Geniza Lab

A query directed to Maimonides (d. 1204). Responsum.

Letter from Shemuel b. Yosef Yiju, in Mazara, to his brothers, Perahya and Moshe, in Alexandria or Fustat. Around 1156.

Late letter that begins in Hebrew and transitions into Judaeo-Arabic from an unidentified merchant to Yosef Muḥibb. He writes that he traveled this year to Tripoli (Libya?) to look for a Jew who took 100 peraḥim from him and fled to Venice. He was not successful. He has purchased garments and sent them with Saadya Kohen and Yaʿaqov b. Hīnī (also mentioned in ENA NS 50.25) to try to sell. Recto is damaged, but deals almost entirely with business matters. He mentions R. Yosef Nahon (?) who died after a year of being bedridden and consuming half of his wealth. In his will, he left 200 peraḥim for the study of Torah and for the visiting of the ill and for the poor. The writer also mentions the addressee's brother Khubayr, his own nephew Yosef, and Shelomo Abulafia. The addressee's sister Maḥbūba sends her regards and urges him to take care of their other sister and find a husband for her. On verso he returns to business matters and requests a Cypriot commodity (קוברסי/קוברסיין) and orders tin (קזדיר) from a place called גמאע אלטיילון. He mentions Yaʿaqov Bū Saʿda and David al-Ashqar. ASE.

Three distinct documents in Arabic script, chopped in half vertically and then probably glued together into a rotulus in order to be reused for the Hebrew liturgical or literary text found on recto. 1) Deed of lease (hādhā mā istaʾjara Ṣāliḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad....). Dated: 484 AH = 1091/92 CE. 2) State or legal document with a registration note at upper left (uthbita fī dīwān al-ishrāf bi-Miṣr). Also concerning the same Ṣāliḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī. Later on mentions ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī. 3) Deed of acknowledgment (iqrār). The name of the person making the acknowledgment (the muqirr) appears in l. 2 followed by a physical description (... wāḍiḥ al-jabha...). In lines 4–5, the same Ṣāliḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī from the previous two documents appears. Needs further examination.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq to Abū ʿImrān Mūsā b. Ṣedaqa Ibn Nufayʿ. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender sent previous letters with Sālim b. Efrayim, including a power of attorney for the collection of goods shipped with Tamīm. If a certain commodity has been 'liberated' from ʿAydhāb, he has sent (or will send?) wax and Indian costus. Abū ʿUmar should sell these items in Egypt, purchase linseed oil and wheat, and send them to Khalaf (in Yemen). Mentions Karīm Ibn [Yi]ju(?) the tax farmer; Abū l-Maʿālī al-Qaysarānī; Aḥmad b. Ghūrī(?). See Goitein's attached notes for a transcription.

Legal document. Commenda. Dated: November 1132. Abū Zikrī Yehudah b. Yosef ha-Kohen and Ḥananel b. Nissim partner in a shop. The active partner performs a regular reckoning, the details of which are trusted without witness testimony. Profits are split evenly after expenses. The active partner is specifically prohibited from lending funds on to another partner; if he does so, those funds will be taken directly out of his share of the partnership. The laws of unlimited investment partnership (mufāwaḍa) permit a loan to be granted with both partners' permission, and the even split of partnership profits or losses is also reminiscent of the mufāwaḍa agreement. However, while the qinyan provisions here are mutual, the provisions concerning the work itself suggest that one of the partners is significantly senior. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 32-34)

Only the lower part of this document has survived. It is written in the form of a letter and contains a commercial account and also a court record of legal proceedings. The hand is that of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. It seems that on his way to India, Abu Barakat met Issac al-Nafusi in Aden and the latter gave him some merchandise to sell for him there. It is probable that the lost part of the document listed the selling of this merchandise in India. Next we have an account of what Abu Barakat bought for al-Nafusi in India. Then he lists the expenses (taxes, rent of warehouse etc) of his dealings in Aden. The last part consists of a copy of legal proceedings where Abu Barakat declares that he spent the rest of al-Nafusi's money that remained with him on the recently purchased house of al-Nafusi in Fustat. He did this according to the instructions of Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Nethanel, al-Nafusi's appointed representative.

Letter from Mahruz to Abu Zikri Kohen in Broach, Mangalore, India ca. 1145-48.

