Geniza Lab

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower left corner). At one point the sender calls the addressee 'my daughter' (yā bintī). Mentions the name Abū Yaʿaqov Yosef b. Faraḥ (the same merchant known from many other letters ca. 1050?). Then refers to "his father our rabbi [...]" and to the death of Abū l-Ḥasan "his son." The sender compares his or her grief now to their grief at the time of a previous bereavement (laqad fajaʿanī khabaruh ka-fajʿatī bi-aʿazz al-nās...). The sender then rebukes the addressee for neglecting and forgetting him or her, and complains about frailty of body and vision. The sender reports on a woman who has a boy and a girl who misses the addressee and weeps over the separation. Greetings to various people including the addressee's sister and her children. In a postscript the sender apologizes that 'my letters to you are empty, because I don't have enough (to buy) anything"—maybe an allusion to an expectation that a gift would be sent along with a letter. "Your maternal aunt Raḥel died... and they are in Palermo, ʿAzīza and her mother... and the daughters of your maternal aunt are in Sūsa."

Letter opening from the Nagid Avraham b. Ata from Qayrawan (Ifrīqiya) to Yusuf b. Ya’aqub b. Awkal, Fustat, in the handwriting of Yusuf b. Brakhya. Confirms that received books or letters that Ibn Awkal sent. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #164) VMR

Poem for(?) Yehuda b. Shemuel mentioning Alexandria. On the back are drafts in a cursive hand, perhaps of poetry.

Recto: Letter in poetic Hebrew, addressed to Rabbenu Yehuda (=Abū Zikrī Kohen) asking for help, because "bread has run out."

Verso: List in the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen. Mentions: saffron; mazāwir; minshafa in a blue kerchief; arjīs (=narjīs?); "swords" (suyūf); and almond. Goitein suggests that this is an inventory of items for a wedding.

Business letter. A Hebrew letter in a late hand written by Yishaq

Upper left fragment: Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner of recto). Mentions: Isḥāq al-Maghribī; having received a bit of qanbīl (=kamala, a red dye produced by the plant Mallotus philippensis — see Gerrit Bos et al, Marwān Ibn Janāḥ, no. 823).

Bottom fragment: Letter in formal Hebrew with wide line spacing, mentioning and perhaps addressed to [...] b. Yefet ha-Kohen. In between the lines, someone wrote in red ink some literary text .

Upper right fragment: Letter probably from the cantor Yosef b. Yefet ha-Levi Ibn al-Jāzfīnī to Abū Mūsā Hārūn "the ornament of conviviality and the crown of the revelers" (jāmal al-majālis wa-tāj al-qaṣṣāfīn). In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender calls himself "the lamb/suckling of your benefaction" (ghadhiyy inʿām mawlāy) and asks him to immediately come bestow his "benefaction and beauty" on all of his friends (aṣdiqāh wa-awliyāh), for it is indispensable, and they cannot wait to see him. (On the al-Jāzfīnī/al-Ghāzfīnī family of cantors, see Oded Zinger's dissertation, pp. 363–66).

Two letters. (a) Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Yosef [..]ān al-Barqī to Shemarya b. Shemuel. He decribes the difficult winter they have had, not to mention the illness and inkisār (debts to the diwan? see T-S 13J3.6v) of Nissim; the illness of Ezra; the "arrival of that [woman]" and their expenses on her behalf. He mentions the arrival of Barakāt b. Khulayf (mentioned in several other letters) and having purchased two robes (shuqqatayn) for the addressee. ʿAwāḍ is also seriously ill, as well as his elder daughter. He has likely become dependent on public charity (inkashafa), and he even put up his ghulām for sale, but there are no buyers. Faḍl bought a donkey and has gone wandering about. "As for ʿAwāḍ [finding relief?], here no [travelers?] enter or leave." Mūsā b. ʿAllūsh has run away from his family. ASE.

(b) Perhaps the response. What remains begins on verso (the beginning is missing) and spills over onto recto. This letter is written in a crude hand. The subject matter is quite difficult to parse. The addressee is to go to Abū ʿImrān b. al-Ṭawīla and get the letters from him. "The congregation" and "the gentile" are mentioned. The writer concludes by telling the addressee to go to the wife of Ezra al-ʿArīf (the same Ezra who was sick on recto?) and send her a message about the addressee's brother (=the writer?) and make some excuses for why she hasn't heard from him yet. ASE.

Legal deed in which Shelomo Tov Elem appoints Avraham b. Yehuda (written Ya’uda) ibn Asayag to be his agent to collect a debt from Eliezer ibn Malka on 7/2/1825 in Gibraltar (Information from Dotan Arad). Signed by Yosef Lezualis.

Lower fragment: Legal record in Judaeo-Arabic. Refers to "our master the noble judge, the judge of judges (sayyidnā al-qāḍī al-ajall qāḍī al-quḍāh); a fight (munāzaʿa) between two men; Abū ʿAlī; and someone who brought four policemen (rajjāla, pl. of rājil). Signed by [...] b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen and Avraham b. [...] ha-Levi.

Upper fragment: Replacement ketubba (כתובה אירכסא), meant to replace one that was torn or lost. Mentions Avraham ha-Rav he-Ḥasid b. Yehuda (presumably the groom) and Esther bt. Yosef he-Ḥashuv (presumably the bride). is probably the bride. 150 zuz are mentioned.

Legal deeds, fragments on parchment, most of which do not contain enough text to be described. The bottom right fragment joins the top left fragment where you can read at the top: הסופר יוסף and below: רבי יוסף הסופר

Letter from Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim to a certain Tamīm. In Hebrew. The addressee had come to Yehiel's home but missed him. The letter deals with trying to arrange a date in which Yeḥiel can come to Qalyub to arrange a wedding with Yeḥiel's busy schedule. Dating: 13th century. Specifically, somebody else had asked Yeḥiel to come out to Qalyūb and officiate at his son's wedding, and Yeḥiel had told him that he had two other weddings, one on Tuesday and one on Tuesday night, so he would come to Qalyūb on the preceding Sunday (to do the wedding on Monday). But he checked again and found that in fact his two existing bookings were on Monday (one in the morning and one at night), so he now plans to come to Qalyūb on Tuesday. He asks the addressee if the wedding can be delayed until Tuesday. He has sent this letter with a poor man whom he hired as messenger.

Work written by Isma'il b. Isra'il X the physician dealing with medicine. Opening page.

Petition in Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew beginning for financial assistance addressed to Rabbenu Avraham, can be dated by script to around the 13th century (i.e. probably Avraham Maimonides). Yosef al-Andalusi has spent three months in Fustat, his robe is torn and the authorities are demanding the capitation tax from him. He needs help.

Colophon (FGP)

Letter in Judaeo Arabic, fragment. "I received 90 dirhams, the price of the two ublūjas (cones)... Yosef the son of the physician (ibn al-ḥakīm) did not find me in Tūnis... sold them and sent me their price, 90 dirhams...." The sender then mentions his grief at the news of the death of the husband of his daughter Najmiyya, and his sorrow was worsened by the fact that they did not tell him the cause of death.