Geniza Lab

A traveling cantor asks the nagid Mevorakh for a gift toward the holidays after a package containing his good clothing had fallen into the Nile (MS 2:569n25). Complains, "I have nothing beautiful with which to celebrate the feast” (MS 4:156): mā lī mā uʿayyid bihi ʿalā ḥalī. "The Arabic word for "beautiful," ḥalī, refers mostly to female ornaments. The Hebrew vowel segol (three dots), put beneath the ḥ of ḥalī, was pronounced (and is still pronounced so by Yemenites) as a short a in Arabic” (Med. Soc. 4:397n43). (Information from Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society, references above; see also Cohen, JSG, 261, 263, 297, 363. Rustow, Lost Archive, ch. 14, nn. 37, 39 and 40 gives the shelfmark incorrectly as 95/69.)

Letter from [...] b. Avraham to Ṣadaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. The writer had previously sent a letter with Ibn Bunyām that had gone unanswered. In the present letter, among other matters, he asks the addressee to purchase for him a good copy of Hilkhot ha-Rif (al-Fāsī). The handwriting switches halfway through this letter. The handwriting of the upper half resembles that of Seʿadya b. Avraham (see T-S 13J18.4), and the handwriting of the lower half resembles that of Abū Saʿd b. Avraham (see DK 230.2), but rigorous identification will require further examination. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Yahya b. Eli Kohen Fasi, from Fustat, to Abu al-Ifrah Arus (Avraham) b. Yosef, Alexandria. Around 1080. Yahya, probably Yosef’s younger brother, deals with trading lacquer, and asks Arus to handle three shipments of lacquer that he bought in Alexandria. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #406) VMR

Letter from Khalaf b. Isḥāq to someone whose name includes Shemaʿya, sent to the house of Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf b. al-Qudsī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Mainly concerning business matters, including the silk trade. Mentions Damietta and then "all the Jews are turning to the government" (v6). ASE

Letter, Somewhat cryptic. "As for what you mentioned about the istiʿmāl and the musakhkhināt (warming drugs?) and the [...], and as the 'season' (of illnesses?) is here, I will do that, and may God cure. As for the condition of Abū l-Manṣūr al-Qūṣī. . . ." ASE

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon, from Tinnis, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Regarding shipment of clothes and scarves. The writer asks for the prices of linen in Busir and asks Nahray to send him lemon-water. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #601) VMR

Letter of appeal addressed to the Nagid David I (b. Avraham Maimonides, r.1237–1300). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Fragmentary letter (on vellum) from Tunisia by Manashe b. Ammar to Joseph b. Salman b. Ya'ish, expressing the wish to give up the hard "service of the people" (public office) for another profession, for he is weak or sick (ḍaʿīf) and frail (naḥīf al-jism). Information from Goitein's notecards and Mediterranean Society II, 87-88.

Letter fragment from Yoshiyya b. al-Dhahabī to Abū Saʿīd b. al-ʿAfaṣī (=gallnut merchant). In Judaeo-Arabic.The writer congratulates the recipient on his recent marriage and mentions a business deal of exchanging flax for medicine. The writer and the recipient are cooperating with Spanish merchants. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 368)

Letter fragment from Abū l-Faraj. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions al-Shām; 20 nuqra dirhams; dār sayyidinā in Fustat, and various people's names.

Recto and verso: Letter from Meir (b. Yakhin) to a certain Ḥalfon. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The identification is based on handwriting. Dating: Early 13th century. Meir asks for the money that belongs to the shop and for a list of what should be bought. Verso: Apart from the address, some further lines in Arabic script, and a Judaeo-Arabic pen trial, there is the four-line response from Ḥalfon mentioning ḍarībat al-jumʿa ('the tax of the week'?). Ḥalfon has also gone back and fixed the titles from Meir's letter. In lieu of "his slave Meir" he writes "rather, his master" and in lieu of "the master Ḥalfon" he writes "his slave." ASE

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly addressed to 'the dear brother al-Kohen Hadar ha-Soḥerim." Dating: Early 13th century. The writer mentions things that were lost during this travel (the ḥalīb/milk? and the 'qāriṣ'?). He advises the addressee to look after the boy and not to beat him (lā tasṭū ʿalayhi bi-ʿunf) and to tell him to look after his sister and mother (at least if "your mother" refers to the boy rather than the addressee). He complains about al-Raḍiyy. Regards to Samḥūn and his siblings and father; to Eliyyahu and his son; to Abū l-Faraj and Bū Mubārak and their wives. The letter ends: "Do not tell anyone our secret."

Sitt al-ʿAlā', the wife of Abu al-Fakhr, asks the court for her Ketubba, which was apparently given to R. Moshe.

Draft of of a legal document in which Sitt al-ʿIzz bt. Yeshaʿyahu b. Yefet appoints 'Amat al-Qādir' Sitt al-Milāḥ Turfa as her representative with regard to her share in the house in the al-Muṣāṣa quarter. Small note without signatures, though the names of the witnesses are mentioned in the body of the text: Kochav and Abū l-Munā. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

The names of the tribes of Israel transcribed into a cipher based on the alphabetic equivalents of Greek/Coptic numerals.

Order of endive seed (bizr hindibā') and purslane seed (bizr rijla) and unripe dates (busr) and sugar from al-Shaykh al-Makīn. On verso there is a very elaborate draft of the beginning of a letter addressed to Abū l-Majd. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Calendar in the hand of Yedutun ha-Levi. Cf. Nadia Vidro, "Muslim and Christian calendars in Jewish calendar booklets: T-S K2.33" (Fragment of the Month, March 2021).

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. There are only about 6 entries. On verso there are Hebrew pen trials.

Literary work on the calendar, in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Bodl. MS heb. f 102/36 and Bodl. MS heb. f 102/38–39 may be in Moshe's handwriting as well (and Bodl. MS heb. f 102/32–35, also calendrical, is in the hand of his brother Yedutun).