Legal document. Location: Minyat Zifta. Dated: First decade of Av 1465 Seleucid, which is July 1154 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Sābiq b. Abū al-Ḥasan the tax-farmer of dyeing acknowledges a debt of 32 + 1/3 + 1/4 dinars to Abū l-Maʿālī Shemuel b. Yehuda. He will pay back one-half by the end of Av (i.e., after one month has passed) and the other half by the end of Elul. Signed by Shelomo b. Zarʿa; Peraḥya b. Shemuel. The validation (qiyyum) is written and signed by Shabbetay b. Avraham (who may have written the entire document) and three others: Yefet b. Yosef ha-Melammed; Elʿazar b. Shemarya; and Shela b. Yefet. On verso there are a few words in Arabic script (unfortunately covered up by the conservators), possibly a filing note. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

List of many important people (e.g. a lineage of the heads of Yeshivat Gaon Yaʿaqov) with family trees. "This is the ʿitra of al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm and his siblings and his cousins (awlād ʿamm)." Merits further examination.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq, in Aden, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in ʿAydhāb. Dating: after autumn 1131 CE. Mainly in Hebrew, with some Judaeo-Arabic. The location of Ḥalfon and the dating can be deduced based on the mention of the great storm at sea, also mentioned in ח10 (T-S Ar.48.270). This is a letter of gratitude for Ḥalfon's halakhic responsum on matrimonial matters concerning one Abū l-Ṭāhir, who needed to return to Aden from India. Ḥalfon had been asked to write his expert opinion with regard to a man who died without male offspring, in which case his widow was obliged to marry one of his brothers, normally the eldest (levirate marriage). It is reasonable to assume that R. Yaʿaqov, mentioned in l. 22 as someone who admired Ḥalfon's responsum, is Yaʿaqov b. Salīm, who wrote ח5 (CUL Or.1080 J225), who was close both to Ḥalfon and to Khalaf. The greetings at the end confirm the closeness of Khalaf to Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon and to the family members of Ḥalfon (and they shed light on some questions, such as how many brothers Ḥalfon had). (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Recto: List of people. Verso: Piyyut.

Most of a long, very distressed letter from Menaḥem, writing in Fusṭāṭ/Cairo, to a business associate, whose family lives in Fustāṭ/Cairo and who has traveled. The details of the case are difficult to follow and merit deeper examination. Menaḥem's enemies have gotten the upper hand, and they are gloating to the utmost, and he has lost a great deal of money. In what remains of the letter, he first mentions the visit of Lu'lu' ("may the enemies of Israel perish"), who may be identical with al-Raqqī, to a prison (where Menaḥem had been held?). The entirety of the rest of the story has to do with the misdeeds of al-Raqqī and Ibn Kātib al-ʿArab, called "dogs" by the writer (they call him the same). The latter "stands in the middle of the markets [of Fusṭāṭ and Cairo] and hosts great gatherings (? maḥāfil), even greater than those of al-Raqqī. He said that I am his enemy and that I testified against him to the representative of the sultan" (r12–15, 29). Apparently the addressee normally has the ear of Ibn Kātib al-ʿArab, and so none of this would have happened if the addressee had not had to travel "for my sins" (r24–25). Menaḥem writes repeatedly that he is "in the fire" and that it would be better to be dead (r25–31, v21–25). His uncle (ʿamm) Abū l-Faraj is egging on al-Raqqī, standing in the market and "on the slaughterhouse" (?) and cursing Menaḥem and the addressee before the Jews and the Muslims. Abū l-Faraj is instructing al-Raqqī not to "appraise these pawns" (hādhihi l-ruhūnāt lā tuqawwimuhum) (does Menaḥem run a pawnshop?) (r32–36). The villainy of Abū l-Faraj goes deeper, for he "sits in the house with Yūsuf and his brothers and his children, dancing (raqṣ) and listening to music (ṭarab) (rm22–33). The installment of the story that continues on verso has to do with al-Raqqī's claim that he is owed 1000 nuqra (dirhams) by the addressee. Various legal documents and (false?) witnesses are produced (v1–15). Someone states, "This is how fortunes are lost because of slander" (v12). Menaḥem expands on his wretched state. He prays for God to command the "angel of my misfortunes" to relent. Every day ends with tears and with the melting of his liver, bit by bit (v19–32). He concludes by urging the addressee to come quickly and to seek aid from a powerful man ("kiss the feet for me of he whom you know," v33–34). He apologizes for the distressing matter contained in the letter (v35–37). R. David sends his regards and rebukes; R. Shelomo is well, recovering, back to his usual self; the addressee's wife and children are well (v37–40). In a postscript: "I heard that Muhadhdhab b. al-ʿŪdī is in critical condition and that wheat is expensive. May God have mercy." ASE

Fragment of a letter from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1020.

Fragment of a release in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe in the name of Sitt al-Dār and involving Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ.

