Geniza Lab

Excerpt of letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to the Ḥaver in Fustat, probably Eli b. Amram, ca. 1060.

Legal document in Arabic script. A contract made before a Muslim notary, in which the proprietor of a Nubian slave promises to pay to the Jewish physician Makārim b. Isḥāq b. Makārim an honorarium for the successful treatment of the slave's left eye (June, 1245)—how much is not said. The fee perhaps depended on the degree of satisfaction of the contractor. The idea that payment should be made to a physician only after successful treatment is as old as the Codex Hammurabi (paragraphs 215 ff.), and presumably much older. Med Soc II, 257, 580.

On recto, the bottom of a letter (official letter? formulary?) in Arabic script. The writer thanks the addressee in the concluding lines quoting two verses of poetry that are commonly quoted to express gratitude - ولو أنني أوتيت كل بلاغة*وأفنيت بحر النطق في النظم والنثر لما كنت بعد القول إلا مقصرا*ومعترفا بالعجز عن واجب الشكر On verso, two lines of poetry in Arabic script headed by a basmala on the theme of love for the addressee. Needs further examination.

Letter in elegant Arabic script and style. "Waṣala kitābukā muwaddiʿan(?) min jawāhiri alfāẓihī wa-sharīf khiṭāb mā anʿama fī.... wa-hāja lāʿiju ishtiyāqī wa-lawʿatī..." The continuation seems to be praising the eloquence of the addressee, and it may cite a line or two poetry at the bottom. Needs examination.

Letter from Ḥananel (حاننال), it seems in Tyre (recto, l. 3), to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. In Arabic script. A vertical strip from the left side of the letter is missing. The sender mentions the arrival of a suftaja (money order) against Abū l-Faraj Mūsā; mentions Abū l-Faḍl Kātib al-Jaysh (in Tyre?); and around here the thread becomes difficult to follow. Needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Petition from al-Ḥasan b. Abū Saʿd probably to a vizier (several of the titles are similar to those of Ṭalāʾiʿ Ibn Ruzzīk). He complains of his poverty and weak state and seems to be asking for protection against the behaviors of the brokers in the drug/perfume trade in Fustat, who have cornered the market and are preventing merchants from doing business with the petitioner. On verso there is the qiddush for Passover in large 'childish' letters. (Information in part from Goitein's index card, MR, ASE.)

Receipt for 120 dīnārs from the account of ʿArūs b. Yūsuf for a shipment of purple dye or cloth (argaman) (information from Aodeh).

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat), ca. 1055, sent as an addendum to an earlier letter, which has not been identified. Nissim b. Ḥalfon sends rose water and raisins, enquires about textiles prices and asks Nahray to sell the silk (lāsīn) that he had sent to Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 960.) Informs Nahray that the fleet of ships that sailed from Tyre is expected to arrive this week. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Two pages of accounts of transportation. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Mid-11th century. On one side, there are apparently the writing exercises of a schoolboy: he copied the name Ḥalfon b. Ghālib al-Ḥazzan 7 times, then lost patience and wrote ק about 15 times. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounts and/or contributions list. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, perhaps ~16th century. Headed: "what remains of ... the donation." Dozens of names are listed with numbers underneath. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

A curious late fragment in an uneven scribal hand and imperfect Hebrew. "I heard from the Rav Yeḥiel Adhan, from the inhabitants of Sale, that he went to Tetouan and found there a letter that had fallen into the hand (or was written in the hand?) of the Rav the divine kabbalist Yehuda ha-Levi ZHLH, and this is what is written exactly, letter by letter and word by word, just as I found it." The year 1784/5 CE (5545) is mentioned - perhaps this is the year Rav Yeḥiel found the letter - and then, "upon it is written in the following language, in the Holy Tongue, in letters of gold." The oracle reads "In the year 1820/1 (5581) there will be wars between the gentiles and the Roman Caesar. In the year 1829/30 (5590) there will be wars between three nations, Africa, A[na?]tolia, France. In the year 1830/31 (5591), the Afifo the Roman Rav, i.e., the Pope...." The fragment abruptly ends here. ASE.

