, asking a friend to obtain for him a letter from Shams al-Din (the director of revenue in the capital), saying that he is registered as absent. "Do not ask about my state of illness, weakness, want, and terrible fear of the supervisor's warrant." (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 382)

Letter from a man, in Minyat Zifta, to his paternal uncle, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender has sent 40 dirhams in cash (wariq) and he wants to know if it has arrived. The addressee is to purchase a quarter(?) of Alexandrian sūsiyya (apparently a textile originally manufactured in Sūsa) and send it, because it will be worth 50 dirhams in Minyat Zifta. Regards to the addressee's wife; Abū l-Surūr al-Kohen and his wife; and Mukhalliṣ and his wife. The addressee is also supposed to send a jubba that is muthallath ('triple-thread') and muḥtashim (modest?), for the addressee's brother asked for it. The sender hopes to visit Fustat, God willing. ASE

Letter in eloquent Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Requesting a Nagid to intervene with the government officers (ʿummāl) in Shaṭnūf during his forthcoming visit to the place. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Moshe b. Yequtiʾel, Jerusalem, to someone from his circle in Fustat, approximately 1040.

Part of letter from Natan Ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, Ashkelon, probably to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to "my brother." The writer mainly communicates that he arrived at his destination safely, and that he rejoiced to learn of the safe delivery (childbirth) of Muʿazzazah and the wife of Hilāl. The addressee's cousin, Umm Maʿā[nī?] sends her regards.

Mercantile letter sent possibly from Aden to India. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower part of recto). The sender received a basket (zanbīl) of pepper which he did not want. He wanted betel nut (fawfal) or cardamom instead. He humorously complains that the pepper won't fetch any money for him to be able to eat or drink. He also did not want the 15 עיטוריה(?) dinars that the addressee sent with Mūsā b. Yūsuf. He wishes that the addressee had used the money to buy him betel nut or cardamom. In a postscript on verso he adds, "whatever you buy for me, please do not put it under my name but rather under your name." (Information in part from Goitein’s attached notes.)

Letter from Yeshua b. Isma’il al-Makhmuri from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1050. Information about shipments of goods. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #306) VMR

Letter from Benaya b. Mūsā to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic. The purpose of the letter is to explain why the writer never managed to make it to Abū l-Afrāḥ's location for the last two years. The first year, he fell ill in al-Maḥalla, and never even believed he would make it back to Alexandria. This year, he intended to travel, but was unable to "for reasons that cannot be mentioned." Benaya's children--or at least one of them--are hoping to travel this year, and he prays for their success. Benaya is very preoccupied because he heard that his cousin (bint ʿammī) is sick, and he asked the Kohen Abū l-Surūr for news about her but has not heard back, so he now asks Abū l-Afrāḥ for news about his cousin's health.

Nearly complete letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Abū l-Ḥusayn Ṣedaqah b. Nissim al-Mukallifī (?) in Alexandria. The letter is written on a fragment torn from a massive chancery document; only the beginnings of two Arabic lines remain. Most of the letter is devoted to commiseration about the "fire" that the writer has heard is afflicting Abū l-Ḥusayn. Perhaps a great grief of some kind? It is possible that Abū l-Ḥusayn was stranded around Tyre (בגובת צור), but this sentence is fragmentary. Apart from urging the addressee to respond and reassure him, the writer also informs him that ״אערצת אלסרר״ (?) but it didn't come to anything (or gain any money?).

Letter from Makārim b. Yūsuf to the sons of Merayot ha-Kohen, who seem to be the tax farmers of Shubrā. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic (in a different hand from the letter) and in Arabic script. He complains that not only have the two months granted for the delay of payment passed, but five additional months as well. They have made him fall behind on his obligations to others. The deal has to do with silk. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Mūsā b. Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim, in al-Mahdiyya, to Ismāʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tāhirti. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1030. The writer is looking forward to the addressee's intended visit to al-Mahdiyya. He describes the situation in the Maghreb, and he mentions silk business and a large transfer of money to a yeshiva. "In a letter sent from Fustat to Qayrawan, Tunisia, we read this: 'A wakham like this I have not seen since I have come to Fustat. I was ill for a full four months with fever and fits of cold, which attacked me day and night. But God, for the sake of his name, not because of my merits, decreed that the illness leave me; I am now restored to complete health. The wakham has ceased, and all our friends [meaning the compatriots from Tunisia] are well." (Goitein, Med Soc V, 113.) ASE.

Letter from Barhūn b. Ṣāliḥ to Abū l-Ṭayyib Sa'id reporting on transactions and asking for news of the addressee. Also asking for shipment of some flax.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. The sender may be in Tinnīs (l. 1). He wants to borrow from “the Great Rav” (a Tunisian rabbi in Egypt) his copy of the book Megillat Setarim of the Tunisian scholar R. Nissim in order to copy it and to return it. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter about naval warfare off the Ifrīqiyan coast (1100).

Recto: Letter from an unidentified distinguished man to a judge or communal leader. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender's hand might be known (resembles T-S Misc.28.88, another "mice ate my stuff" letter). Dated: Thursday, 29 Tishrei [4849] AM, which is 1088 CE. But there is a difficulty with this precise date, because 29 Tishrei was actually a Tuesday and because a note on verso states that the letter was received "in the first decade of Tishrei." Based in part on the information from verso, we can deduce that the letter concerns a dispute over a dilapidated wall between the sender's property and that of his neighbor Abū Saʿd. The sender is distressed because some of his key evidence "was in the document which was eaten by the mice." He asks the addressee to try to dig up any documentation that will support his case. His legal adversary has refused to accept testimony except from certified trustworthy witnesses (al-thiqāt). The sender complains about a long history of having to sink money into this house on account of his neighbor. He asks the addressee to treat the house just as he would treat his own house and not to neglect this matter. At the end, he briefly mentions other business matter, including an unpaid suftaja. Verso: The response from two judges, Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and [Sal?]mān b. Elʿazar. They have drawn a box around the response and signed their names at the top of the note. Outside of the box, there appears the date already mentioned: first decade of Tishrei 4349 AM, which is 1088 CE. They address the original sender with respectful terms and explain that the dilapidated wall must be fixed. Its benefit is shared between the two houses, while its base is located on the ground owned by Abū Saʿd. They do not explain the legal consequences of these facts; maybe they simply consulted the court's own records and are providing factual evidence to be used in the ongoing litigation. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Fragment of a legal document in which a wife appoints her husband Avraham as her legal representative.