Geniza Lab

Legal fragment from Fustat, involving the business dealings of Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy among others, dated [Iyya]r 1089 CE (1400 Seleucid). The month could also be read as Adar, but the body of the document mentions something that happened in Nisan of the same year (482 Hijri). The reshut of the Nasi David b. Daniel is invoked in lines 4-7. Protagonists/testifiers named include: [Abu Ishaq?] Avraham ha-Levi b. Ṭoviya ha-Levi, Abu ʿImran Moshe b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Abu ʿAlī [Ye]fet ha-Kohen b. Salma (?) al-Dallāl. ASE.

Letter from Moshe b. ʿOvadya, in Aleppo, to a Nagid, in New Cairo, who receives 20 lines of eloquent Hebrew praises but does not appear to be named (he may be identifiable on the basis of the titles, or if the writer or other people mentioned in the letter prove to be dateable). The writer also conveys his longing for a R. Moshe and for the entire community of Cairo. When the Nagid's third letter arrived in Aleppo, the "season/period" (epidemic?) had already begun in Aleppo and numerous Jews died, including R. Avraham ha-Dayyan the author of Etz Hayyim. Trade came to a standstill. Then the rains began: four months in which they did not even see the sun, and two-thirds of Aleppo "fell" (flooded? buildings collapsed?). Now it is the period of the capitation tax. For all these reasons, the writer was not able to respond sooner. The writing now becomes messier and somewhat trickier to understand. Possibly someone named al-ʿAjami and his son were in Damascus for 10 days, and the "deputy of al-Sham" confiscated all their property, amounting to 1000 dinars. Furthermore, a Jew from Aleppo who was in Damascus at the time reported that someone got their hands on all the money and all the books that Avraham ha-Dayyan had left in the possession of his daughter (possibly her husband was the villain). The writer plans to send another letter having to do with legal/judicial matters (?) so that the recipient can advise him. Noaḥ ha-Levi b. Shemuel ʿAḍʿāḍ added a postscript stating that he was present when this letter was being written and that he sends his respects. ASE.

Original use: Letter from Eliyyahu b. Shelomo Gaʾon to David b. Yeḥizqiyya Rosh Ha-Gola. Dating: ca. 1046. In Hebrew. Published by Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, doc. 416. The transcription below is from Mann, who only edited BL OR 5546.1.

Legal document, deed of acknowledgment, concerning an inheritance dispute between Jamīla bt. Lāḥiq the veterinarian and her brother. Contains three testimonies at the bottom. The document is dated to the first half (niṣf al-awwal) of Rabīʿ II 467 H, which is right after the shidda ʿuzmā (454 - 465 H/ 1062 - 1073 CE), testifying to the restoration of legal and administrative order in the Fatimid empire following the massive famine period. Needs further examination.

See also BL OR 5547.3. Recto: two blocks of text in Arabic. The bottom one at least is a medical prescription (يوجذ على بركة الله وعونه) using ingredients such as chebulic myrobalan (اهليلج كابلي) and lavender (اسطوخوذس). Verso: upper block of text is Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, giving detailed instructions for how a cantor should recite certain verses and prayers. Lower block of text is another Arabic technical text, conceivably from a work on alchemy, as in the verso of BL OR 5547.3 (by the same writer).The overlap of the Hebrew script with the Arabic technical passage (see the title of the section, باب אל...) suggests that the same writer is responsible for the the entirety of verso. ASE.

See also BL OR 5547.2. Recto: technical instructions in Arabic. Verso: the upper block of text appears to be technical instructions in Arabic for an alchemical recipe. The lower block of text is in Hebrew, but the content remains opaque. The whole fragment requires further examination. ASE.

Memorial list of the Gaonic family of Evyatar Ha-Kohen, headed 'principals of schools' but including also names of people that were no Geonim, ca.969-1021. (NB: This dating seems erroneous, as the list includes Maṣliaḥ Gaon, who was in office 1127–39.)

Memorial list, probably. See Goitein's index card for a reference to Mann.

A list with details about the family of R. Avraham b. Maimonides, including a note on the birth of R. Avraham II. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter about the birth of David, the grandson of Maimonides, early 13th century (ca. 1226).

Letter fragment. In the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen (according to Goitein's notes). Mentions Sayyidnā, al-Shaykh Maḍmūn, Ismāʿīl al-Majjānī; the kārim fleet (which travelled between Egypt and India); a letter from the sender's in-law Maḥrūz in Sawākin about 3,000 loads. A complete list of the Jews who left with the kārim is Maḥrūz [b. Yaʿaqov], Zikrī b. Sar Shalom, Ibn al-Dabbāgh; al-Maḥallī; Ibn Junūn(?); Nahray; and Ibn al-Baqqāl.

Contributors list, probably. Giving 2: Abū l-Makārim b. Nissim; Amīn al-Dawla. Giving 1: Abū Subḥī(?) b. Ghulayb; Abū Naṣr b. Faḍlān; Abū Naṣr al-Mūrid; Banīn b. Dā'ūd; Abū l-Barakāt al-Mūrid; Abū Zikrī al-Ṭabīb; Makārim b. [...] al-ʿAṭṭār; Abū Zikrī al-Kohen; Abū Zikrī b. Yaḥyā; Yūsuf al-Qāʿa; the al-Amshāṭī sons; Abū l-Ḥasan al-Wazzān; Mufaḍḍal b. Ḥubaysh; al-Kohen al-Siqillī; Abū l-Wafā' al-Dallāl; the shop of Muslim; Abū l-Riḍā al-Ṭabīb; Ibn Mardūk al-Kohen; Futūḥ al-Ṣayrafī; Abū ʿAlī b. al-Ḥaver; Abū Naṣr b. Ṭarab(?).

