Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham, in Qayrawan(?), to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1050. The writer expresses his sorrow for the situation in Qayrawan. Mentions Nahray’s mother who is still in Qayrawan. It seems that the writer would have preferred to move to Egypt. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #754) VMR

Letter from Manṣūr b. Maḥfūẓ, in Alexandria, to Abū Saʿīd b. Berakhot al-Melammed, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1487 Seleucid, which is 1175/76 CE. The letter opens without about 30 lines of eloquent, often rhymed expressions of longing and good wishes. The substance of the letter begins with wa-ghayr dhālika at the bottom of recto. The sender asks for a copy of Seder Moʿed. And if the addressee sees the sender's cousin (ibn ʿamma), he should inform him that the sender is still owed 21 dirhams by the cousin's partner. The remainder of the letter consists of greetings to various people, including: Rabbenu Elʿazar; 'all the students/scholars' (talāmidha); 'the father, mother, and brother'; Rabbenu Yiṣḥaq; Abū l-Ḥasan; Abū Manṣūr; Yosef; Abū l-Maʿānī and his brother; Rabbi Nissim; Rabbi Daniel and his son; Abū l-Faraj al-Ṭabīb; Barakāt b. Rosh ha-Qahal; Avraham b. Abū Naṣr; Abū l-Faraj Hiba; al-Rayyis Abū l-Mufaḍḍal and his brothers. On verso there are also some sums in eastern Arabic numerals. ASE

Letter from Musa b. Abu'l-Hayy to Evyatar ha-Kohen Gaon, ca. December 1094.

Letter from Daniel b. Yiṣḥaq he-Hazzan from Jerusalem to Eli b. Sadaqa. Probably ca. 1060.

Letter by Shelomo b. Yeshuʿa ha-ḥaver, in Damīra, to Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Natan ha-Sheviʿi. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. The writer raises charges against the muqaddam of Damira ("he does not deserve to be the rear (mu'akhkhar), let alone the head (muqaddam)," r18) and refuses to take on additional duties in order to avoid conflicts with the local community leader. Someone named Abū Naṣr is in a bad state (miskīn) from an eye disease, otherwise he too would have written to support the writer's complaints. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 73, 189, 589.) ASE.

Letter from Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief Rabbi of Aleppo, Syria, to a colleague, it seems in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1100. Asking him to send him legal documents concerning the property belonging to some orphans, which was worth more than 30 dinars. The sender requests the documents to be sent by special mail, for the merchants are being detained and are hardly reaching Aleppo. . (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 271; IV, p. 277)

Legal document. Bottom part only. Perhaps a marriage contract, as there is a note in between the document and the qiyyum making a statement about the value of the delayed dower measured according to 'the weight of the Bedouins' (? ṣanjat al-ʿarab). The main document is signed by [..]LM b. Yosef; Shemuel b. Yiṣḥaq; [...] b. Shelomo b. Manṣūr nin Qāṣir; [...]Sofer; Yehuda ha-Ḥazzan b. ʿEli ha-Ḥazzan b. Moshe ha-Ḥazzan; Suhayl b. Mevasser. The qiyyum mentions [..]l b. Aharon; Meshullam b. [...]; Shemarya b. Moshe; and [...] b. Efrayim.

Legal document of some sort. Only the bottom part is preserved, which includes praises for the Nagid Sar ha-Shalom (or at least a Nagid with that title). Signed: Natan b. Shelomo; Peraḥya b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Yefet b. Araḥ; Avraham b. Seʿadya.

Legal document dealing with a widow in a small town who died, leaving a girl of three and a small house. The judge, among other questions, asks for a report about who took the orphan into his house and cared for her. Signed by Mevorakh b. Natan, Shemuel ha-Levi b. Saadia and Elazar b. Michael. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 303)

Genealogical list at beginning of letter from Masliah Ha-Kohen Gaon ca. 1120.

Letter from Dalāl bt. Masʿūd/Seʿadya (a.k.a. Umm Ibrāhīm), in Bilbays, to the dignitary Abū l-Barakāt Yehuda b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen (titled "ha-Sar" and "Sofer ha-Malkhut"). The sender was a widow and had been held captive in 1168 CE. She was freed after paying for her own release, one dinar at a time. The addressee had previously helped the woman, but suggested she leave the dinar with him until she needed it; he did not send it back to her. Time has passed. The woman's cousin is now wanted by the police, and she asks Abū l-Barakāt Yehuda to do as he had promised. (Information from Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 319–20) VMR.

