Geniza Lab

Recto: Court record regarding the complaint of a man that his divorced wife penetrated forcefully into his house, April 1085 CE (6 Nisan 1396). Verso: Four drafts of legal documents ca. 1085 CE, in one of which Hiba b. Hillel al-Ṭarabulsī and Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq al-Lādiqī witness that they know Maḥfūẓa bt. Avraham al-Lādiqī and that she was married to אבן אלמנחמה, who divorced her and died. Information from Goitein's note card.

Shelomo urges Abu'l-Makarim in Qalyub (?) to collect money to pay the capitation tax of needy people

Yefet b. Shelomo b. Yefet b. Nājī, after having acquired 3 out of 24 shares in a house from Efrayim b. Moshe, also known as Nafīs al-Sharābī, grants him the right to purchase them back, under certain conditions, during three years. Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen Sijilmāsī (aka Abū Zikrī Kohen). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: first half of the 12th century. Mentions people such as Abū l-Faḍl b. Muʿallā; Ibn Ṣaghīr; Abū l-Yumn Ibn Ṣaghīr; Hiba al-Ḥamawī; Yosef b. ʿAṭāʾ; ʿAllūsh; Ibn Ḥārith; Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Ṣaghīr; Ben Yiju; Ibn Semekh(?) al-Daʿwa; Yiṣḥaq; Khiyār b. Faḍl. Mentions places such as Barqa, Almeria, Egypt, and Aden. Reports on mercantile transactions and taking oaths (a judge and a Torah scroll and a crowd of people are involved).

Letter from "the sons of Palṭiel" to Yosef the Turgeman/Turjumān. In Hebrew with a couple words in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 10th or 11th century. The sender may be the son-in-law of Yosef ha-Turgeman, as he conveys greetings (and prostrations) from himself and from Shelomit (presumably his wife). They have been doing well ever since Yosef departed. The children were sick, but now they are better. They rejoiced to learn that God saved Yosef from some danger that is too faded to read. The substance of the letter is that someone was supposed to send someone money, but no money has arrived. When Yosef's letter arrived, the sender of this letter went and spoke with the mother of אבולפד (=Abū l-Pad? Abū l-Faḍ[l?]) who said that she would write to him about the matter. Further down, there is a line that reads "... to the king, and your companions...." On verso there is a second letter addressed to אבולפד, which consists largely of honorifics (including Rosh ha-Qehillot). A woman (his mother?) greets and prays for him. His beneficence is lauded, and presumably he is asked about the money in one of the portions faded beyond legibility. ASE

Letter from Perahya b. Yosef in Mazara, Sicily, to Avraham b. Eliyyahu in al-Mahdiyya, inquiring about Perahya's uncle, Avraham Ibn Yiju and letter No. 68 (?). Dating: ca. 1151/2.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic concerning the India trade. Apparently the second or the third folio of a very long letter. Mentions numerous people and family members and business matters and Sicily and Bijaya. The first folio may be T-S Misc.28.33 (identified by Oded Zinger).

Testimony in the Jerusalemite synagogue regarding an estate of a Maghribi pilgrim to the Holy Land. Dated: Av 1652 Seleucid, which is July 1341. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Ṭoviya b. ʿEli, in a provincial town, to his cousin Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, probably in Fustat. Dating: 1122–50, based on the dated documents of the addressee. The writer sends thanks for the forwarding of a prescription from one physician, Abū l-Bahā', and reminds Natan to obtain a second prescription from another physician, al-Amīn, both for his sick wife. The latter physician was perhaps a Muslim or Christian, since the addressee is asked to transcribe the prescription from Arabic to Hebrew (but cf. T-S 8J16.19 + T-S NS 323.13, in which a Jew is asked not to use Arabic script). "Favor your servant with the answer to be given by my lord al-Amīn, may his reward be doubled. Please transcribe for me the prescription into Hebrew letters.") As requested, Ṭoviya provides an elaborate update on the condition of his sick wife: "She has six attacks (fawra) during the day and four during the night. Perspiration (ʿaraq) overcomes her from the sockets of her eyes (maḥājīr ʿaynayhā) to her chest (fu'ādhā). Owing to the high fever (min ʿuẓm al-nār) she has a feeling that her neck first burns (iḥtaraqat) and then becomes cold (yabrud). At the same time, she suffers pain in her knees (wajaʿ rukab). Owing to her grave sufferings (min ʿuẓm al-alam) her menses (al-ṭamth) have stopped. Finally, because of her great anxiety (min kuthrat al-takarrub), she is affected by mild palpitation (rajīf yasīr) of the heart." The same illness is also described in an earlier letter (T-S 12.234). From a later letter (T-S 13J25.15) we learn that she eventually began to feel better. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 254, 255; V, p. 106. It is possible that no fever is described, only a sensation of burning (nār). It is also possible that the phrase "knee pain" (wajaʿ rukab) should be read "pelvic pain" (wajaʿ rakab), especially as the next sentence describes the menstrual changes brought on by excessive pain. In the margin, changing the topic, Ṭoviya asks for a loan of the piyyut שיר השירים אסלסל (a liturgical poem for the Seventh of Passover composed by Shemuel b. Hoshaʿna the Third) from 'the rayyis,' sends regards to family members, and reports that the family's situation was very difficult when the tax collector arrived on Purim.

Letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by Sedaqa b. 'Ayyash to Abu Nasr b. Sahl (Bareket and Ben- Sasson) or Hesed b. Yashar (Gil). The letter deals with shipments of goods to the Maghreb and Sicily. The letter also mentions the triumphal march of Mu'izz b. Badis, ruler of the Maghreb, Dated ca. 1023 (Bareket and Ben-Sasson) or May 1027 (Gil). (Information from M. Gil, Vol. 2, p. 462; M. Ben-Sasson, p. 233; E Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, p.253)

Recto: Petition to Masliah Gaon from a woman wishing to have a divorce. Probably 1127 CE. Discussed in detail, with translation, in Oded Zinger's dissertation, pp. 201–02: 'Malīḥa bt. Abū al-Faḍl wanted a divorce. She claimed that her husband suffered from many illnesses and that his children from a previous marriage were irreligious. Malīḥa feared for the well-being of her children were she to die. We have a resolute petition written on her behalf to the head of the Jews, Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, informing him of the following: "I am the wife of Adam, the money changer. For the past eight months, I have asked repeatedly for divorce, but could not obtain it. I had thought that with the arrival of your most venerable presence, you would not postpone giving a ruling to me or to another (on my behalf) a single hour. He is a man afflicted with many illnesses and sicknesses. He has children far removed from religion and others. The servant fears lest what is sealed upon people (i.e. death) overtake him, or me. There is no assurance what will happen with him and with my children.1 By the divine law that you possess! Examine my state and quickly issue a verdict, whatever it may be.2 The servant appointed a representative, but from all that was done to the man; he said that he would not return to mediate between us. The servant is bashful, I do not have a tongue to speak with. By your parents! Examine my state and please liberate me.3 .... All that I want is the liberation of the servant, by any means necessary. And what the divine law obligates."4 We hear of Malīḥaʼs ultimate success in her bid for divorce in another document, T-S 8J5.4 2v. A four-line entry in a page from a court notebook records that on 28 June 1127, Malīḥa appointed Nathan ha-Levi b. Abraham as her representative to sue her husband. This short entry is followed by another entry recording an unrelated appointment of a representative. The next entry in the court notebook, however, records that on the very same day, a cantor who was one of the witnesses of the first appointment came to the court with two parnasim from the community. The three men declared to the court that they had made the symbolic purchase from Malīḥa confirming that she relinquished the entirety of her meʿuḥar and was willing to take an oath over her claims regarding the dowry. Her husband also made the symbolic purchase confirming that he had no claim over her. It appears that Malīḥa got her divorce.'5 Margins of recto, and verso: Copious jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script. It is unclear how much, if any, pertains to the main letter on recto. Shelomo ha-Levi b. Moshe is named. Many of the Arabic writings appear to be formulaic phrases from a letter to a dignitary (titled in one place Imam and Amir).

Sub-leasing agreement of a tax farm of silk production for the town of Bush and its surroundings, which was worth 3.5 dinars. Dated Tammuz 1458/ June 1147. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 606, 607)

Letter from Yehuda Leib the Ashkenazi to the Nagid Yiṣḥaq Sholal. In Hebrew. Dating: 1502–17 CE. The writer congratulates the Nagid on regaining a post from which he had been ousted.

Letter by a cantor in a small town, addressed to Rabbi Eliyyahu the judge, complaining bitterly about his lack of opportunity for further study and about doing nothing but jingling off prayers. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p.88)

Legal document. Dated: 1448 Seleucid, which is 1136/37 CE. Very faded. Signed by: Moshe b. Ṣadoq ha-Ṣadiq Av Bet Din b. Yoshiyyahu; Moshe ha-Ḥazzan b. Yehuda.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Written and signed by Berakhot (b. Shemuel). Expressing thanks to the poet Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo for his “sweet poems and powerful words” with which he had honored the writer. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from a mother in Aden to her son in Egypt.

Marriage contract of Faḍā'il b. Yosef and Sittunā, signed in Abyār. Dated: December 1070 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 388)

Letter from the cantor Musāfir b. Yosef ha-Bavli, in Alexandria, to his relative Yehuda the schoolteacher in the Iraqi synagogue of Fustat. Musāfir writes he had left Alexandria, where the family had fought with each other over a piece of bread and had lived in Fuwwa for a year. The situation was now better and he says he would assist the family in Fustat. This seems to be the reply to DK 315 (alt: 11). See also T-S 13J10.10 (?). (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Document in Arabic script. State document? Mentions a payment of 9 dirhams a day for the month Ramaḍān al-muʿaẓẓam, for a total of 270 dirhams. Reused on recto for Hebrew literary text.