Geniza Lab

Legal document. Location: Ṣahrajt. Dated: Monday, 11 Kislev 1372 Seleucid, which is 1060 CE. Ḥarīza b. Abraham appoints Mevorakh b. Abraham (most likely her brother) as her agent to receive a bill of divorce from her husband Ṣadaqa b. Ṭayyib. Written and signed by Yehuda b. Avraham, who also wrote T-S 13J13.2 and ENA 2465.8–9. Also signed by: Ḥalfon b. Shelomo; Ṣadaqa b. Furqān. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Business letter from the North African merchant Benāya b. Mūsā (Alexandria) to Shelomo b. Mevorakh (Fustat), containing inter alia information about the movement of ships and referring to several India traders. Benāya b. Mūsā asks his correspondent to intercede on his behalf with head of the Jews Mevorakh b. Saʿadya, seeking the latter’s assistance in arbitrating a dispute to which the merchant’s son was a party. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, pp. 238n96 and 250-251.)

Letter from Yaʿaqov the physician, possibly in Granada, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Almeria. Dating: 1138–39 CE. Same sender as T-S 13J17.22. The sender says that he assuages his longing for Ḥalfon by singing his praises in private and in public. This letter is primarily a recommendation for the poet Abū Ayyūb b. Sahl. Apparently the three men—Ḥalfon, Yaʿaqov, and Abū Ayyūb—had all been traveling companions until they parted ways in Almeria. After Abū Ayyūb returned to his hometown, he composed a panegyric for Ḥalfon. It was originally attached to this letter but has not survived (or at least not been found). Greetings to Yosef Ibn ʿEzra and Avraham b. Muʿṭī of Tilimsān. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Avraham b. Abū l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria, to his brother Musa, probably in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1075 CE. 10th of Elul, a few weeks after the death of the writer's father. Avraham writes that Abū l-Ḥayy died after his ~6-month illness. Avraham writes that his expenses amounted to 25 dinars. He had to give his turban as collateral; and he still owes 32 dirhams to various parties (r12–14). Avraham complains to Mūsā that ʿAllūn, who was in charge of the money of the family, refused to disburse any money without word from Mūsā, and then covered only a small part of the expenditure after Abū l-Najm Hilāl had intervened in the writer's favor. Avraham needs more money to pay the debts and expenses. Information from Gil, Kingdom, III, p. 574. ASE.

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Aharon ha-Kohen to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān b. Yaʿīsh ha-Kohen, a parnas. It is a letter of recommendation for the conjuncturally poor bearer (min ahl al-satr) who is worthier than others to receive charity because of the depradations of time. The writer also sends regards to the addressee's son Abū Kathīr, also a parnas. ASE.

Legal document written by Shemuel b. Saadya ha-Levi, specifying the estate of the deceased Avraham b. Abu al-Karam, the perfumer. Dated Adar 1514/ March 1203. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 412, and from Goitein's index cards)

Extremely polite business letter dealing with a consignment caraway dispatched from Fustat. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 340, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Abu Zikri the physician (in Jerusalem?) to his father Eliyyahu the judge in Fustat. Abu Zikri is terribly worried that he will die before seeing his father again, and he begs his father to forgive his offenses. He has sent many letters already with the same purpose. Apart from a hidden illness that he cannot divulge in a letter lest it fall into the hands of his enemies, he suffers from a weak liver, an enlarged spleen, indigestion, lack of appetite, and fatigue with the smallest exertion. He only goes to the market once or twice a week to obtain necessaries, and even that is with difficulty. ASE.