Account of the qodesh, ca. September 1201. This is an accoutning written on both sides of a single leaf, detached from a notebook. The peculiar thing about this document is that it shows the existence of two separate lists, of inhabited apartments and of empty ones. The latter have their rents listed, in order to compare the actual with the budgeted revenue. There is also a third class, of people who live in their apartments without paying rent. This is extremely unusual in the accounts of the qodesh and can only be explained by the extraordinary conditions of distress at the time. Seven apartments are listed as occupied rent-free; among them, that of R. Anatoli, whose rent was in any case reduced to five dirhams, as against 52 dirhams that he still paid three months earlier. Among the people exempt from payment are "a poor woman" and some scholars, one of them styled al-khaver. The total sum counted on as revenue was 336.5 dirhams, whereas the actual income was only 171, i.e., a little more than half. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 386 #102)

List of 20 persons receiving each a wax candle. On verso there is a note (an excerpt from a legal document?) to the effect that "whatever he can liberate from the property of the aforementioned Abū l-Ḥasan, he should send it to him in Egypt (al-diyār al-Miṣriyya), and he is exempt from its darak (ownership guarantee?), and the responsibility is upon me concerning whatever he sends of that with the aforementioned appointee (muwakkal) Yeshuʿa." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

List of prisoners imprisoned for nonpayment of the capitation tax. Fragmentary. twenty-four names preserved, with sums representing the amounts still due, to be provided by public or private charity. At least three people, the cantor Saʿdān, Ḥasan the Persian, and (Yaḥyā) the son of the Tiberian, recur in B 4–5 with the same sums. (Mubārak), the son of the female physician, also recurs in B 8 and 59." (Information from Goitein, Med. Soc. II, Appendix B, #58.)

Recto: List of the graves of ṣadiqim visited by Elʿazar ha-Levi of Egypt. Location: Safed. Dated: Pesaḥ Sheni = 14 Iyar 5586 AM, which is 1826 CE. About 25 sites are listed. Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and eastern Arabic numerals. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Legal testimony from Fustat dated the 11th of Heshvan, 979 CE (1291 Seleucid) involving Sa'dan b. Sa'id from Tzubah (Aleppo) and Mevorakh b. Qiyam. Starting at this point, only the last few words of each line are preserved. Mansur b. Wahb and the brothers Salamah b. 'Amram and Mansur b. 'Amram are mentioned, as is the price of flax. Someone is appointed to be Sa'dan's guardian (? אפטרופא). The scribe is Efrayim b. Sadoq. There are numerous signatures. See also T-S 13J8.21, a legal document involving the same Aleppan Sa'dan b. Sa'id. ASE.

Legal testimony. Location: Fustat. Dated: Shevaṭ 1462 Seleucid, which is 1151 CE, under the authority of Shemuel ha-Nagid. A woman named ʿAmāʾim bt. Abū l-Faraj Menahem ha-Levi al-Shammāʿ b. Shemarya ha-Levi, who is the widow of the clothier (bazzāz) Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf b. Munajjā, acknowledges that she has received in full the 40 dinars of her delayed marriage gift (muʾakhkhar) from the ʿAsqalānī perfumer Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. Tiqva. Witnesses: Berakhot b. Yefet and Natan b. Shemarya ha-Kohen. The qiyyum (validation) is written in a different hand and is signed by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham, Efrayim b. Meshullam, and Mevorakh b. Natan.

Literary. Sharṭ al-Alḥān wa-Uṣūl al-Tanqīṭ by Ibn Asher (ZL). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

State document, Fatimid period. Dated: 4 Rajab 523H, which is 23 June 1129 CE. Reporting that two trustworthy witnesses from Alexandria had given testimony, and that a document had come in answer to their testimony. One of their names has been preserved: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b Ḥātim b. Ṣadaqa b. ʿUmar. Contains a registration mark (al-ḥamdu li-llāh ʿalā niʿamih). Another scribe has reused the document to copy the Fihrist of Shemu’el b. Hofni gaʾon. Details: An official document belonging to X (unnamed person: the هـ of kitab) was presented somewhere, but it needed to be verified, so two witnesses ratified it, presumably in Alexandria. The ratified document was then sent to a chancery where our writer recorded its contents, and equally importantly, registered the names of the two witnesses who had vouched for its authenticity. This is a bifolio register destined for the central Fatimid archives. Without more information on person X, and on the nature of this كتاب (was it a receipt, a legal deed, a rescript?), the document remains tantalizing and opaque, but useful as evidence of registration and archiving. Reused for the fihrist (index to the writings) of Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni (one fragment) and for Bava Metzia 49b (the other fragment: someone buying wine learned that Parzak the vizier was going to confiscate it, so he tried to renege before taking possession of the wine. R. Hisda approved: "just as they instituted 'pulling' with regard to sellers, so did they institute 'pulling' with regard to buyers"). (MR)