Geniza Lab

Marriage contract (ketubba). On parchment. Long vertical fragment, 21 in. in height; looks like a backbone. Written and signed by the cantor Hillel b. ʿEli. Location: Fustat. Dated: Sivan, 139[.] Seleucid, which is 1068–79 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Accounts. Perhaps in the hand of ʿArūs b. Yūsuf. Many familiar names on the list. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Court deposition. The widow Salāma bt. Furayj b. Abī l-Gharīb appoints the Baghdādī Ḥasan/Yefet b. Ṭoviyya/Ṭayyib as her attorney to claim anything due to her late husband Natan/Hiba b. Ḥakam b. Yosef b. Shumaym ha-Levi, and authorizes the expenditure of money, up to 17 dinars, for the transport of her husband's body to Jerusalem. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: safe conduct and assistance for brother. Aden, ca. 1145. (8) [I shall take care of] sending it, if someone departs this [year for] (9) Egypt, since no one arrived last year or [so far this year] (10) from Egypt, because of the [death?] (11) and epidemic prevailing there, for two years in a row.

Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq writes from Alexandria to his father in law, Surur b. Hayyim Sabra in Fustat. The sixties of the eleventh century.

Letter from Avraham, son of the Gaon, to the sons of Mevasser, Fustat, perhaps 1025.

Letter from the copyist Shemuel to the notable Yeshuʿa. In Hebrew. Asking for a gift. During the six months in which Shemuel has stayed “here,” he lived on copying. Now he asks the notable to make the little collection needed in order to enable him to move on. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Second leaf of a long letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (right side of both recto and verso). Partially concerning a dispute of religious scholars. Continuous reference to the sender's brother. Mentions Abū Sahl (Menashshe) Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif, the father of Halfon b. Menashshe. Dating: second half of the 11th century. On verso refers to Abū Ḥanīfa either sending a legal query or giving a responsum to (yuftī) a certain ʿEli. Almost certainly the same sender (but probably not the same letter) as T-S 12.215, which is also the second leaf of a long letter and also mentions Abū Sahl Menashshe. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Letter of appeal from Moshe to R. Yiṣḥaq ha-Sar. In Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter of appeal from a cantor to a certain Moshe ha-Sar who is in government service. The letter also addresses Ṣedaqa ha-Sar. He asks for assistance in the payment of his capitation tax, of five months of rent, and of three months of payment incumbent on him from a promissory note. The writer had led prayers for Moshe's health during the public services in the syngaogue, and the prayer was evidently heard. He now conveys wishes for full recuperation and that the addressee will retain the favor of the sultan and his entourage (Goitein suggests that this refers to a new sultan, possibly Saladin). ASE.

Letter from Avraham b. Abi al-Hayy, from Alexandria, to his brother Musa. Around 1075. The writer is worried about their sister, Jarba, who is about to get married but still does not have a bed and bedsheets. Abū l-Ḥayy is sick and Avraham asks again that he will get him a prescription. He first asked in the preceding letter, F 1908.44C. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #470) VMR

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ottoman era. The year actually appears on verso but does not make immediate sense: 24 Ramadan נסץ(?). Beautiful hand. Items sold include food, materia medica, and steel.

Deed of sale for the sale of a female slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 1 Nisan 1537 Seleucid, which is 31 March 1226 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. This is a copy of T-S 13J4.2. Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda Ibn al-Mashshāṭ, agent (wakīl) of Yeshuʿa b. Hillel Ibn Zikr, sells to Hillel b. Barakāt the female slave Ḍiyāʾ, who was born into slavery (muwallad) and was brought (musayyara) to Fustat. Price: 25 dinars. Not signed. Seems to be a (good) copy made by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 433, 458, and from Goitein's index cards)

Accounts similar to CUL Or.1080 J250 and CUL Or.1080 J261. ʿArūs b. Yūsuf is referred to (in another hand). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, late.

Letter from Isḥaq b. ʿImrān, probably in al-Maḥalla, to the parnas Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Yahya, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. The letter concerns Efrayim, a poor man from al-Maḥalla, whose wife did not wish to live in the Rīf and traveled to Fustat on her own without his permission. The sender had previously received instructions from the addressee about this case. The man is poor and cannot afford to live in Fustat, but offers her the option to live in Damietta. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

A miscellany. On recto there are very elaborate praises for God in Judaeo-Arabic. On verso there are three different keys to Hebrew ciphers. The first is the same as in Bodl. MS heb. f 102/28, the second is simply atbash, and the third is based on the mnemonic הקץ עצל דיך מנום כזב גרש פן תסף חטא, a Hebrew version of "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." On the facing page there is a prescription for a medicinal syrup ("sharāb mudabbir") (cf. Chipman, The World of Pharmacy and Pharmacists, p. 189).

Letter from a man, in Fustat, to his mother, unknown location. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th or maybe 13th century. He speaks about his children (he probably also had a wife). He had been in al-Maḥalla for 2 months, then came to Fustat intending to stay only 5 days, but it was impossible to leave on account of the children. He now sends her 40 dirhams with Ibrāhim Ibn al-Ashqar. She should pay 5 to Abū ʿAlī and buy 10 dirhams of wheat (qamḥ) for the children. He gives further difficult-to-understand instructions for what to do with the rest of the money—maybe orders for spinning (istighzāl)? He is staying with Abū Naṣr b. Karīm at Qaʿāt al-Fāḍil. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Barakāt al-Ḥarīrī in Alexandria. See Goitein Nachlass material (transcription). See also ENA 2559.10 - same writer, same recipient.

Legal notes notarized by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Dating: Early 13th century. (1) Location: New Cairo. Shelomo b. Yiṣḥaq had paid 30 dinars and Abū l-Faḍāʾil b. Abū l-Barakāt 52 dirhams into a partnership. It was agreed that Shelomo, who was also the agent, would take 23 parts and Abū l-Faḍāʾil only 1/24. Shelomo had left the whole sum in Qūṣ and takes responsibility for the whole sum of the money or its equivalent. (2) Yaḥyā ("ha-Sar ha-Yaqar") receives from Shela b. Berakhot 3000 dirhams as loan. No additional details. (3) The same two men each produced 600 dirhams, each for a partnership to last a year. At the bottom of verso there are additional notes (accounting?) in Judaeo-Arabic, Arabic script, and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentions Bū l-Khayr al-Nafīs. (Information from Goitein's attached notes.)