Geniza Lab

Literary text listing various Talmudic sages. Late.

Letter/petition from an official to the Nagid Mevorakh. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 1099 CE, per Cohen, and no later than 1111 CE, based on Mevorakh's dates. Same sender, same addressee, and same subject as T-S 18J4.12. It is about the "desolation" (kharāb) of the Babylonian/Iraqi synagogue. There are two chief complaints. (1) "Members of the (larger) Palestinian synagogue had enticed many of those belonging to the Iraqi one to join their house of worship They held out lures, such as a promise that children would be able to participate more often by being called up to the Torah, since the Scriptural readings in the Palestinian rite were short (and, hence, required less preparation)." (2) "The second reason for the desolate state of the synagogue was the despotic behavior of the beadle (khādim), named al-rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ghazāl. This Abū l-Ḥasan had been lording it over the congregation, acting more like a rayyis than a beadle, giving orders, taking charge of litigations, and even forcing Mevorakh's own muqaddam (he is called muqaddam in one letter and nāʾib in the other) to cower in his presence. When requested to discharge his synagogue duties, he would brazenly retort: "even if the rayyis (Mevorakh) so commanded me, I would respond, Ί neither listen nor obey'" (lā samʿ wa-lā ṭāʿa). Living with the beadle on the synagogue premises were about fifteen of his relatives, who regarded him as the local boss (shaykh al-mawḍiʿ wa-ṣāḥib amr wa-nahy)." In the AIU letter, the sender describes what may be a further deterioration: "Only a few people... remain in the Babylonian congregation, and they are mainly indigents," as this sender witnessed for himself when he attended services on the previous Shabbat together with Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (called here Abū Saʿīd b. Abū Sahl Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif). Several additional communal officials from this period are mentioned in the letter. (Information mainly from Cohen, Self-Government, pp.254–56, and in part from Goitein’s index card.) Ed. Β. Chapira, Mélanges Hartwig Derenbourg (Paris, 1909), pp.121–30. Transcription awaiting digitization on PGP. Written on a "long daftar"–style bifolio, which is unusual for a letter, but not for drafts.

Letter from a man entitled “segan ha-yeshiva” to Aharon the Cantor. Dating: Possibly ca. 1035 CE, based on Goitein identification of the addressee with Aharon b. Efrayim, who is the addressee of T-S 8J33.1, ca. 1035 CE. The writer has been confined to his house with the remnants (baqiyya) of a serious illness (maraḍ ṣaʿb, alam, ʿillal). He cannot stand, and he can hardly write. He asks Aharon to bring the Nasi and Abu ʿAlī to treat his illness, and to go with Abū l-Khayr Mevorakh to collect money from 'aṣḥābunā' for a man in need and naked (insān mastūr wa-ʿaryān), i.e., himself. They are also to get a half dinar for the writer from Abū l-Ḥasan. Information in part from Goitein's note card. The scribe has cut and reused a classical Arabic text in calligraphic script with full diacritics and vowels. ASE.

Fragment of a draft letter in the name of the community of Fustat regarding the imposition of an excommunication, ca. 1035.

Letter in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya addressed to the Gaʾon [Shelomo] b. Yehuda. In Hebrew. Mentions a woman named [...] bt. Maḥfūẓ. Needs further examination.

Letter from Meir b. Naʿim to the community of Cairo/Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: Late 18th or early 19th century. Conveys a detailed story about Meir's toiling for the sake of acquiring etrogs for the community, perhaps in Jerusalem. There is some problem and he is requesting guidance or perhaps money. There is a dramatic story about wandering in the desert and being preyed on by robbers and drinking brackish water.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. The writer may mention being imprisoned (ḥabsī fī hādhihi l-muda), but this is uncertain without all the surrounding context.

Contract of sorts. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. Calligraphic. Dating: Late, possibly 18th or 19th century. All those who sign their names below seem to be committing to something, perhaps fasting and prayer, and there is a penalty of 10 silver pieces for whoever spends a night without [....]. Only the remnant of the name Refa'el is preserved at bottom.

Bifolium, probably from a literary compendium. Dating: Late, possibly 18th or 19th century. Two of the pages are a story about a female slave and a king—needs further examination. The other two pages are love spells in Judaeo-Arabic, apparently transcribed from Islamic/Arabic-script models, as one of them invokes the prophets Moses and Jesus(!).

Mysterious document. Perhaps a letter originally -- there is something that looks like an address, naming Abū l-Majd and Isḥāq(?) b. Shemuel. On the same side of the sheet, Shelomo b. Eliyyahu signed his name several times and copied out the beginning of a ketubba (under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides) in an unusual zigzag pattern. There are additional drafts of literary texts. On the other side there is biblical text, calligraphically written. ASE Shows evidence of having once been inside a book binding (glue traces on one side and patterns of discoloration). MR

Ownership notes in a codex, perhaps. On one side: Yaʿaqov b. Yehuda, then "It was transferred with a proper sale to the young man [...] b. Seʿadya b. [...]. The man's name and his grandfather's name are faded: possibilities include Ḥizqiya, Tiqva, Yaʿqūb, or other names entirely. On the other side: Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār and his brother Maḥfūẓ and his brother Abū l-Ḥasan al-Kātib and Abū l-Munajjā.

Fragment of a legal document in which the signature of Toviyya b. Daniel appears.

Letter of appeal for charity, probably. In Hebrew. Dating: Late, possibly 18th or 19th century. Very long-winded, and full of kabbalistic drashes about Satan and related matters.

Clockwise from upper left: (a) Small fragment in Arabic script, with two words in Judaeo-Arabic at the bottom (stuck on from an unrelated document). Likely from a letter: ...infādh dhālika...

Clockwise from upper left: (b) Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. At the top there is a list of names including Bū l-Ḥasan; Sitt [...]; Abū ʿAbdallāh b. Khodadād (likely the same as in ENA NS 71.6); [...] ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq (this is crossed out); [...] b. Yiṣḥaq; and Yūsuf b. Ayyūb ha-Levi. All these people had evidently gathered with Rosh ha-Qehillot, and then most of what ensued is lost; someone named Abū l-Barakāt is also involved.

Clockwise from upper left: (c) Legal fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Almost everything preserved is formulary.

Clockwise from upper left: (d) Small fragment in Arabic script, perhaps from a petition or draft: ...al-sāmī bi-faḍlihā...

Clockwise from upper left: (e) Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Yisraʾel b. Yosef. Has to do with a certain Zakkār.

This fragment is actually several fragments stuck together. In the lower right corner of 'recto,' at 90 degrees to the other text blocks, there is the upper right corner of a legal testimony in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, concerning ʿArūs al-Urjuwānī (the purple merchant), probably Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef and also [...] b. ʿAmram. Mentions Diyār al-Yaman (the lands of Yemen). All the fragments under the shelfmark AIU VIIA.38 were preserved in a book-binding.

This fragment is actually several fragments stuck together. Much of it consists of extensive business accounts of an India trader. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentioning many items of clothing and ʿAydhāb. There is also an imprint of an unrelated letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Much more of the text would likely emerge with proper conservation.