Geniza Lab

Letter signed by Makhir b. Avraham and Natan b. Yiṣḥaq addressed to an unidentified dignitary. In Hebrew. Dating: Might be 10th or 11th century. The signatories seem to be writing on behalf of a larger community, but the context of this letter has yet to be determined. They complain about being persecuted by other people, their general suffering, and they ask for help and pray for the addressee's well-being. Quite faded. Needs further examination.

Judaeo-Arabic translation of Daniel, with detailed historical commentary discussing the origins of Christianity and various wars.

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 16 Iyyar 1359 Seleucid, which is 1048 CE. Yosef claims that Shūʿa b. Menaḥem al-Shaʿālī (perhaps the same as Yehoshuaʿ b. Menaḥem al-Shaʿālī who appears in AIU VII.E.55) owes him 8.5 gold coins and 1 qirat. The story also involves Efrayim b. Yiṣḥaq b. al-Aʿraj of Malīj. Also mentions a purchase made in the city of חנס (Hebrew for Tinnīs?). (Information from Goitein's index card)

General power of attorney. The presiding court is Qaraite (per Goitein). Location: Fustat. Dated: Adar II 1396 Seleucid, which is 1085 CE. Abū l-Ḥusayn Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq b. ʿAllūn appoints Efrayim b. Allūn ha-Kohen as his attorney. Signed by David b. Ṣedaqa b. Yisrael; ʿEli b. Efrayim b. ʿEli. The validation is written and signed by Mevasser b. Mevorakh. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Mutual release contract between a firstborn, his younger brother, a stepbrother and a stepmother, stressing three times the privilege of primogeniture. The parties declared that this was a free agreement, not imposed by a court, and had it also confirmed by a Muslim notary. In spite of the stress on primogeniture in this document the first-born, a son of a butcher, received only eleven dinars. Dated Tishri 1406/ October 1094 (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 279, 280, 489)

Deed of sale of a muwallad (born in the home) male slave named Fayrūz. In the hand of Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated: Middle decade of Kislev 1487 Seleucid, which is 1175/76 CE. In which the physician al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab Abū l-Faḍāʾil Yequtiel b. Moshe ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad ha-Sofer ha-Mahir Paqid ha-Soḥarim (ZL) sells his slave (waṣīf) Fayrūz for 12 dinars to his maternal uncle al-Shaykh al-Thiqa Abū l-Barakāt Yehuda b. Elʿazar (ZL). (One incidental detail is that this transaction was witnessed in the house of the seller, who was sick.) Witnesses: Yeshuʿa b. Ḥotam ha-Levi; Moshe b. Avraham ha-Levi. On verso there is a filing note in Arabic script (ʿuhdat Fayrūz). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Legal document. In Aramaic. Dated: Nisan 1488 Seleucid, which is 1177 CE. Involves a woman named Sāda, her husband, and something to do with land that was sold (relinquishing her "shiʿbud"?). Other names in the document are Bū l-Fakhr and [...] b. ʿUziʾel. Signed by Elʿazar b. Ṣadoq ha-Levi he-Ḥaver; Ḥisd[ay . . . .] ha-Meshorer. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Sar Shalom [...] Gaʾon Yaʿaqov (ZL) and Yosef b. Daniel ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

A covenant (כתב אמנה) of the congregation of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat, drawn up in Adar 1522 (=1211 CE), which enumerates the venerable liturgical rites they inherited from their ancestors and which they refuse to allow anyone to change. The context is the controvery over the prayer reforms that Avraham Maimonides attempted to introduce. There is an extensive literature on this controversy, and this document sheds important light on the practices that the traditionalists wished to preserve. The handwriting is that of the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi, a fact first noted by Fleischer; see 'לסדרי התפילה בבית הכנסת של בני ארץ-ישראל בפוסטאט' in his collected articles, תפילות הקבע בישראל בהתהוותן ובהתגבשותן, vol. 1, p. 827 (p. 245 in the original article); thanks to Shulamit Elizur for this information. Two lines were added in a different hand, reiterating the main point that it is forbidden to change these traditions, signed by [Nissim] b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen. Verso contains a liturgical composition in a different hand. (Ed. Fleischer, Tefilah u-minhage tefilah Erets-Yiśreʼeliyim bi-teḳufat ha-genizah, 1988, 218–57. Trans. Friedman, Teuda, vol. 10 (1996), 251–53.) ASE.

