Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef קוכו and Shelomo Amarilio, in Salonica, to the judge Yiṣḥaq b. Ẓahal, presumably in Egypt. In Hebrew. Dated: 5480 AM (שנת אקים את סֿכֿתֿ דוד), which is 1719/20 CE. The writers heard that David Miranda (דוד מיראנדה) of Salonica recently died and that the addressee had taken custody of his estate. They inform the addressee that David left impoverished orphans, so they ask him to send the money with a trustworthy merchant of Salonica in the form of a polisa (פוליסה) as soon as possible. They have also heard that Avraham Barukh and a certain Sarsūr owed money to the deceased (the latter because he was selling garments (? רופאש) on commission/consignment for the deceased), so they ask the addressee to investigate. On verso there is a lovely illustration of two birds.

Letter from Yosef [...] and Moshe [...]. In Hebrew. Location: Probably Tripoli, Greece (טראפוליצא = Τριπολιτσά). Dated: Wednesday 8 Tammuz 5510 AM, which is 1750 CE. This is a fundraising letter for the redemption of Yaʿaqov of פיש (Fez?) and his wife and two Jews, who had embarked on a Turkish ship in Crete (קאנדייה) when Maltese pirates attacked and took them captive. God moved the Maltese captain (הקברניט המלטיז) to have mercy, and he brought them to land on מאנייה (the Mani peninsula?) and left them in the charge of a local rich man, setting the ransom at 1500 gasim/גסים ("big" coins—a common term for coinage in this period). ASE. MCD.

Letter from Yosef Yuʿbaṣ to Yaʿaqov Yuʿbaṣ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 18th or 19th century. Needs examination.

Letter from Avraham Hamān and Gavriel Ḥefeẓ to Karo y Frances & Company. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 5568 AM, which is 1807/08 CE. Needs examination for content.

Letter from Avraham Hamān and Gavriel Ḥefeẓ to Karo y Frances & Company. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Elul (Raḥamim) 5569 AM, which is 1809 CE. Needs examination for content.

Letter from Avraham Hamān and Gavriel Ḥefeẓ to Karo y Frances & Company. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 5568 AM, which is 1807/08 CE. Needs examination for content.

Letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Mamonides, to be read in the synagogue, on behalf of an elderly, poor man Yiṣḥaq who wishes to travel to Jerusalem. Whatever money comes from the pesiqa is to be forwarded to the Nagid. Bibliography: Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Form letter from the community of Safed to the community of Izmir concerning sheliḥim and fundraising. In Hebrew. Dated: Elul 5611 AM, which is 1851 CE. There are 7 signatures and several names mentioned in the body (where the blanks are filled in), including Ḥayyim Shelomo Franco (ZL) and Saʿīd ha-Levi Alqabeẓ and Moshe שוראקי.

Form letter from the community of Safed to the communities of 'everywhere.' In Hebrew. Dated: Tammuz 5611 AM, which is 1851 CE. It seems to be a letter of recommendation on behalf of David מויאל.

Form letter from the community of Safed to the communities of 'everywhere.' In Hebrew. Dated: Tammuz 5619 AM, which is 1859 CE. Recommendation for Yaʿaqov ha-Levi. There are five signatures. There is also an addendum from the Ashkenazi congregation of Safed seconding the recommendation, with three signatures and a seal imprint: Siegel der Grosrabinat Israelitische Gemeinde Aschkenasim Safed.

Business letter from Yiṣḥaq [...], in Istanbul, to Efrayim ʿAdda (עדה) and Eliyyahu Aylion (אאיליון), in Fustat/Cairo. In Ladino. There is an "AI" in Latin script on verso, along with sums/accounts. Dated: 26 Shevat 5566 AM, Which is 14 February 1806 CE. Mentions (line 8) having written something in Turkish (escribí detrás de la carta en turquesco). Mentions Izmir in the next line, and then what the writer has sent in the ship of the captain Ibrahim. He has sent a very fine [...] "that is called çiçek, which is to say, flower"; and some ginger. Later, the letter mentions leather (cuero). Needs further examination.

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, Ascalon, to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat, approximately 1090.

Letter of Ḥalfon b. Yiṣḥaq to the eminent scholar Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel (the Spaniard). The entire letter is a refu'a shelema for the Rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan (the Nagid Mevorakh?). Ḥalfon reports that the letter of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣayrafī Dihqān arrived with the news that al-Rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan was ill. Everyone is devastated, and the writer's congregation fasts and prays on his behalf. "May he who cured the bitter waters by the hand of Moses and the evil waters by the hand of Elisha cure him." Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter, probably. In Hebrew. On one side there is a poem (panegyric?). On the other side there is the lower part of an elaborate letter, perhaps a letter of gratitude. Refers to "the salvation that occurred in Tishrei 1428 Seleucid" (=1116 CE). Ends with the phrase/motto "Yeshaʿ Rav." (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Elḥanan b. Ismaʿīl al-Tāhirtī and Barhūn al-Tāhirtī (Fustat) to Nahray b. Nissim and ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣedaqa, ca. 1050. In the hand of Elḥanan b. Ismaʿīl. The writer gives details of consignments of flax send with two different ships. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 310. See also Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter of a son, Yiṣḥaq b. Yaʿaqov, to his father, Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq, containing 20 lines of polite phrases in Hebrew, another 6 in Arabic, and 3 announcing that he was unable to locate a certain person in the ministry of finance (dār al-zimām) in Cairo; he was told that the official left to visit his father in Dalāṣ. There are also some self-pitying lines about the writer's illness and unemployment. In a postscript the writer asks 'to close the account' and regrets to be unable to travel as he had no weapons to fight with. The writer may have reused a sheet of Arabic accounts, the beginnings of ~8 lines of which are visible on verso. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from a man of communal standing, perhaps Daniel b. Azarya (1051-1062) bestowing the title 'Hod Ha-Zeqenim' upon the worthy elder and physician Avraham Ha-Kohen, ca. 1055. The author refers to his own decree to the Jewish community on recto, line 14: “I issued the decree (nishtevan) to my lord the Shaykh Abu l-Faraj, may God bless him, and he read it, and proclaimed it to the [congregation]."

Letter from the wife of Wahb, Tiberias, to her brother Khalfa b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṭabīb b. al-Ṭabarī, Fustat, eleventh century. She dictated the letter to her son Mubārak b. Wahb, who has an excellent hand. She refers to herself in the letter as Sitt Wahb, interestingly spelled סיד והב. She sends condolences to Khalfa on account of the tragic news of Abū l-Ḥasan and Bint Abū ʿAlī (presumably they died). Her brother had inquired about economic conditions in Palestine, and she reports that bread is a raṭl for a dirham and everything is cheaper in Tiberias than in Ramla. She encourages him to join her in Tiberias but exhorts him to bring Sitt al-Dār with him, for she has no one in the world except God and him. His letters are to be addressed to Sitt Wahb in Sūq al-Yahūd. She mentions some textiles. Her sister (or possibly Mubārak's sister) Umm Bundār sends her regards. Information from Gil. ASE.

Hebrew piyyut.

Letter of appeal to Avraham Maimonides, begging for financial assistance, mentioning an old man who is sick and the plight of at least two daughters. Avraham Maimonides then wrote four lines, now quite faded, underneath the letter. ASE.