Geniza Lab

Complaint by a group of workmen, who were newcomers to a provincial town, that they were dragged to the corvee (forced labor) and forced to work for the government. They also assert that the indigenous inhabitants did not permit them to exercise their craft. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 394, 612)

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Signed by Eliyyahu b. Zekharya and Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram. Dating: Avraham Maimonides is called Nagid, so 1213–37 CE. Quite faded. Quittance between Abū l-Fakhr b. Abū Saʿīd and Munajjā b. Abū l-[...]. Maybe upon the dissolution of a partnership.

Legal deed drawn up in Damascus, September 1084 CE (25 Tishrei, 1396 Seleucid), both qiyum and shimush written by Shemuel ha-Nasi 'the third' b. Daniel ha-Nasi.

Primary text: Accounts for Dā'ūd b. ʿAmmār b. ʿAzrūn for the year 443H (1051/52 CE). 68 lines spread over 2 pages. In Judaeo-Arabic. Nahray b. Nissim appears. Secondary text: Bill of lading, listing days of lading, with boats, number of bales, and to whom belonging. In Judaeo-Arabic. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Ṭoviya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen, in Fustat, to his father ʿEli b. Avraham ha-Kohen, in Banyas/Dan. Dating: May 28, 1112. The son and father had parted ways in Tyre. After a difficult sea voyage, Ṭoviya arrived in Fustat, where he found an epidemic (wabā'). The judge Avraham b. Natan Av became ill and narrowly escaped ("reached the gates of") death, while the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya succumbed. He died on Saturday, the new moon of Tevet, December 2, 1111. (See Cohen, Self-Government, p. 147, where Islamic sources describing the same epidemic are cited as well.) Ṭoviya had received a letter from the Nagid Mevorakh before his death and took it with him to the Rīf, where he stayed for five months. Ṭoviya reports that one of the dignitaries in Fustat—possibly Avraham b. Natan Av—is even more noble and pious than his father had told him. Ṭoviya tells his father to be assiduous in praying for him over Torah scrolls, perhaps because Avraham has not completely recovered from the illness. He also tells him to pray for Moshe Nagid b. Mevorakh. Ṭoviya writes, "Buy me an Aleppo izār (a large wrap or coat) in which I can pray all the time," probably referring to an inexpensive piece of Syrian cotton (Med Soc I, 196). He encourages his father and a certain Natan to join him in Fustat. He sends regards to his brothers Yaḥya and Meir, and to Avraham Pe'er ha-Qahal, and to Mevasser b. Ghālib, and to Yeshuʿa b. Ṣedaqa, and to Yehuda ha-Parnas, and to Y{ū}suf b. Namir. ASE.

Letter from Salāma b. [...] to Abū Saʿīd Makhlūf al-Ne'eman al-Nafūsī. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is written in pairs of lines with wide space in between. Most of it has to do with shipments of garments/textiles. The writer has sent what he needed to send with Sālim b. Nissim al-[I]ʿbillānī (? אלעבלאני). Information from Goitein's note card.

Mercantile letter addressed to Abū Saʿd Khalaf (possibly Abū Saʿd Khalaf b. Salāma, the same addressee as T-S 8J16.19 + T-S NS 323.13, though the scribe is different, since the Arabic accounts look quite similar). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. Long, and full of details about trade. Mentions the arrival of goods from the West (waṣala min al-gharb...). Note that the small slip containing the beginning of the letter (on recto) and the address (on verso) has been joined incorrectly. Reused for Arabic accounts.

Primary text: Letter from [...] b. Shemuel to Abū Manṣūr [...] b. Ḥusayn b. Shuʿayb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer has been ordered to pay 50 dinars to Abū l-Khayr, a request that he cannot refuse. The writer asks the addressee to make the payment via Abū Najāh b. Yūḥānas al-Jahbadh (the government treasurer). The 50 dinars should be taken from those that are hidden in dār al-ṣarf ("the house of money-changing," see Med Soc IV, p. 28). Goitein identifies this Abū Najāh with the well-known monk Abū Najāḥ (b. Qannā or Fannā in the chronicles), who acted as advisor to the caliph al-Āmir, ca.1125–28 CE. Secondary text: The remainder of verso and the margins of recto are filled with Arabic script. Needs further examination. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Beginning of a letter to Daniel b. Azarya (ca. 1055). Sender unknown.