Recto: State report. 4 lines preserved. Mentions "Bū Kalījār the king of Ahwāz," probably identical with the Buyid Amir Abū Kālījār Marzubān in Persia (d. 1048). (Ahwāz is the capital of Khuzestan province in present-day Iran.) The document reports on a wazīr who arrived from Abū Kālījār and somebody who reached the province of Wāsiṭ. Three delegates (of the Turks?) went to greet him; he displeased them, and they in turn ill-treated him. Abū Kālijār is believed to have fostered very close ties with the Fatimid chief Dāʿī and courtier al-Muaʾyyad al-Shīrāzī in Persia, prior to his arrival to Egypt (See al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī, Sīrat al-Muʾayyad fī l-dīn Dāʿī l-Duʿāt). Needs further examination. YU.

Verso: List of names in Judaeo-Arabic along with a number of garments for each person. Records of a tailor or launderer? ASE.

Letter from a judge to Avraham Maimonides, reporting about a case that came before him in Adar I 1529 Seleucid (which is 1218 CE). About 32 lines, partly effaced but mostly legible. There are 6 lines of (autograph) response in Avraham's hand, but these are mostly torn away or effaced. Mentions people including Ismāʿīl b. Maʿālī and Abū l-Ḥassan al-Levi and someone's first return from the Levant. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: a medical prescription in Arabic for ʿAlī b. [..]Allah. Verso: scribal practice in Hebrew. ASE.

Private accounts of al-Shaykh Bū Ḥasan in Arabic script starting with a basmala and heading "ḥisāb al-Shaykh Bū l-Ḥasan". An example of the accounts includes., "I received 2 dinars minus 1/8, and 44 dirhams, and 5 fils." Then about 20 double lines of specifications. Some months are also mentioned without years.

Lease of an apartment to a parnas as settlement of a debt, AD 1029-1031. The qodesh owes Yaʿaqov b. Mevasser (whom we shall find six years later in charge of the properties of the qodesh) 10 dinars, apparently the balance of money borrowes from him to carry out repairs in the arba, the estates, belonging to the qodesh. The parnasim do not find any way to pay him this sum, and therefore it is decided to lease him the compound of the qodesh in the b. Khabisa lane for two years, for 5 dinars a year. The four parnasim receive permission to do this from Isaac ha-Kohen b. Haggay, who was apparently a member of the court, the whole community being witness to the act of lease. The compound seems to be Dar Sumana. Some special stipulation was added regarding the hikr, probably stating which of the two parties had to pay it. The verso, which was probably written two years later, includes a declaration, which apparently definitively absolves the qodesh from payment of the last five dinars still due to Yaʿaqov b. Mevasser. The recipient of the declaration, Isaac ha-Kohen b. Haggay, transfers the deed to Husayn b. Hillel (probably identical with Husayn al-Dhahabi). Samuel ha-Kohen b. Avtalyon, one of the leaders of the Palestinian congregation, is the signatory at the bottom of the deed. Written by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 144 #4)

Fiscal register. (Compare AIU IV.C.453, T-S NS 243.75a, T-S NS 198.61, ENA 2886.1–7, T-S NS 71.64, T-S 8H22.18, Moss. IV,252.1, T-S NS 308.41, BL Or. 5557R.105, and possibly T-S Misc.24.106.) Reused for a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on the Mishnah both on recto and verso.

Letter from Netanel b. Moshe ha-Levi ha-Shishi to two of his friends (Yosef b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen and 'my brother Elʿazar), during his confinement to his father's house for the sake of private study. The closing greetings are in Arabic script. "For studying at home I received 25 dinars, on condition that I do not leave the house—even to visit the public bathhouse. Dear brother, you cannot imagine what I suffer by being separated from you and from our friend the Devil (Abū Murra), the Bird of Jinnies (ʿUsfūr al-Jinn)...." See also T-S K25.64. (Information from Goitein's note card and Med Soc V, 428, 628, no. 66.)

Letter from Mardūk b. Mūsā to Nahray b. Nissim. In addition to some words about the trade of clothes, Marduk asks Nahray to assist a man who is coming to Fustat soon; the man's name has been lost.