Legal document dealing with an oath given by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu on Adar 1036 Seleucid Era (document's dating; should be 1536) /February-March 1225 (Goitein's dating, based on fact that the document is under the authority of the Nagid Avraham Maimonides, head of the Jews from 1205-1237). (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR 

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Avraham b. ʿAṭā' (=Natan), in Malīj, to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Mūsā. The writer is not the same person as the Nagid of Qayrawān with the same name. The letter seems to be a response to Yehuda's request that the writer take good care of a certain Abū Isḥāq (al-qawām bihi). Avraham reports, "Our companions (aṣḥābunā) did not fall short with him even before your letter arrived. When it arrived, I took him into my own house. I will look after him (aqūm bi-ḥālihi) until he recovers. He is doing better than before. Whatever I [have to] spend, he is secure (muthbat) with me until he recovers. [I would do this] even if I did not owe you anything and you asked me to do it." ASE.

Draft of letter from Natan ha-Kohen ha-Mumhe b. Mevorakh, Ashkelon, to Eli ha-Kohen ha-Parnas b. Hayyim, Fustat.

Letter addressed to Abū ʿAlī Aharon ha-Kohen b. Avraham. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, and quite eloquent. The addressee and his father have long strings of titles. Recto is entirely introductory blessings. The writer continues on verso with a strong rebuke for the lack of letters, especially because he has suffered "illnesses like no one has ever suffered before." He justifies his rebuke with an (unattributed) quote from Kitāb al-Zahra, the treatise on love by the 10th-century Muslim jurist Muḥammad b. Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī: "Without rebuking lapses, one can't preserve a friendship." The writer sends regards to Abū ʿImrān, who he fears is mad at him and wants to cut off their correspondence, because he hasn't responded to the writer's letters. Regards to Abū Saʿīd as well, and a nice astronomical blessing: פלא זאלת אפלאך עלוהא דאירה ושמס עזהא נאירה וכואכב סעדהא סאירה. ASE

Letter from unknown writer, unknown location, to his 'brother,' in Fustat. The address is almost entirely gone, but one of them is named Bū Saʿd. Everyone who comes from Fustat has been telling the writer that the shop is closed. He is further worried because he doesn't know if al-Rayyis Barakāt actually delivered the garments (awsāṭ and an ʿarḍī), because Barakāt said that he found the addressee spending the evenings at Dār al-Bayḍ (or Bīḍ?), but the writer doesn't believe him. The writer wants an urgent letter with news of the awsāṭ and of his mother "because there is no terrible news (khabar muqārab) but that I have imagined it, and life and death are in the hands of God." The addressee should try to sell some of the garments, including a blue ʿarḍī, for 2 dinars (there is then a slightly cryptic line about an inheritance and what if something should happen to the old woman). The 2 dinars should be deposited with Abū ʿAlī or with the writer's cousin (ibn ʿamma) and the remainder should be sent to the writer. "Do not think that I am writing to you about this because I am going to travel anywhere. By the Law, my only travel is to al-Maḥalla and to Fustat, and it crossed my mind that I should come up to Fustat, and only this is holding me back." The letter ends surʿa surʿa surʿa (=hurry hurry hurry!!!). ASE

Letter from Avraham b. Abī l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria, to his brother Mūsā, presumably in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1075 CE, several months after the death of their father. Avraham describes his financial difficulties, as he depends on the wheat that Mūsā sends him. Evidently Mūsā has been instructing Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn to send Avraham wheat only once a month. Apart from that, he works hard as a teacher. Avraham's wife insults him because he is unable to support his family. His woes are such that "I fear that I will develop a serious illness, for I no longer have the wherewithal to bear the preoccupation of my heart" (r14–15). He expresses his willing to come to Fustat but he has no company for his travels and he is worried about the tax collectors in Fustat. Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #471. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim to Ayyash b. Sadaqa in Busir. Probably ca. 1050.

Letter from Yaʿqūb b. Ismaʿīl al-Andalusī, in Tunisia or Sicily (Goitein) or Tyre (Gil), to Abū l-Walīd Yūnus b. Dāʾūd b. Zablān, probably in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1060 CE. The sender seems to be a business agent for the addressee. Deals with various shipments of commodities, some of which were sent together with merchandise for Nahray b. Nissim. (Information from Gil and from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter sent from Alexandria by Yiṣḥaq Nisaburi to Abu al-'Ala Sa'id b. Munajja in Fustat, asking him to send a Byzantine scribe to Alexandria to write a Torah scroll. (Information from Goitein's index cards)