Geniza Lab

Legal document, Sunday 3 Adar II 4845 A.M. (1085), Alexandria. Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sighmar appoints Eli ha-Kohen b. Hayyim (=b. Yahya) as his agent to represent him in a litigation against a business partner, Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Faraj al-Rahbi. This is three years after Yehuda had asked Eli to help him to get the money that Avraham owed him and ten years after the original deal between the two. See also Bodl. MS heb. d 65/5 (ed. Cohen in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 56 [2013], pp. 218-263, also in Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #623).

India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; English to come)

Fragment of a letter to Efrayim b. Shemarya, likely from one of the Geonim of Palestine, possibly sent in the name of Shelomo b. Yehuda, as Efrayim is titled "ḥaver" here. The letter was written after the holidays of Tishrei, and the writer reports that they did their best to follow Efrayim's request and organized a pesiqa for somebody. Information from Elinoar Bareket via FGP.

Magical spells, 1 for arousing love (tahayyuj) and 1 for binding someone's tongue (ʿaqd lisān). Probably in the hand of Abū Sahl Levi (see tag). They are written in charming style ("may the love of X settle on the heart of Y, like the shade on an apple, like rose wafting fragrance" followed by a racy blazon; the next one, "may God make you an ass").

Engagement (shiddukhin) contract for a second wife. Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. 1165–66 CE, as the reshut clause invokes the Gaʾon Netanʾel ha-Levi (1160–66) and the document is written in the hand of the court scribe Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active 1165–1203). Manṣūr b. Makārim of Bilbays, already the husband of a woman named ʿAmāʾim, came before the court (probably in Fustat or Cairo) together with Abū Naṣr b. Abū Saʿīd, the half-brother (shared mother) of a woman named Maʿālī. Together the two men agree on the conditions for Manṣūr's marriage to Maʿālī. (1) Maʿālī will have her own apartment, not shared with ʿAmāʾim. (2) Manṣūr will not take a third wife. (3) Maʿālī will live with Manṣūr's daughter Milāḥ, likely the daughter of ʿAmāʾim (Goitein speculated that ʿAmāʾim must have suffered from a physical or mental illness preventing her from taking care of her own daughter). (4) Marriage payments: 2 + 15 = 17 dinars. (Information from M. A. Friedman's edition.)

Letter from Avraham, son of the Gaon, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1029.

Letter from Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver, in Fustat, to Petahya b. ʿOvadya ha-Kohen, in Damascus. Almost entirely in rhymed Hebrew with one sentence in Judaeo-Arabic in the margin of verso. Dated: Ḥeshvan 1453 Seleucid, which is October/November 1141 CE. Natan complains that his junior school friend has not written to him for a long time. He also conveys his greetings to Petahya's family. Natan's sons Mevorakh, Seʿadya, and Yehosef send their greetings. Natan concludes with a request for pens. Goitein summarizes this document as follows (Med Soc V, p. 294): "Judge Natan b. Shemuel he-ḥaver (Med. Soc, II, 513, sec. 18) served as secretary of the Damascus branch of the Jerusalem yeshiva, but accompanied Maṣliaḥ Gaon, when he opened a Cairene branch in 1127. In a letter from Fustat, dated October/November 1141, Natan complained bitterly about the addressee, Petahyahu ha-Kohen, a close companion of his youth, and two other friends in Damascus, from whom he had not received letters for years. True, in 1141 the Crusaders' kingdom separated Damascus from Egypt. But we know that Jews and Muslims were permitted to travel through the Christian territory, and our letter reports the arrival of a dignitary from Damascus carrying an eloquent epistle to the Egyptian Nagid written by Natan's friend Petahyahu. Natan does not complain about the Crusaders. He accuses Time: 'I complain about Time, the perfidious, the faithless, which disregards the claims of brotherhood and impedes its growing; it weakens and emaciates the love of friends. This is its character from its very beginning, incessantly urging separation, the treacherous robber! . . . It changed your relationship with me, you, my friend and beloved, whom I have reared on my knees, until I made you my equal.'"

Letter from Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq to Shelomo b. Yehuda ha-Kohen (also called ha-Talmid ha-Navon Segan ha-Kohanim). In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter begins with condolences upon the death of the addressee's cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū Isḥāq. It seems that the addressee was owed money by the deceased and that the addressee has been mistreated by the people of the Rīf, such as Ibn Yeshuʿa. The sender has paid a sum of money (brokerage? שמשאר) to Abū Saʿd b. Hiba(?) and awaits confirmation of receipt. He has received news from travelers about trouble with the judge (qāḍī) of Tyre and a certain amir (אלקטורי). The Nagid intervened to help resolve the situation. The lower part of the letter is missing.

Legal declaration, missing its beginning, inolving several Bibles (maṣāḥif), the speaker's brother Abū Saʿīd, abū l-Barakāt al-Ḥazzan, and Abū l-Makārim al-Levi. The original document is signed by Avraham ha-Kohen b. Aharon and ʿOvadya b. ʿŪlla. The addendum is signed by Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya, Elʿazar b. Mikha'el, and Mevorakh b. Natan ha-Ḥaver (active 1150–81).

