Geniza Lab

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic mercantile letter in the hand of Ismaʿīl b. Yosef b. Abī ʿUqba, who also wrote T-S 13J29.9 (from Palermo, ca. 1030 CE, to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal in Fusṭāṭ). In both letters, Nissim b. Rabīʿ sends his regards. Written on parchment.

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter "to my brother not from my mother," with some Arabic writing at top as well. Not much of the substance is discernible; the writer mentions "the children of al-Makīn" and later on a request he made of al-Shaykh al-Ma[kīn]. Looks like a 13th or 14th c hand (?).

A much damaged letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, probably writing from Qalyub, to a family member, probably his father in Fustat. He has sent some money with the bearer and gives very detailed instructions for the drugs to be bought with it--including from which stall and which vendor--such as pomegranate seeds from al-Mahallah and a rhubarb-barberry concoction. On verso he asks his family to send him something that has to do with R. Moshe, plausibly a fatwa that he had sent for Maimonides to answer (such as T-S 10K8.3 + T-S 8K13.8, in his handwriting); or it is just someone else named R. Moshe. He brings up a man named Isma'il from al-Mahallah, known as Ibn al-Mu'allim; at the end he encourages the recipient to treat this Isma'il well, because he is poor and a stranger and from a good family. Isma'il has a notebook stashed with a man named Ibn al-[[rubbed out]], and the recipient is meant to retrieve it and find the chapters having to do with love [spells?]. The recipient is then to "do them" to various women in the family of Moshe's paternal uncle (so the brother of the likely recipient) including the uncle's wife, his mother, and her daughter (=Moshe's wife?). This reading is uncertain. But other letters of Moshe survive about his sometimes problematic relationship with his wife and also about domestic problems in his paternal uncle's family. Perhaps this is a novel effort to bring peace to the family (and/or try to make his wife desire him). ASE

Accounts (?) divided by horizontal lines. 11th c (?), written on parchment, thus Sicilian?

Fragment (bottom half) of a Judaeo-Arabic letter saying, "May God provide" and "do not delay its sale" and "the flax and garment have arrived." The writer sends regards to his sister and father and Abū Isḥāq al-Rūmī. Abū Saʿīd and Abū l-Faraj send their regards. ASE.

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves [...] b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen. Probably a deed of sale, since most of the remaining text is describing the boundaries of a property in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ.

Recto and verso contain two different letters to "sayyidnā" from a certain dour Menaḥem. The one on recto is more legible. He says that he met with al-Nushū' (?) the aide of the accountant (muʿīn al-mustawfī). Menaḥem asks for instructions regarding what to do following the arrival of the superintendent (nāẓir) and the accountant and the workers and encourages the addressee, sayyidinā, to come himself. The synagogue is in danger and surrounded by evildoers. It is tempting, but there is no proof, to surmise that Menaḥem was a caretaker of the synagogue at Dammūh. T-S 6J5.14 (dated 1340/41 CE) may be related: it is partly about Dammūh and partly about the trouble a certain Menaḥem has been giving the writer. Another small point of similarity is that both writers invoke the convention of being shy/shamefaced about saying something to sayyidinā ("istaḥaytu min sayyidinā" & "wa-l-mamlūk khajlān min sayyidinā").

Legal fragment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. He wrote this quickly, not with his careful handwriting. The text on recto is a formulary or draft of some kind, since it refers to 'pelonit' instead of a particular woman's name. Mentions an agent; a man named Aharon b. Yeshuʿa, who may have given a sum of money to a woman and been released from all claims; and a sum of 26 dinars. Little of the text is preserved on verso, but the name R. Aharon appears.

Recto: Fragment (lower left corner) of a Judaeo-Arabic legal document involving division of money between Abū l-Faḍl, Yaʿaqov, and Abū l-Ḥasan. Verso: Fragment (lower left corner) of a page of piyyutim. Both sides are probably in the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi.

Lower part of a fragment of rhymed lines in colloquial Judaeo-Arabic ("fī kull ḥāra... wa-kathura al-shaṭāra... laqad jā' khaḍāra...") The penultimate line mentions al-kanīs wa-bayt al-midrash and the final line reads, "All say." So some kind of call and response?

Letter fragment to a certain ḥaver ("... ba-sanhedrin gedolah...") describing the writer's financial distress. He also provides a recommendation for the bearer of the letter, who is in still greater distress from the capitation tax and is intending to travel to al-Shām and needs help. There is a postscript implying that the recipient or someone in his family is sick or in distress and conveying the writer's worry.

Recto: Informal note in difficult Arabic script, scrawled basmala on top, possibly a memorandum to do with land tenure? Needs further examination. Verso: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic from a sick man to his son's teacher informing him that his son behaves outrageously and needs to be disciplined. "A teacher must tell the boy if he tries to leave, 'Don't go around to the houses and the markets.' The gist of the matter is that if the boy comes this Friday afternoon and if he behaves thus (?) at that time, please inform me in your response to this note, in large Hebrew letters, because I am sick (wajiʿ), prostrated beneath my bed (or bedcovers? rāqid taḥt al-firāsh). Uncover his legs and give him a good beating." Perhaps the note on recto is from the teacher, and the man had a hard time reading it, so asked for the next one to be in Hebrew script?

Fragment (upper right corner) of Judaeo-Arabic letter to a judge. The writer expresses his concern about the addressee's illness. He seems to describe traveling through the Rif and arriving in Alexandria.

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic to al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, perhaps begging for charity. Mentions necessity/want (al-ḍurūra) several times and concludes with, "I have no one who bestows favor (muḥsin mutafaḍḍil) like you." Verso: Lists of names in Arabic. Musā... Mufaḍḍal... ʿAbdallāh... Ibrahīm Shammūl (?)... Sulaymān Ibn [ ]... Tawfīq Ibn Saʿīd.

Letter from the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov probably addressed to Ḥananel b. Shemuel. In Hebrew. Probably related to the same communal controversy described in T-S Misc.36.176.

Letter, possibly from the physician Abu Zikri (identification based on handwriting and style), to unidentified addressees "who are to me like my parents." Fragment. The writer excuses himself for being unable to fulfill a duty on account of his ophthalmia (ramad). He sends regards to "the noble physicians" Seʿadya, Sar Shalom, Yehuda ha-Ḥazzān, Moshe, and Yaʿqūb and ʿAbdūn and their little brother. He closes with good wishes for the high holy days and begs the addressees to forget all rancor against him, "for how close is the death of man . . . The measure of a friend is how he bears the pain (or offenses, ḍarar) of his friend." The transcription is tentative in several places. Merits further examination. ASE.

Enigmatic fragment (letter? literary composition?) in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs further examination.

Small fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the pressing [of the grapes?] and a haver and a sale of something.

Letter in Hebrew (left side only) in a beautiful scribal handwriting from a man who was among the great men of Constantinople until the wheel of fortune turned on him, and now he has come to [Egypt] and begs for help since he has heard that the addressee is a generous man.

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter, perhaps a draft only because the text abruptly breaks off on verso. The text on recto is almost entirely formulaic. On verso, the subject may have to do with a tax or payment owed (yarsum ʿalayya... fa-in wazantu...). Abū l-Faḍā'il is mentioned.