Court record. In Hebrew. Fragment (left half only). Location: Fustat. Dated: 21 Tevet 1[3]27 Seleucid, which is 1016 CE. In the time of Efrayim b. Shemarya (who might be called al-Ghazzī here). Relates the events of a rainy and muddy day in the marketplace of Qaṣr al-Shamʿ, when a merchant named ʿImrān b. Eliyya from Palermo, Sicily, complained to the police ("in the בי דואר that is called שרטה in the language of the Ishmaelites") that he had already waited a full month for a Jewish court to deal with his case, whereupon the head of the police apprehended the Jewish judge for a night. Witnesses: Yehuda b. Ḥadīd(?); [...] ha-Kohen b. Avraham; Shemuel ha-Kohen b. Ṭalyūn (aka Avṭalyon); and Yosef b. Binyamin. (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc II, 321–22).

Letter from an otherwise unknown Avraham b. Yosef to the relatively well-known Abū l-Faḍā'il Ḥayyim b. Ḥananel, who was the son of the judge Ḥananel b. Shemuel (active ca.1211–49), and therefore the brother-in-law of Avraham Maimonides (1186–1237). See Fenton's article for other documents involving Ḥayyim b. Ḥananel. This letter consists almost entirely of deferent formalities and greetings. The writer sends regards to the addressee's father, R. Ḥananel, to the Nagid David I Maimonides (given ~30 titles) and to David's brothers ʿOvadya (1228–65) and the physician Abū l-Faḍl (from this Fenton deduces that Goitein was correct in suggesting that Avraham Maimonides had three sons: David, ʿOvadya, and Abū l-Faḍl). He also sends regards to "your associate (sharīk) al-Shaykh al-Sadīd," probably a physician; to Abū l-Barakāt Waliyy al-Dawla; and to another associate, al-Mawlā al-A[. .]d. In the margin, he reports that he has obtained the garments that Abū l-Faḍl had ordered, and that he will send them for the holiday as soon he finds a reliable messenger, or he will bring them himself. Information from Fenton's edition and discussion. ASE.

Letter from the office of the Nagid David II b. Yehoshuaʿ II Maimonides (in office ca. 1355–1410) addressed to the congregation of Fustat. The Nagid's full genealogy is given. This is not a “farewell letter” (apparently it has been published as such) but rather a note of congratulation. Still, the occasion of the letter is not exactly clear. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yosef b. Ezra to Yiṣḥaq Ashkenazi (not necessarily Luria, as more than one Yiṣḥaq Ashkenazi was active in trade at this time). In Hebrew. Dating: 16th century, based on Avraham David's assessment. The contents of the letter are quite difficult and merit further examination; there are a handful of words that do not appear to be Hebrew or Arabic and many place names, some obscure. The writer's father-in-law Avraham Sūsī arrived with the two documents (ma'marim) from the addressee, but these documents are useless. The first because it is for the Amir ʿĪsā, with whom relations are not good. The second is an order involving Rashid (the city?) and the slave trade but is missing some key feature. He then gives detailed instructions regarding documents to be sent to him, chiefly involving the trade in slaves "from the West" (1–11, 15–26). In particular, he writes that in Buḥayra, slaves from ״חריב״ are brought only once a year, in Elul, whereas slaves from the West, i.e., Awjila in Libya (אוגֿלה) arrive every month. During the year and 9 months that the writer lived in Buḥayra, not 30 or 40 days passed without Bedouin caravans arriving to trade slaves from the West for horses. In the remainder of the letter, the writer mentions various European currencies including peraḥim and coronas. In the margin he mentions trade in raisins (margin, 1, 6) and sulfur (margin, 5). Information largely from Avraham David, FGP. This document was also edited by Simha Assaf (see FGP for bibliography).

Deathbed will of a notable, dividing his landed property, his flocks of sheep and all the orchards possessed or leased by him between his brother and his children, and making stipulations for his widow. In the hand of and witnessed by Hillel b. ʿEli. The dying man appoints his brother as the will’s executor explicitly stating that no court may interfere with his actions. A copy of this will is found in T-S 20.99. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, Mediterranean Society, Vol. 1, pp. 117, 425 and Vol. 3, p. 259, 299, 493n97.)

Fragment of a marriage document involving Efrayim ha-Levi and Sitt al-Ḥasan. Dating 11th-century, based on Goitein's assessment.

