Geniza Lab

List of functionaries from the Babylonian synagogues of Fustat and Cairo eligible for funds from the community.

Letter from Avraham b. Ḥabīb, in Alexandria, to Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Goitein's attached notes include discussions of how this letter was likely copied by a scribe (an unskilled and careless scribe, in his view). The letter opens with congratulations on the engagement of Abū Zikrī’s son, blessings for a successful wedding, and a request for confirmation of this happy news. It continues with the news that a Byzantine (Rūmī) ship arrived from al-Mahdiyya. The sender reports that all is well with the ship of Nājī. There is no news from the Maghrib except that Ibn Maymūn set out with 17 ships in the great wilderness(? maybe בר is an error for בחר, and this simply means Mediterranean). He hopes that the government's ships will arrive soon. He learned that the Byzantines plundered large sums of money from the Jewish traders when they arrived in Sicily. The victims who made it to Alexandria wish to receive a letter (or document? kitāb) from 'sayyidnā al-qāḍī' and go up with it to Cairo (seeking redress against the Byzantines?). See Goitein's attached notes for transcription and further discussion.

Letter from Ya’qūb b. Ismāʿīl al-Andalusī, Sicily, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1065. Mentions cinnamon, silk and linen; Abū l-Surūr b. Avraham Ibn Sighmar; the ship of Abū Abdallāh (Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ); the demand for Byzantine coins; and the passing of the Jewish judge of Palermo Maṣliaḥ b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #576) VMR

Letter from Moshe b. Yefet/Ḥasan to the ḥaver ʿEli b. ʿAmram. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting that Mufarrij b. Ḥusayn b. Shuʿayb appointed Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Yosef b. ʿAbdallāh over his business affairs abroad. It is not immediately clear if this was a will or merely an appointment of an agent. The six witnesses to the appointment: Wuhayb b. Ḥasan; Efrayim b. Abū Yaʿqūb; Ṣāʿid b. [...]; [...] b. Sulaymān; Moshe b. Ḥasan (the scribe of this letter); and Shelomo b. Ḥasan. On verso (apart from the completion of the letter and the address), there are two additional validations, confirming that the sender of the letter, Moshe b. Yefet, came and confirmed that the letter was in his own handwriting. The first is written and signed by Zarʿa b. ʿAmram and the second by Yaḥyā(?) b. ʿAmram ha-Levi. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Salama b. Nissim b. Ishaq al-Barki, from Busir, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1053. The writer is in Busir for the business of Nahray. He deals with purchasing flax. He mentions the intermediary Kasim. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #641) VMR

Letter from Abū l-Faraj the father-in-law of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his son-in-law Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. Admonishing him to treat his young wife, Sitt Ghazāl, well and admonishing her to obey her mother-in-law and to be as industrious as her own mother had been. The writer adds that if the Muslim divine Jamāl al-Din travels to Fustat, he (Shelomo?) should accompany him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 360, and from Goitein's index cards.) Previous description for CUL Or.1080 J125 (old PGPID 8895): A loss of 54 1/4 dirhems on house repairs reported to Shelomo by Abū l-Faraj of Alexandria-- see Goitein Nachlass material. Joins: Oded Zinger.

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh from Ascalon to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim in Fustat. 26 October 1093

Letter from al-Fayyumi b. Saadia, probably addressed to Moses Maimonides.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat. Ca. 1030

Legal document. Memo about the actions taken by the rabbinical courts in Alexandria, in an unspecified place, in Fusṭāṭ, in Minyat Ziftā, and again in Fusṭāṭ. In Alexandria, al-Karīm b. ʿAlī had received ten dinars from Abū l-Munā Iṣḥāq b. Yehuda. Before, al-Karīm had declared that he agreed to that settlement (i.e., had made a mōdaʿ) only under duress and would not honor it. On examination, the court in Fusṭāṭ found that the mōdaʿ preceded the settlement in Alexandria and invalidated it, and instructed Avraham b. Shabbetay of Minyat Ziftā (where the case originated) accordingly. Thanks to the intervention of “righteous, upright, and peace-loving elders” of Minyat Zifta, Abū l-Munā agreed to pay six more dinars and Shelomo ha-Kohen ha-Zariz stood security. Finally, in Fusṭāṭ, Abū l-Munā paid the dinars, and three releases were issued: Karīm to Abū l-Munā, al-Karīm to Zariz, and Zariz to Abū l-Munā. Since this is only a memo, only two people signed it: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and the scribe, Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. See also ENA 4101.16c. (Information from Gershon Weiss's edition and Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document from Minyat Zifta in which a wife conveys to her husband full proprietorship of half a house given to her by her father and renounces her rights in a house belonging to her husband, serving as a collateral for her marriage gift. Dated Shevat 1471/ January 1160. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 389)

A court record, Fustat, 1148. Bu al-Ḥasan, the cantor, confesses to have beaten and cursed his wife and to have falsely accused her of filching money and utensils from his house. The wife ran away from the house as a result. In the present settlement, Bu al-Ḥasan forgoes all his claims against his wife and promises not to beat or curse her, under penalty to divorce her and to pay in cash the sums due to her under her marriage contract, in case he relapses. Written and witnessed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Recto is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Med Soc, Vol. 3, pp. 187-188.)

Letter from the yeshiva to Eli ha-Parnas b. Hayyim, Fustat, approximately 1065.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Abraham b. Sahlan, noting that in a previous epistle he thanked Abraham for the donation the Fustat community had sent through the elder Shelomo b. Sa‘adya, to Levi b. Menahem. The Gaon writes this current letter on behalf of a certain Sadaqa b. Menahem, who eulogizes Abraham for his kindness and repents his former misdeeds, furthermore relating that the "mighty elder" had promised to write to some his representatives to find Sadaqa some employment in Egypt. The Gaon requests Abraham to interest himself in Sadaqa. (Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimids (New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1920-22; reprint 1970), 1:118, 2:134-5) EMS

Letter from a Karaite to his community, asking for the proclamation of a ban against certain people who suspect him of stealing.

Genealogical list of Eleazar Ha-Kohen b. Shelomo.

Legal document. Debt contract. Date not preserved. The names of debtor and creditor are very effaced. The sum of money is given in Kāmilī dirhams, but the amount is not preserved. A weekly payment plan is specified. Signed by Shelomo b. Yefet.

Fragment of a legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe.

Account of building operations ca. 1215. A list of expenditures made at Dar b. Pinhas in the course of several days in the month of Marheshwan, using Coptic numerals. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 408 #110)

Account in Judaeo-Arabic.