Fragment of a letter from Nāshī b. Thābit ha-Kohen to Yosef ha-Levi he-ḥaver b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi (Fustat), ca. 1084-1090. Nāshī b. Thābit sends his gratitude to “the distinguished Rav”, probably Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yosef, who was behind the assistance received by Nāshī. Nāshī b. Thābit writes that he is “sitting on coals” because he is unable to attend a wedding owing to the blockade of the town in which he lives. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Zinger, Women, Gender and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents of the Cairo Geniza (PhD thesis, Princeton, 2014), pp. 408-410.) Arabic trials of the pen on verso.

Legal query from Shelomo b. Yaṣliaḥ to the Sahlān b. Barhūn ha-Ḥaver (titled Rosh Kalla). It is a veiled complaint about a cantor, clad in a carefully worded series of questions about the desirability of a hindrance to public prayer, especially when the latter is improperly conducted. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yosef and Nahum, sons of Sahl ha-Bardani, Tyre, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. He mentions the sale of a new Bible for 13 dinars.

Mid-11th-century letter from Umm Faḍā'il, a widow in Fustat, to a family friend, Abū Zikrī b. Yosef (Yehuda b. Yosef Rosh ha-Seder), in the West. The letter deals with her son Fakhr's intended travel to Sicily. She requests that the addresee assist him. She mentions a power of attorney document that she gave to her son, so that he will dispose of their remaining property in Sicily. She also mentions an ongoing divorce of her daughter. Information from Ben-Sasson's edition via FGP.

Letter from Abu Zikri Kohen, representative of the Merchants in Fustat, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Aden. Dated: Adar I 1448 Seleucid = January/February 1134 CE. He writes that after Ḥalfon traveled to India and returned to Aden, the people in Egypt expected him to return home. But then merchants arrived in Egypt from Aden and reported that he was staying there. Previously Ḥalfon had deposited a quantity of pepper in Aden, which he had purchased for Abū Zikrī. He had already written to Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov concerning the prices of oriental goods in Egypt, and there was a similar list in the hands of the Egyptian merchant Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, who was then working in Aden. Abu Zikri urges Ḥalfon to buy goods in Aden and return to Egypt. However, if Ḥalfon wishes to return to India, Abu Zikri asks him to leave the pepper in the hands of Yosef b. Avraham, because this is already the third year that Abu Zikri cannot travel to Yemen. According to Abu Zikri, Ḥalfon's previous trip to India was unnecessary. Had he bought goods in Yemen and returned to Egypt in that year he would have made a good profit, for even the young and inexperienced merchants at that time in Egypt made immense profits from the goods they bought in Yemen. At the end of the letter, there are greetings to Ḥalfon from his family and the writer and a request to greet the important people of Aden and to help Abu Nasr b. Avraham. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from a synagogue dignitary to a donor. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: early 13th century (during the period of Eliyyahu the Judge and Avraham Maimonides). Concerning the restoration of a Bible codex called al-Jāmiʿ, "the brother of the codex called the Tāj (i.e., the Aleppo Codex," which was in need of restoration and could not be replaced even for 100 dinars. "For work requiring special skills, the usually low tariffs would not do. An ancient model codex of the whole Bible, which had been written, it seems, in the ninth century and was the property of the synagogue of the Palestinians in Old Cairo, needed to be restored at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Three experts were invited for the task, but declared themselves unable to carry it out, for "the resurrection of the dead is more difficult than bringing a human being into existence." Finally, a fourth scribe undertook the restoration of sixty particularly bad leaves, for which he asked a compensation of 1 dirham per leaf. This demand, as stated in the document, was far more than expected. (Information from Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society II, p. 239, note 52.) Ed. S.D. Goitein, “New Documents from the Cairo Geniza,” in Homenaje: Millás-Vallicrosa, vol. 1 (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1954), 713–16, 719–20.

Two lists of partly identical persons, the first without, the second with sums, ranging from 1 through 11 dirhams and 1/4 dinar. The first list comprises fourty persons, of these some scholars, others foreigners or persons in inferior positions, such as employees or gatekeepers. These lists were probably prepared for the capitation tax, the second list indicating perhaps the sums still due, to be paid by the community if the persons concerned were unable to pay. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 2, p. 454, no. 54.)

Letter from Eli Ha-Mumhe b. Avraham, Jerusalem, to Efrayim He-Ḥaver b. Shemarya, Fustat, approximately 1045.

Recto: "The remainder of an epistle to an important dignitary. The first four lines preserved are in verse but the metre is very faulty. . . The person thus eulogized was evidently a Levite and was influential at the court" (Mann). The writer prays that he will find favor in the eyes of the king, the deputy, the ladies of the court, the eunuchs, the ministers, the nobles, and all who see him. Verso: Targum of Samuel.

Letter from Ṣedaqa b. Aharon (?) the druggist to Abū Saʿīd the druggist, ordering materia medica, including, fine Iraqi saffron; aloe wood (ʿūd); aged camphor (kāfūr); Iraqi turpeth (turbid); Iraqi sulfur (kibrīt); and something Hamadānī (?). He adds a recommendation for the bearer ('from a good family') in a postscript. ASE.

Letter from Shelomo, a ritual slaughterer in al-Maḥalla, to the judge Zakkay (probably the father of Shelomo b. Zakkay who was active in the period of Maimonides). The sender feared losing his job for having only memorized a handbook on his profession, instead of studying the sources, when a new judge, Menaḥem, arrived in al-Maḥalla. Verso is covered with various jottings, including the possible date of arrival of the letter: 12 Ḥeshvan 1462 Seleucid, which is 3 October 1150 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card and Friedman's article on Zuta, pp. 484–85.)