Geniza Lab

Note of a person confined to his house owing to illness this evening, requesting a friend to lend him the Book of Creation by Saadya. Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter from Avraham b. Farah, Alexandria to Yeshuaʿ b. Ismāʿīl, Fustat. The letter deals with the shipping of goods and money transfers. The writer describes the movement of ships between Alexandria and Sicily and mentions that he intends to sue a few silk workers as well as the son of the qadi for debts they owe. Mentions that Abū ʿAbdallah (Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ) has come to Mazāra overland (presumably from Palermo). Dated 11 October 1056.

Legal document. Bottom part only. Sitt al-Ḥasan releases another woman from all claims. Signed: Mordekhay ha-Kohen b. Moshe.

Court record dated Tevet 1357/ January 1046 in the handwriting of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Mansur b. Mukhtar sues Shelomo b. Natanel, accusing him of taking the money that the deceased wife of Mansur inherited from their father. (Information from E. Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, pp. 53, 225; Yehudei misrayim, p. 178)

An autograph responsum by Avraham Maimonides (1186-1237) dealing with wine brought by a Karaite and the injunction about preparation of wine by Jews (rabbanite Jews). (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 14, 123, 428)

Calligraphic letter by a community leader who found out that the son of a scholar had married four couples, writing their marriage contracts and performing the weddings. The writer asks the chief judge to send him a letter explaining whether or not the action of the scholar's son was permissible. The letter contains no address and was probably never sent. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 74, 538)

Legal document. The case involves a house worth 75 dinars and an orphan boy who has yet to come of age. People named include Mevorakh b. Yisrael and Hārūn and Abū Naṣr Ghālib b. Moshe ha-Kohen. There are many witnesses (which should facilitate precise dating): Avraham b. David; Yehoshuaʿ b. Natan; Natan b. Sasson; [...] ha-Mumḥe b. Natan Av Bet Din; ʿAyyāsh b. Nissim; [...] ha-Levi b. Shela; and [...] ha-Mumḥe.

Letter from Abū l-Riḍā, it seems in Fustat, to his wife's brother Me'ir, perhaps in Damīra or at least nearby in the Rīf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 21 Heshvan קנא, which would normally be 1551 Seleucid = 1239 CE. But there are enough unusual features (format, language) of the letter that it could plausibly be 5151 AM = 1390 CE. In any event, the writer's father recently died. He thanks the addressee for his letter of condolence, though in a backhanded sort of way ("I knew that you would not have honored me with a letter if this calamity had not occurred to me"). He is preoccupied with the failure of everyone in his in-laws' family to write to him or to ask about him in letters to his wife. At the end, he brings up various business matters to be conducted by al-Shaykh al-Sadīd together with the writer's maternal uncle Abū l-Munā. These involve textiles (a wasaṭ, yarn, and silk) and roasted flaxseed oil (zayt bizr kattān muqlā) from Damīra. ASE

Record of a deposition in court, written in the hand of the scribe Hillel b. Eli, ca. 1095. The record states that Perahya b. Ya'aqov appeared in court and dedicated his compound to the two synagogues, of the Palestinians and the Babylonians. The rent of the compound is to be spent on oil for the two synagogues, in equal parts. Since there were too many errors in this document, the scribe probably decided to write it again, and that is perhaps the reason why the document is unsigned. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 217 #34)

Letter from [...] b. Yefet to Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning various business matters and mentioning Damietta. The writer's name appears to be covered up with a piece of paper.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The names of the sender and the addressee and the date are all covered up by a sheet of paper, along with some additional text on verso, so the physical manuscript will need to be checked. There is a [...] ha-Levi ha-Ḥaver and a [...] b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi in the address. The sender apologizes for something and excuses himself by saying he was worried the boat was going to depart. He mentions "... and his son 'The Fourth' Shelomo ha-Kohen the son of our master... Gaon..." (the adjacent text is covered by the sheet of paper). He sends a message to Abū Saʿd al-ʿAkkawī al-ʿAṭṭār who lives in Cairo, namely that he has sent a certain judge two copies of something, one with Abū l-Mufaḍḍal the in-law of Ibn Ḥajar.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat.

An incomplete deed of a sale of one quarter of a house by a public leader, Ibn al-ʿAjamī, to the wife of a money assayer for 1,000 dirhams. The sale took place with the permission and in the presence of the woman’s husband. The purchase may have been an investment. Fustat, 29 Marḥeshvan, 1541 Seleucid (18 October 1229). Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 1, p. 462n123, Vol. 3, p. 328, Vol. 4. p. 283.)

Draft of a letter from Avraham b. Natan, in Fustat, to Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl, in Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. Yeshuʿa is in Alexandria probably to welcome a relative. He ordered mats through Avraham, and Avraham sends him a folded string in the letter, to show the mats’ length. A mats maker is willing to send him a mat as an example. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #699) VMR

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: First decade of Ḥeshvan 1493 Seleucid, which is 1181 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In which Fakhr bt. Thaʿlab, the divorcee of Abū l-Khayr b. Avraham, appoints Maʿālī b. Khalaf al-Dajājī as her representative to sue her ex-husband for the 12 dinars owed to her under the terms of her ketubba. Written and signed by Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active ca. 1181–1209). Also signed by Levi b. Avraham ha-Levi (likely identical with the cantor Abū Sahl Levi, the father of Yedutun and Moshe). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Accounts in Arabic script, headed "with .... Abū ʿAlī 29 dirhams." There follows a tally of different amounts of dirhams received at different points.

Letter of appeal for charity from Abū Dāniyāl to Maṣliaḥ Gaon. The house where the writer lives with all his family is collapsing around them. There are several interesting spellings in this letter, e.g., אלצצֿירה for الصغيرة.

Letter from Seʿadya b. Avraham to his 'brother' Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Seʿadya has been worried about Ṣemaḥ's travel, because he is inexperienced in travel, did not go with a companion, and did not send a letter informing Seʿadya of his safe arrival. Seʿadya has sent various commodities to him with Sason. He also gave Sason 8 dirhams for the expenses or setbacks of travel ("in Zājī(?)"). He gave a dirham to the brother of the blind man who said that Ṣedaqa had promised it. He urges Ṣedaqa not to neglect doing business in Jerusalem with the proceeds from the sale of the sūsiyyāt and/or to send the money. Ṣeʿadya was going to send something (לחמה?) until he heard that there was no craftsman in Ṣedaqa's location who could process it. Greetings to Abū ʿImrān Mūsā and to 'the mother' and to Shibl. He asks for a piece of rhubarb. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yosef b. Maḥfūẓ to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya, complaining about Abu Sa'id. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Shelomo b. Natanel Ha-Shulhani (money-changer), Fustat, to Sadoq Ha-Levi b. Levi, president of court, approximately 1030.