Geniza Lab

Legal document. In the hand of Yefet b. David. Location: Fustat. Dated: Monday, 3 Nisan [47]88 AM, which is 1 April 1028 CE. Barhūn b. Sahlān receives from Menashshe b. Yosef 30 gold dinars (זהובים טובים), to be paid back in installments of three dinars a month. As security he empowers him to [something]. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Debt contract. Location: Fustat. Dating: First decade of Kislev 1462 Seleucid, which is 1150 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. According to which a debt of 4 dinars, 19 qīrāṭs, and 454 dirhams, resulting from a sale, is to be repaid in weekly installment of 50 dirhams. beginning on Sunday 5 Kislev 1150 CE. The debtor seems to be Sayyid al-Kull b. Shabbetay ha-Shofeṭ ha-Mumḥe. The creditor is Abū Isḥāq. Witnesses: Yeshuʿa b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Yeshuʿa b. Ḥotam ha-Levi. On verso there are entries of repayments: 5 repayments of 1 dinar each and 11 repayments of 40 dirhams. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Contract. Location: Fustat. Dated: 2[.] Ḥeshvan 1352 Seleucid, which is 1040 CE. In which Yiṣḥaq b. Seʿadya al-Manbijī agrees to teach Fahd ha-Levi the liturgy in evening courses to be continued over a period of 3 years. Witnesses: Shabbat b. Elʿazar; Natan b. Yeshuʿa; Maṣliaḥ b. Shemuel; Efrayim b. Shemarya. Also concerns figures from a town in the Nile delta. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel ha-Levi, in Alexandria, to Yiṣḥaq Ibn ʿEzra, in Spain. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter deals with the death of Ḥalfon's brother and other notables and the series of disasters that struck Ḥalfon and the community. Dating: probably January 1140 CE (though Goitein originally believed it to be 1129 CE, he later revised his dating and Friedman agrees). (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV.) Goitein summarizes the letters as follows: "A perfect picture of the influence of emotions on physical and mental health is found in the long letter written by the noble India trader Ḥalfon b. Netanel nine months after his return to Egypt from a long sojourn in Spain. As expected from a man like him, he dedicates the first twenty lines to the praise of his gracious and learned hosts, whom he so greatly missed. Then he goes on to bemoan one after another the disasters that disturbed his mind: civil war, anarchy, the high cost of living in Egypt, the death of the Head of the Jerusalem Academy (which then had its seat in Cairo) and of several luminaries of the Jewish spiritual and social upper crust; hardly had the months of mourning for those passed when Halfon's misfortune was topped by the demise of his eldest brother, who was the president of the Jewish High Court of Justice. He found himself unable to act, even to supervise the unloading of his goods, and let the perishables rot. During his long stay in Alexandria his body and soul never enjoyed full health, but he was also unable to bring himself to go up to Cairo: how could he visit the place vacated by his brother? Family and friends came down to Alexandria to induce him to return home, but he did not find in himself nahḍa, energy, to do so. For this reason, he was also not in a position to send to his friends in Spain (mostly physicians) the pharmaceutical plants promised, for these were to be had only in the capital (the terminal of the India trade), not in the Mediterranean port. Nor for the time being was he in a frame of mind to continue writing the learned discussions that were started during his sojourn in Spain. He concludes with a refined twist; he really did not want to send this letter but he was overcome by yearning for his Spanish friends, and asks them, considering his state of mind, to overlook his shortcomings in style and script (in that order)." (Goitein, Med Soc V, pp. 243–44.)

Recto: Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: November 1076. Manṣūr b. Khalaf al-Ṣūrī (from Tyre) will partner with Yefet b. Avraham and Shelomo b. Avraham for one year, beginning in the month of Ṭevet in 1388. Goitein suggests that the three were involved in minting, on the basis of another document which shows a relationship between Yefet and Manṣūr in the sifting of gold dust. Here, Manṣūr is prohibited from traveling or mentioning travel or even expressing a wish to see his family – perhaps his partners are afraid that he will abscond with the gold used in minting? – if he does so, he must pay 20 dinars to the poor, a standard penalty clause. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 36-37) Verso: Unidentified document in Arabic script. Mentions "al-kātib ... al-ishrāf(?) Muḥammad b. Ḥammūd al-Qāḍī." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and attached notes.)

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim (Misr) to Abu Ishaq Barhūn b. Salih at-Tahirti (Busir).

Letter from Musa b. Abi al-Hayy, from Alexandria, to Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti. Around 1045. The situation in Alexandria is very complicated. The writer mentions details about shipments of goods. Contains a copy of a receipt for goods that Alal b. Nahray b. Natan sent to Fustat. Mentions details about the process of weaving and bleaching linen. )Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #458) VMR

Fragment of a letter from an imprisoned government official. 12th century.

Letter from Eli Ha-Kohen B. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to two persons in Ramla.

India Book I, 17: Letter from Yehuda Ibn Sighmar, at Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, at Fustat, from the year 1097. The letter contains three parts: First, blessings over Nahray's recovery from illness. Second, a survey of the dealings between Yehuda and Nahray, the details of which remain unclear. Third, the lawsuit of Moshe b. Labrat, the nephew of Yehuda, against Yosef Lebdi. Yehuda, the writer of the letter, was the intended recipient of the gift that Moshe b. Labrat sent with Lebdi from the west. It is clear that this letter was written before the first court session was held.

Letter preceded by a Hebrew poem consisting of three verses, from Shemuel b. Moshe to Abū al-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf Yehosef (Manbij), the tax-farmer of the local market and judge of the Jews, who is also addressed as head of the congregation (rosh ha-qahal). The writer asks whether the addressee and the community still cling to their resolution or have changed their mind – which was nothing to be ashamed of. Includes many greetings. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 2, p. 75.)

Letter from a son to his father; same writer and addressee as T-S 10J7.3 and T-S 13J21.13 and T-S 13J21.14. He reports that Abū Isḥāq has recovered from an illness; that he has sent several garments; mentions Abū l-Ḥasan and Abū l-Faraj; mentions potash (ushnān) in the upper margin; and mentions Sitt Abū l-Ḥusayn in the closing greetings. ASE.

Legal document. Power of attorney given by Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Yeshuʿa known as Ibn Nissim to his nephew, to claim various ornaments and sums from three different people. Monday 4 Kislev 1125. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Probably 1063. Natan wrote the letter 10 days before Passover. The writer is upset because a deal (probably for spices and beads) did not go as expected. He blames Abu Zikri b. Menashshe. Also mentions a matter of inheritance in the Tahirti family. The writer’s son was sick and his sight was impaired. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #426) VMR

Legal document in Hebrew demanding a punishment of excommunication and three days of house arrest for Sabyan b. Saadya who libelled his kinsman Yosef b. Perahya as being a descendant of slaves. Fustat, 1043.

Letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat, ca. 1060

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Hagay, Fustat.

Awaiting description

Court record, 1039. Banīna bt. Avraham in Alexandria, who had been deserted by her husband Yosef, appointed her brother Shelomo as her attorney. Accompanied by two witnesses to this arrangement, the brother appeared before Efrayim b. Shemarya’s court in Fustat, where the power of attorney was ratified. The brother appointed a cantor and clerk of the court as his sister’s permanent representative. Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below, Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 203.)

Copy of a court record from the Pumbedita Yeshiva under Sharira Gaon, October 997. The event was in Baghdad and the copy was made in Fustat with the signatures of two people from Fustat. Regarding a will and inheritance. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #29) VMR