Geniza Lab

Contract of betrothal dated the 27th of Nisan, 1157 CE (1468 Seleucid), from Fustat, under the reshut of Shemuel ha-Nagid. The contract is between Abu l-Wafa b. Abu l-'Ala and Sitt al-Thana bt. Yosef the cantor. It contains, in addition to the usual conditions (not to marry a second wife, etc.) the stipulation that the wife's earnings would belong to her. The mohar (dower) is fixed at a muqdam of 10 dinars and a me'uhar of 30 dinars. Signed by Se'adyah b. Avraham and Elazar ha-Kohen b. 'Atiyyah ha-Kohen. Information from Goitein's note card.

Leaf from a dossier containing later (maybe 14th-15th c) copies of rescripts or responsa from Muslim and Jewish authorities concerning a scholar who allegedly had slandered a Jewish judge. The end of no. 8, from a Muslim amir, dated 575H (1179–80 CE), no. 9 (head of the yeshiva in Baghdad) and the beginning of no. 10 (same as preceding). Information from Goitein's note card and from Marina Rustow.

Short letter from the judge Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen to his cousin and brother-in-law Toviyyahu b. Eli about business and family matters. Information from Goitein's note card. There is a partial transcription in Goitein's attached notes.

Letter from Shemuel b. Hofni, June 977.

Letter by Yisrael [b. Shemuel b. Hofni?]. See Mann, Texts and Studies, I, 165–66. Date is given, possibly Elul [1]315 = 1004 CE. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Moshe b. Yiṣḥaq, the Karaite, Jerusalem, to one of the Karaite notables in Fustat, around 1040. He reports having received one dinar that Abu Sa'id Ya'qub b. Ibrahim had sent with Abu Sa'id b. al-Sha''ab (another Ibn al-Sha''ab is mentioned in T-S 16.134, v23-24). Information from Goitein's note card (attached to PGPID 6204) and Gil.

Legal documents from 17th century Egypt, regarding a widow named ריקא (??), the daughter of Hanan She'eltiel. The document on verso is dated the 3rd of Kislev 1677 CE (5438). Needs further examination.

Letter from Shemuel b. Yaḥyā, in Fustat, to his wife ʿAziza, perhaps in Gaza. He informs her that he arrived in Fustat but was "baṭṭāl," without work. But the letter is cheerful. He traveled via Damietta to Fustat with his older children to reach his brother, but the brother himself decided to move to Alexandria. The idea being that if he were successful, his wife with little boy would follow. Information from Goitein's notes.

Fragment of a circuit judge's report about actions with estate of Abū l-Fakhr in Damīra, written December 1258 CE (1570 Seleucid). Abū l-Fakhr appears to have been a druggist, and he left a widow and three children, two mature and one younger. The judge went to Damīra on the orders of 'sayyidnā' along with Ne'eman Abū l-ʿIzz the father of the widow. Also present were al-Shaykh ʿAmīd and his brother Avraham. A quorum of people gathered and the judge declared a ban of excommunication against anyone who concealed property that the deceased had deposited with them. Coins and paper money were found equaling 1500 dirhams, and counting the value of the goods in the drug store and the home, the estate totaled 94 dinars. The money is in the keeping of ʿAmīd and his brother while the judge awaits further instruction. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Note from Yefet b. Yosef (both son and father are called "teacher," melammed) to Abu Zikri the physician, the son of Eliyyahu the judge asking him to send the tutty (zinc oxide for ophthalmic use) that he had promised the writer before his departure. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Saʿīd to al-Raṣuy, in which he asks in the most humble terms to be paid the fees due to him by the community for children sent to his school. (Same person, named Sa'id, wrote a letter to Avraham Maimuni T-S NS 324.35. AA) NB: Goitein sometimes referred to this fragment as BL OR 5542.23. (See Med Soc II, App. B, doc. 98.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, dealing almost entirely with the sale of small quantities of silk. Mentions doing business in upper Egypt (al-Ṣaʿīd, and also mentions wheat and a boat. Mentions people such as Shabbat, Abū l-Yumn, the addressee's brother-in-law Abū Yiṣḥāq, Abū l-Ḥasan, Abū Saʿīd b. Thābit (perhaps the same as in T-S 13J16.10). Address not preserved. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Recto: Letter of a dyer to his father. The clothes he had sent to Tinnīs had been taken (?). The ship in which they had been sent was returning to Damietta and he would go there by land. Danger was everywhere on the roads. Nothing should be sent now. ʿAyyāsh and others had sent clothes. Asks Yona al-Maghribi to pay him for he was now out of work. Information from Goitein's note card. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script. State/fiscal?

Part of a copy of the same letter that is preserved in full in T-S 16.345, a letter from Mahruz to Sulayman b. Abu Zikri Kohen before sailing back to India. Aden, ca. 1137-1147.

Note in the hand of Nissim b. Iṣḥaq al-Tāhirtī, ca. 1050, written for himself and for Nahray b. Nissim. Records details of a shipment of beads, pearls and wax. Half of the note is in Hebrew characters and the other half is in Arabic characters. Verso is blank. See Goitein notes linked below. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 338 and Goitein, typed texts.)

Business letter in Arabic script from Avraham ben Khalaf, probably from Alexandria, to Abū al-Faḍl Sahl b. Ḥasan b. Salāma al-Sukkarī in Fustat. Datable to ca. 1062 on the basis of a reference to cotton turbans, which are mentioned in other letters written ca. 1062. Discusses the balance of a debt of Mūsā b. Yaḥyā al-Majjānī for the goods of the addressee. The writer asks the addressee to make some purchases for him, but not having received the goods he requests that the money be given to Mūsā b. Abī al-Ḥayy instead. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 320.) Mentions that seven cotton turbans for the price of eighty quarter-dinars have been sent to the addressee with Abū Zakariyā Yehuda b. Menashshe. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Index cards.)

Legal document. Fragment (bottom only). Written and signed by Hillel b. ʿEli. Dating: Uncertain, but it has to be a year in which 2 Elul fell on a Thursday. Someone makes a declaration in favor of a certain Abū Yaʿqūb. Other witnesses (whose names are also written in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli): Shelomo b. Yosef Av ha-Kohen and Avraham b. Shemaʿya. The validation (qiyyum) is signed by Ṣedaqa b. David ha-Kohen and Yiṣḥaq b. Elʿazar. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim. Dating: ca. 1060. The writer is interested in buying tin because it is in demand among traders from Palestine. The letter contains some personal details about Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī, who became widowed and was alone for a long time before getting married again to a sister of ʿEzra b. Hillel. He has also been suffering from an illness that affected his hip (wark). Those who visited him 'frightened' him (by despairing of his health). He is doing somewhat better than before and asks for Nahray's prayers. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 18. See Goitein notes linked below.) ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to the merchant Abū l-Fakhr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Abū l-Fakhr had asked Shelomo how much he should pay him every day, evidently for working as an assistant in his shop. Shelomo responds that he is only asking for the standard rate that the boys (ṣibyān, ghilmān) in the shops (dakākīn) receive, and he defers to Abū l-Fakhr to pay what is fair.