Details of estate for an orphan girl and her mother (possibly with other accounts?). Contains information about persons who owed debts to her father. The dirham:dinar exchange rate at this time was 42.9 (322 dirhams = 7.5 dinars). Many names are listed: Abū Isḥāq; Salāma; Ibn al-Sukkarī; Hiba; Abū Kathīr; Bū Zikrī: Ḥakīm and his brother-in-law; Abū Manṣūr Ibn al-Tūzī; Elḥanan; Yeḥezqel; Ibn Nuṣayr; Abū Manṣūr; Ibn Mujayn. The list is followed by notes in two different hands, both distinct from the main hand. The list is introduced by an Arabic-script note: jābī al-ishrāf(?) [...]. On verso there are several notes in Arabic script, including one headed "Dīwān al-Kharāj." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Calligraphic letter sent by a young cantor to his brother. The sender was away from home successfully seeking an appointment in another town and expresses genuine love for his little girl he calls Sitt al-Bayt. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 229)

Letter from Fustat to Sadoq Ha-Levi b. Levi, head of the Palestinian yeshiva. Ca. 1030

List of functionaries from the Babylonian synagogues of Fustat and Cairo eligible for funds from the community.

Letter from Avraham b. Ḥabīb, in Alexandria, to Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Goitein's attached notes include discussions of how this letter was likely copied by a scribe (an unskilled and careless scribe, in his view). The letter opens with congratulations on the engagement of Abū Zikrī’s son, blessings for a successful wedding, and a request for confirmation of this happy news. It continues with the news that a Byzantine (Rūmī) ship arrived from al-Mahdiyya. The sender reports that all is well with the ship of Nājī. There is no news from the Maghrib except that Ibn Maymūn set out with 17 ships in the great wilderness(? maybe בר is an error for בחר, and this simply means Mediterranean). He hopes that the government's ships will arrive soon. He learned that the Byzantines plundered large sums of money from the Jewish traders when they arrived in Sicily. The victims who made it to Alexandria wish to receive a letter (or document? kitāb) from 'sayyidnā al-qāḍī' and go up with it to Cairo (seeking redress against the Byzantines?). See Goitein's attached notes for transcription and further discussion.

Letter from Ya’qūb b. Ismāʿīl al-Andalusī, Sicily, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1065. Mentions cinnamon, silk and linen; Abū l-Surūr b. Avraham Ibn Sighmar; the ship of Abū Abdallāh (Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ); the demand for Byzantine coins; and the passing of the Jewish judge of Palermo Maṣliaḥ b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #576) VMR

Letter from Moshe b. Yefet/Ḥasan to the ḥaver ʿEli b. ʿAmram. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting that Mufarrij b. Ḥusayn b. Shuʿayb appointed Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Yosef b. ʿAbdallāh over his business affairs abroad. It is not immediately clear if this was a will or merely an appointment of an agent. The six witnesses to the appointment: Wuhayb b. Ḥasan; Efrayim b. Abū Yaʿqūb; Ṣāʿid b. [...]; [...] b. Sulaymān; Moshe b. Ḥasan (the scribe of this letter); and Shelomo b. Ḥasan. On verso (apart from the completion of the letter and the address), there are two additional validations, confirming that the sender of the letter, Moshe b. Yefet, came and confirmed that the letter was in his own handwriting. The first is written and signed by Zarʿa b. ʿAmram and the second by Yaḥyā(?) b. ʿAmram ha-Levi. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Salama b. Nissim b. Ishaq al-Barki, from Busir, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1053. The writer is in Busir for the business of Nahray. He deals with purchasing flax. He mentions the intermediary Kasim. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #641) VMR

Letter from Abū l-Faraj the father-in-law of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his son-in-law Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. Admonishing him to treat his young wife, Sitt Ghazāl, well and admonishing her to obey her mother-in-law and to be as industrious as her own mother had been. The writer adds that if the Muslim divine Jamāl al-Din travels to Fustat, he (Shelomo?) should accompany him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 360, and from Goitein's index cards.) Previous description for CUL Or.1080 J125 (old PGPID 8895): A loss of 54 1/4 dirhems on house repairs reported to Shelomo by Abū l-Faraj of Alexandria-- see Goitein Nachlass material. Joins: Oded Zinger.

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh from Ascalon to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim in Fustat. 26 October 1093

Letter from al-Fayyumi b. Saadia, probably addressed to Moses Maimonides.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat. Ca. 1030