Legal agreement on dowry rights. Dated: First decade of Ḥeshvan 1442 Seleucid, which is 1130 CE. Betweeen Sitt al-Kull bt. Berakhot known as Naṭīra and her husband the poet (ha-meshorer) Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. He grants her all her dowry; she releases him from responsibility. He is also warned that he would have to give her the delayed marriage payment if he should ever take a second wife. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Ghālib the cantor and Natan b. Yefet. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Fragment of a marriage document including a dowry list. Location; New Cairo. Dating: 1189–1288 CE. On verso there is piyyuṭ.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Large but fragmentary (only the ends of the lines are preserved). Deathbed will. Refers to: "one of them (his sons?), named David"; "strife and lawsuits between them (his sons?)"; Fustat; a sum of dinars, of which 8 are the delayed marriage payment (presumably for his future widow). Signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe and [...] b. Yefet, and others whose names are missing. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Ghālib ha-Ḥazzan.

Fragment of a long legal document settling business accounts, involving a Mūsā who has gone missing, Berakhya, Sulaymān b. Yaʿaqov, Abū l-Surūr b. Natan, Maṣliaḥ, ʿAllūsh, and Yehoshua b. Natan. Verso: Three lines in Arabic script, apparently the draft of a beginning of a letter (a basmala followed by waṣal kitābak ayyuhā (?) l-ḥājib (?) aṭāl allāhu baqāk wa-adāma ʿizzaka wa-ta'ayyudaka). There are also a few jottings in Hebrew. ASE

This is the fourth letter sent by Yonatan ha-Kohen b. David of Lunel to Moses Maimonides, writing in his own name but also all the sages of Provence. The letter discusses three topics. (1) They have succeeded in finding a translator for the Guide for the Perplexed, Shemuel b. Yehuda Ibn Tibbon. "Indeed [the Guide] would have been 'as a small stone in a heap of stones' (Proverbs 26:8) and 'as a lily among thorns' (Song of Songs 2:2), a book for the illiterate, if our Creator had not brought us one wise and enlightened in every wisdom, whose father taught him the language of the Arabs, the son of the wondrous sage, the elevated physician, Yehuda Ibn Tibbon ha-Sefaradi." Yonatan then gives a list of works that Yehuda Ibn Tibbon has translated: Sefer ha-Emunot, Sefer Ḥovot ha-Levavot, Middot ha-Nefesh, Mivḥar ha-Peninim (of Ibn Gabirol), the Kuzari, and Sefer ha-Diqduq and Sefer ha-Shorashim by Ibn Jannāḥ. Then, referring to the Midrash on 1 Samuel 3:3 ("the lamp of Eli had not yet gone out [when the lamp shone of] Shemuel ha-Ramati"), he returns to Shemuel the son of Yehuda who has started his career in the lifetime of his father and teacher. "He scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion into his hands (Judges 14:9), and fed us, with the tip of the pen in his hand, of the honey [from your lips] and the drops of myrrh from your fingers, and our eyes were illuminated to see what was concealed. Our eyes have not been sated with seeing, nor our ears with hearing, and our desire has grown [greater than] in the beginning, like the thirsty bird that has begun to drink when the cup is taken away, or like the nursing baby torn away from his mother's breast." (2) This leads to the second topic: they wish to be sent the third and final part of the Guide, which they have not yet seen. (3) The third matter is alluded to in a postscript, in which Yonatan repeats a request for the responsa to the 24 queries they had sent regarding the Mishneh Torah. The response of Maimonides, who neglected to respond to the first three letters, has been preserved (not in the Geniza). From the response, we also learn that this letter by Yonatan of Lunel was accompanied by a letter to Maimonides from Shemuel Ibn Tibbon. In it, he introduced himself, expressed his wish to travel to Egypt and meet Maimonides in person, and sought advice on some matters of translation. Verso contains three different text blocks. At the top, very faded, is the address, most of which Stern succeeded in reading with UV light (משה יצ בן . . . ר מימו[ן] זצל המגיד דבריו ליעקב חקיו ומשפטיו לישראל). Next, there are 11 lines in the hand of Moses Maimonides, likely his notes to himself and/or an assistant when he filed away this letter: "When the responsa to their queries were delayed from reaching them due to an illness [. . .], they sent this fourth letter requesting the responsa and the Guide, and this is the text of their letter. [. . .] the Guide, and let the delayed responsa be expedited." The word after "illness" is difficult to read. Stern suggests רבאני and the translation "divine mania." Baneth suggests ובאני, meaning "an epidemic illness." Finally, in a third hand, there is a date, which must have been added by a later owner: Monday, 2 Elul 1580 (=1269 CE), Shabbat Shofeṭim. Information largely from Stern's analysis, pp. 18–20 and 23. There are various editions, awaiting digitization. For an edition of the writing by Maimonides, and a general analysis of the place of this letter in his correspondence with the scholars of Provence, see Stern, "Maimonides' Correspondence with the Scholars of Provence," Zion 16 (1951), pp.18–29. ASE