Letter from Amram b. Yosef to Nahray b. Nissim inquiring about a letter sent to Aden Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97. ʿAmram has suffered from ophthalmia for one year and cannot find anyone to cure it. He excuses himself from coming in person to pay his respects to the Nagid and asks Nahray to represent him. ASE.

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: November 28, 1062 (Udovitch). The writer recently returned from a long trip in Palestine. He suffered from illness during his trip. He visited Jerusalem, and had the time to manage trading, as he bought textile products, oil, nuts, and silk, and arranged shipments of coins. The writer also mentions the bad times in Egypt and the pressure that the community in Tripoli, Libya, is having because of the taxes. Goitein translation of the illness passage (r5–11), slightly altered, is as follows: "You have received no letter from me, because exhaustion (iltiyāth) did not leave my body from the very time I left. I arrived in Tyre, but was unable to do business there for more than five days and then remained confined to bed (lāzim al-farsh) for nineteen days. Finally God granted me recovery. I proceeded to Jaffa and from there went up to Jerusalem—may God rebuild it—and again I could not do there business for more than eight days and then was confined to bed (lāzim al-farsh), suffering from chills and fever (al-bard wa-l-ḥummā), during the month (of the High Holidays). By God I was unable to walk up the Mountain (of Olives) on the day of the Festival (21 Tishrei) but had to ride. I gave myself up. But God the exalted was merciful to me for the sake of His name and gave me health. I was able to leave the house, but the remnant of the weakness (or 'illness'; baqiyyat al-ḍuʿf) is still with me. The travel to Tinnīs, and from there home, was a great trial which to describe would take too much space. I praise God who turned the end to the good and brought me back in safety." Information from Goitein's note card (#27134) and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #449. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Abū Faraj to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Interesting format: arranged in two columns. Deals mainly with small business matters. The writer mentions Eliyyahu's sons as "Rabbi Zecharia and Rabbi Berakhot." Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Commercial letter from Mūsā b. Shahriyār to the three Tustarī brothers, Abū al-Faḍl Sahl, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf and Abū Sahl Saʿīd, in Fusṭāt. The letter is in Judaeo-Persian and the address is in Arabic script. The writer may be identical with the Moshe b. Shahriyār who appears in a legal document from Damascus in 1007 CE (T-S 16.14; information from Goitein's note card). The fragment is labeled "L15" in Shaul Shaked's (unpublished) classification of Early Judeo-Persian texts.

Letter in Hebrew to [...] b. Efrayim, mentioning a shaliaḥ and asking a favor. Needs further examination

Letter from a prominent member of the Yeshiva in Palestine writing to a communal leader in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with some Hebrew. Ends with the motto "yeshuʿa." Goitein identified the sender as Daniel b. ʿAzarya; the addressee as possibly Sahlān b. Avraham; and the date as 1361 Seleucid, which is 1049/50 CE. Gil misread the date as 1391 Seleucid and therefore identified the sender as David b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya. The purpose of the letter is to announce an upcoming visit "for the renewing of the covenant" (tajdīd al-ʿahd) with the community of Fustat. The response should be sent to Tinnīs. (Information from Goitein and Gil.)

Letter from a son to a father. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer thanks the addressee for the wuṣūl (official receipt), since the tax (mas) is looming. He asks him to send immediately aqwāl, i.e., piyyutim, and lists many requests by name. At the end of the letter there is again a request for aqwāl. The writer complains about neglect. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Probably a begging letter. The conventional praises of the addressee are exceptionally eloquent and deferent. The addressee has evidently helped the writer in the past. "As for my situation. . . a word is sufficient."

Letter from the Maghreb regarding business and family matters. Unfinished. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. At the bottom of recto, the writer says that he forgives his sister for what she said, considering her difficult circumstances (qillat ḥīlatihā) and the suffering of the children. Reused for accounts. Needs further examination. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Communal letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: First half of the 11th century. Mentions Ṣadaqa b. ʿAllūn. Edited by Elinoar Bareket. Awaiting fuller description.

Letter in Arabic script from [...] al-Ḥazzān, in Damascus, to Abū l-Faraj Yashūʿ (?) b. Barhūn al-Ḥibr (= the ḥaver). Dated: Tuesday, 10 Shaʿbān (year not given). Mentions "the brother, my master, Raʾs al-Kull" (line 5) and contains a few words in Hebrew including "his enemies" (line 10). Much of the letter seems to be devoted to mediating a conflict between the Raʾs al-Kull and the addressee. Needs further examination. The paper was later reused for a halakhic text in Hebrew and Aramaic. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.