Geniza Lab

Fragment (lower left of recto and of verso) of a Judaeo-Arabic letter involving money owed between various parties. People named are: Makīn; al-Shaykh al-Ajall al-Rashīd Abū l-Fakhr; al-Shaykh al-Ajall al-Asʿad; Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf; al-Kohen al-Ajall Abū l-Faraj. The masāṭir (rulers?) are also mentioned. ASE.

Mercantile letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Yosef b. Faraḥ (or possibly [Faraḥ b.] Yosef b. Faraḥ). Dating: 11th century. Fragmentary and very faded; content unclear.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic (1809 CE) to Karo y Frances & Company, from Avraham Haman and Gavriel Ḥefez. Information from Wagner, Linguistic Variety of Judaeo-Arabic, 24.

Late letter in Judaeo-Arabic (1807 CE?) to Merkado Karo [of Karo y Frances & Company], from Avraham Haman and Gavriel Ḥefez. Information from Wagner, Linguistic Variety of Judaeo-Arabic, 24. Goitein's attached transcription belongs to a different shelfmark.

Letter from Meʾir ben Naʿim, in Fustat/Cairo, to his mother, in Damietta. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 12 Adar I 5562 AM, which is 1802 CE. He is distressed about contradictory messages in her previous correspondence: a letter of 28 Shevaṭ in the handwriting of Sh. Levi reached Yaʿaqov Abzaradel with the news that she was planning her return to Fustat/Cairo, "and we did not understand why." And then the messenger delivered a letter from her, in which she asked for the shroud, "and we did not know what to do." She should send word with Yehuda Mamon and/or Ḥayyim Barukh and his son Shelomo Barukh; and if she can find a good shroud in Damietta, she should buy it there and they will send her the cost. There is a column of itemized expenses on verso, adding up to 81, including items such as firewood, lemon, oven, yogurt, ful, and eggs.

Loan contract, possibly a draft. Dating: Probably 18th or 19th century. In which Yosef Fra[nces?] and the gabbay of the congregation of Miṣrayim, Shemuel Naʿim, lend 40 gold maḥbūbs to Yehuda [...].

Draft of a letter addressed to Moshe Yoʾav. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 18th or 19th century. The letter was abandoned halfway through the tenth line. The sender is responding to a rebuke in business matters, and he takes a hostile tone himself. He refers to "money of kefirut," which could either mean heresy or simply ingratitude.

Letter from Shelomo [...], in Damietta, to Shemuel ha-Levi, in Fustat/Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Friday, 29 Adar II 5559 AM, which is 5 April 1799 CE. Mentions other traders with the surname Burgos. Needs examination for content.

Letter from Moshe Yehoshuaʿ Ashkenazi, in Alexandria, to Alalas y Sahlon, in Cairo (spelled Cairro). Dated: Sunday, 21 Adar II 5480 AM, which is 1720 CE. In Ladino. There is a great deal about business transactions and trouble with the customs office, specifically with a certain accursed Jirjis. Commodities include linen or flax, coral, and kermes (a red dye). Moshe reports on the arrival of a ship from Marseilles bearing wool, raisins, paper, tin, and kermes, among other things. Moshe seems aggravated: "as there are other things to be doing, I will be brief" (ll. 29–30), and "I have carried out a thousand contrabands but have never had so much trouble as with this one" (in standardized Spanish spelling: mil contra bandos hice nunca me tomé tanto ṣaʿar como esto") (l. 33). See "Alpalas y Sahalon" tag for other documents from the same group. (Information from Grace Masback's Princeton senior thesis, April 2021.)

Late letter in Hebrew from [...] ben Naʿim to Yaʿaqov Molcho. A Yiṣḥaq ben Naʿim is mentioned in the letter. Needs further examination.

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1055. Mentions silk from Sicily and Spain. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #278) VMR

List of donations received arranged according to parshiyot.

Image not available.

List of donations collected on various Shabbatot probably. Judaeo-Arabic, late hand.

Image not available.

The first page is a letter in Italian from Venice, dated 4 May 1755 CE, mentioning Cairo and several names. The subsequent 8 pages are printed forms from the Alexandria firm of Levi, Molco, e Comp., which have been filled out with details of shipping contracts from the year 1755, also giving the name of the ships and their captains. 17 August (Livorno), 27 August (Livorno), 10 September (Venice), 25 September (Venice), 29 September (Venice), 17 June (Venice), 17 August (Livorno), 27 August (Livorno). Merits further examination

List of charity received, probably, by dozens of people, arranged in a curiously alphabetical way, with sections devoted to orphans and wives and daughters and divorcees. If ״אל״ stands for "almanat," a large number of widows are listed.

98 pages of donations collected on the Shabbats of the first years of the 19th century.

Late list of names and numbers, perhaps accounts.

Accounts in Ladino including for March 1722 CE (mentions Rosh Hodesh Nisan 5482). Currencies used are ducados and muayyadis. The handwriting is very close to that of the writer of AIU VII.E.30, AIU VII.E.98, and JRL Series L 115.