Geniza Lab

Letter of condolence on the death of a woman. From an unidentified sender, probably in Qūṣ, to Abū l-Karam and his son Abū Isḥāq b. al-[...], in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The sender was staying in the funduq of Ibn al-Muṭiyy (בן אלמטי) in Qūṣ. There is also a deceased man, as the sender writes in the margin of recto that "your letters distract me from reading the letters of the deceased man (al-marḥūm)." Verso contains greetings to and from various people, including to Fakhr al-Dawla. In the margin of verso, he asks the addressee to forward a letter to the wife (? ṣāḥiba) of Ibrāhīm b. Amīn al-Mulk, one of the Yemeni traders "who burned in the ill-omened funduq." ASE

Recto: Letter in Arabic script. This is a long, dense, and well-preserved mercantile letter. Needs examination. (Information in part from Goitein's note card)

Verso: Four (?) interesting accounts in Arabic script, one mentioning "wāṣil al-ḍamān". Dated: Jumādā II 513 AH, which is September 1119 CE. (Information from Goitein's note card.) Ed. Rabie.

Petition from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. [...] to Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin). In Arabic script. Has a tarjama at the upper left; 4 lines of introductory blessings; a report and request (wa-yunhī ilā.... anā rajul min ahl al-[...]... iḥṣānuhu maʿa l-khāṣṣ wa-l-ʿāmm... ); and a concluding ra'y clause and ḥamdala and ṣalawāt. Needs further examination for the content of the request. (Information in part from Zain Shirazi.)

Recto: the remnants of two lines of an Arabic chancery document with wide spacing, probably a decree. The first line reads as "من حياطة دينه واظهره لدولته من", the second line has a fragmentary ṣalwala. Verso: a whole page of Arabic that appears to be from a literary composition or prayer. The fourth line from the bottom reads من مشرق الارض ومغربها وسهلها وجبلها وبرها وبحرها ومع ذلك... (from east to west, from plains to mountains, from land to sea, and even so...). ASE, YU.

Excerpt of letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to the Ḥaver in Fustat, probably Eli b. Amram, ca. 1060.

Legal document in Arabic script. A contract made before a Muslim notary, in which the proprietor of a Nubian slave promises to pay to the Jewish physician Makārim b. Isḥāq b. Makārim an honorarium for the successful treatment of the slave's left eye (June, 1245)—how much is not said. The fee perhaps depended on the degree of satisfaction of the contractor. The idea that payment should be made to a physician only after successful treatment is as old as the Codex Hammurabi (paragraphs 215 ff.), and presumably much older. Med Soc II, 257, 580.

On recto, the bottom of a letter (official letter? formulary?) in Arabic script. The writer thanks the addressee in the concluding lines quoting two verses of poetry that are commonly quoted to express gratitude - ولو أنني أوتيت كل بلاغة*وأفنيت بحر النطق في النظم والنثر لما كنت بعد القول إلا مقصرا*ومعترفا بالعجز عن واجب الشكر On verso, two lines of poetry in Arabic script headed by a basmala on the theme of love for the addressee. Needs further examination.

Letter in elegant Arabic script and style. "Waṣala kitābukā muwaddiʿan(?) min jawāhiri alfāẓihī wa-sharīf khiṭāb mā anʿama fī.... wa-hāja lāʿiju ishtiyāqī wa-lawʿatī..." The continuation seems to be praising the eloquence of the addressee, and it may cite a line or two poetry at the bottom. Needs examination.

Letter from Ḥananel (حاننال), it seems in Tyre (recto, l. 3), to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. In Arabic script. A vertical strip from the left side of the letter is missing. The sender mentions the arrival of a suftaja (money order) against Abū l-Faraj Mūsā; mentions Abū l-Faḍl Kātib al-Jaysh (in Tyre?); and around here the thread becomes difficult to follow. Needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Petition from al-Ḥasan b. Abū Saʿd probably to a vizier (several of the titles are similar to those of Ṭalāʾiʿ Ibn Ruzzīk). He complains of his poverty and weak state and seems to be asking for protection against the behaviors of the brokers in the drug/perfume trade in Fustat, who have cornered the market and are preventing merchants from doing business with the petitioner. On verso there is the qiddush for Passover in large 'childish' letters. (Information in part from Goitein's index card, MR, ASE.)

Receipt for 120 dīnārs from the account of ʿArūs b. Yūsuf for a shipment of purple dye or cloth (argaman) (information from Aodeh).

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat), ca. 1055, sent as an addendum to an earlier letter, which has not been identified. Nissim b. Ḥalfon sends rose water and raisins, enquires about textiles prices and asks Nahray to sell the silk (lāsīn) that he had sent to Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 960.) Informs Nahray that the fleet of ships that sailed from Tyre is expected to arrive this week. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Two pages of accounts of transportation. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Mid-11th century. On one side, there are apparently the writing exercises of a schoolboy: he copied the name Ḥalfon b. Ghālib al-Ḥazzan 7 times, then lost patience and wrote ק about 15 times. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Accounts and/or contributions list. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, perhaps ~16th century. Headed: "what remains of ... the donation." Dozens of names are listed with numbers underneath. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

A curious late fragment in an uneven scribal hand and imperfect Hebrew. "I heard from the Rav Yeḥiel Adhan, from the inhabitants of Sale, that he went to Tetouan and found there a letter that had fallen into the hand (or was written in the hand?) of the Rav the divine kabbalist Yehuda ha-Levi ZHLH, and this is what is written exactly, letter by letter and word by word, just as I found it." The year 1784/5 CE (5545) is mentioned - perhaps this is the year Rav Yeḥiel found the letter - and then, "upon it is written in the following language, in the Holy Tongue, in letters of gold." The oracle reads "In the year 1820/1 (5581) there will be wars between the gentiles and the Roman Caesar. In the year 1829/30 (5590) there will be wars between three nations, Africa, A[na?]tolia, France. In the year 1830/31 (5591), the Afifo the Roman Rav, i.e., the Pope...." The fragment abruptly ends here. ASE.

Recto: State report. 4 lines preserved. Mentions "Bū Kalījār the king of Ahwāz," probably identical with the Buyid Amir Abū Kālījār Marzubān in Persia (d. 1048). (Ahwāz is the capital of Khuzestan province in present-day Iran.) The document reports on a wazīr who arrived from Abū Kālījār and somebody who reached the province of Wāsiṭ. Three delegates (of the Turks?) went to greet him; he displeased them, and they in turn ill-treated him. Abū Kālijār is believed to have fostered very close ties with the Fatimid chief Dāʿī and courtier al-Muaʾyyad al-Shīrāzī in Persia, prior to his arrival to Egypt (See al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī, Sīrat al-Muʾayyad fī l-dīn Dāʿī l-Duʿāt). Needs further examination. YU.

Verso: List of names in Judaeo-Arabic along with a number of garments for each person. Records of a tailor or launderer? ASE.

Letter from a judge to Avraham Maimonides, reporting about a case that came before him in Adar I 1529 Seleucid (which is 1218 CE). About 32 lines, partly effaced but mostly legible. There are 6 lines of (autograph) response in Avraham's hand, but these are mostly torn away or effaced. Mentions people including Ismāʿīl b. Maʿālī and Abū l-Ḥassan al-Levi and someone's first return from the Levant. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: a medical prescription in Arabic for ʿAlī b. [..]Allah. Verso: scribal practice in Hebrew. ASE.