Letter from Labrāṭ b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in al-Mahdiyya, to his brother Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat. Dating: July 30 (26 Av), 1057, based on Gil's assessment. (Gil dates ENA NS 18.35, written on 6 Elul, to the previous year. But both letters contain very similar congratulations on Yehuda's wedding, so perhaps they were sent two weeks apart instead of eleven months.) Labrāṭ opens with describing his great anxiety on account of his brother, because he had not received a letter from him all year. "My heart was preoccupied and I thought the worst, for he who loves is inflamed (muwallaʿ) with thinking the worst. On the eve of ʿAẓeret (Shavuʿot), Fityān and his associates arrived in a boat from Sfax to al-Mahdiyya. When I saw them, my soul almost left me and I went pale (? akhadhatnī ṣufra). I said to myself, perhaps they have news [of you]. . . . [Fityān] said, God bless him, that your letters were with him. I prostrated myself and thanked God for His favor" (r4–8). Labrāṭ then congratulates his brother on his marriage into a distinguished family (r10–19). He mentions a person of low morals whom he tries to avoid, but he recently had to go to this person's wedding in Sūsa (r19–21). When he returned to al-Mahdiyya, 'the boy' was sick (ḍaʿīf), and worsened, and almost died. Every day letters arrive from people in Sūsa, perhaps specifically from the man of low morals, blaming Labrāṭ regarding either this boy or that person's affairs (aḥwālihi). The next phrase is quite difficult, perhaps: "I considered that he was heedless (sahā), and I decided to completely despair of him (i.e., end the relationship). I am left with no eye to see light with, [and nothing] to take pride in, except for you, may God protect you (r21–24). (Gil reads it differently.) The remainder of the letter deals with business matters. The writer is much older than his brother. He asks him to fulfill his family’s duty by helping him with his business. He also mentions events in the Maghreb. Apparently there is a naval fleet besieging Sūsa. (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #615.) See also Goitein, Med Soc III, viii, B, 1 no. 36. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen (Bilbays, Lower Egypt) to his cousin and brother-in-law, the judge Nathan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (Fustat), 12th century. Ṭuviyahu b. ʿEli sends ten samples of two qualities of wine, asking Nathan b. Shelomo to offer them to a Jewish wine seller in order to make a deal. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, vol. 4, p. 259.)

Letter from Seʿadya ha-Kohen b. Hillel (aka Saʿd b. Hilāl) Rosh ha-Qahal to Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver, the muqaddam of Bilbays (here called "muqaddam al-yahūd"). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, often rhymed, with the address in both Hebrew and Arabic. Seʿadya praises Ṭoviyya in the warmest tones and asks what he has done wrong for Ṭoviyya (and Ṭoviyya's wife?) to cut off their letters to him. He was pained when a letter from Ḥalfon b. Sasson to his brother arrived in Toviyya's handwriting (reading חט as כט). The right margin deals with the logistics of correspondence. The upper margin mentions some debts and the dangers of travel (שיבוש הדרכים) preventing the sending of something or someone. Verso is mainly copious regards to and from family members and friends ("I can no longer burden people by carrying letters to each of you"—hence he includes all the greetings in one letter.) (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Family letter from Natan b. Yehuda (Alexandria, ca. 1160) to Moshe b. Ṣemaḥ and his brother (Fustat), the writer’s cousins-in-law. Natan b. Yehuda reports that everyone in the house was ill because of a great epidemic of sweating sickness (wakham) in Alexandria. He praises the brothers for their munificence but also politely reminds them that it was time for them to marry and wishes that their mother may see their “joy”. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and from Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 61 and p. 440n61 and Vol. 5, p. 113.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Semah, Ramla (?), to Efrayim b. Shemarya,approximately 1030.

List. Collection, jibaya, made on the first day of the holiday for the Maghribi, the Kohen. About 1115 contributions, mostly in Coptic numerals. Some of the names are encircled (represented here by $ $, perhaps indicating persons solicited). Other names are crossed through (= having paid?). A few are left untouched. The list is headed by the haver ʿOvadya, presumably the great grandson of Avraham Maimonides bearing that name (b. 1297, d. before 1355). The other names also fit the 14th century, e.g Nasir ("helper," three times), Shams ("sun," 11. 4, 27), Faraj Allah ("God has helped," 11. 8, 14). Three dashes (---) represent a diagonal slash downward toward the left, which stands for 1/2 elsewhere but here must mean something else, since 1/2 in this list is representeed by the left arrow, as elsewhere. (S/D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:496, App. C. 68) EMS