Geniza Lab

Copy of a deed relating to the settlement of the property of Khalaf b. Iṣḥaq, deceased, who left one daughter only. Dated Monday, 21 January 1028 CE, at Fustat. (Information from the Bodleian Genizah website.)

Legal doucment. Business agreement involving Aharon b. ʿEzra and Moshe Dammūhī and a sum of 55 peraḥim. Dating: Second half of the 16th century.

Letter from Salmān b. Dawud al-Barqi, probably from Tripoli, Libya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Mentions beads and ships, but most of the letter is not clear. Around mid-eleventh century. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 517-519, #769). VMR

Letter fragment. Wide space between the lines. Only a few words of blessings and honorifics are preserved, including the name Yosef ha-Levi ha-Ḥaver.

Legal document. The body is almost entirely missing. The phrase "wa-hādhā rasm al-sheṭar/al-qiyyum" appears above the two sections at the bottom respectively. The main document is signed by Yosef Kohen b. Binyamin and Yefet ha-M[elammed b. Yosef ha-Melammed]. The qiyyum is signed by Yeshuʿa ha-Melammed b. Avraham and Yiṣḥaq b. [...]. There are a few words on verso (...qinyan min...)

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. Reuven b. Yaʿaqov married a widow. He sickened and died, when she was 6 months pregnant. He left behind household goods such as earthenware and copper pots (birām). His father Yaʿqūb demanded the household goods. Reuven's widow refused to hand them over, arguing that she had to pawn them to raise money to pay for syrups and chickens for Reuven in his illness and also to repay his debts. Yaʿqūb continues to demand the goods, and she continues to refuse. What should be done?

Letter from Nissim b. Shela to the teacher Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥayyim Nafūsī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Contains detailed information about the sending and selling of books. People mentioned include the shammash Thābit, the Ḥaver, someone's father-in-law (ḥammūhu) Abū l-Ḥusayn; and Abū Isḥāq al-Ṣayrafī—this last is the person with whom Nissim sent his previous letter along with the medicinal electuary (maʿjūn). He is eager to learn whether taking the electuary has made any difference in Yiṣḥaq's illness. He signs off with the phrase עתרת שלום ואמת.

State document, probably a letter of official correspondence, in Arabic script. Addressed to or sent by an official with the title ʿĀzim al-Dawla. An order from al-Ḥaḍra al-Majīdiyya (probably al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Majīd) granted the sender an exemption (?) from customs tax (maks) for the goods arriving on a royal vessel "al-ʿUshārī al-Malik" on government business (shāʾn al-dawāwīn). The addressee didn't honor the order and hence the sender rebukes him the rebuke of friends "fʿātab ʿatab al-aṣdiqā". The last two lines are difficult to contextualize but an attempted interpretation could be - with the command of the overseer of his business/accounts, someone wrote from the dīwān regarding what is obligatory on the different types of taxes. Reused for Arabo-Hebrew jottings of the Hebrew Psalms, the Ezra (1:9) more specifically. (For more on transcribing Hebrew Bible into Arabic script, see Geoffrey Khan, Karaite Bible Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah: Cambridge University Press, 1990). YU. Verso: text in Hebrew with (Masoretic?) "traditions and mnemonics" (מוסרות וסימנות) written by Shemuel b. Sahl the teacher for Saʿadya b. Shelomo. Multiple different hands (likely of both teacher and student).

Accounts in Arabic script. (Information from Goitein's note card)

Note by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to a scribe, also named Shelomo, in an urgent tone, to finish the copying of certain books including the targum of Kings and the targum of the haftarot.

List of books, with prices. Dating: Likely 11th century, as almost all of the texts listed predate the 11th century. One of the items listed is a piece of parchment with the handwriting of Rabbenu Nissim (ZL) (=Nissim b. Yaʿaqov of Qayrawān). There are also books of Perso-Arabic astrology: al-Hīlāj ('the birth') and al-Kadkohdā ('the master of the house'). (Information from Allony, Ben-Shammai, and Frenkel.)

Recto: Court record regarding the complaint of a man that his divorced wife penetrated forcefully into his house, April 1085 CE (6 Nisan 1396). Verso: Four drafts of legal documents ca. 1085 CE, in one of which Hiba b. Hillel al-Ṭarabulsī and Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq al-Lādiqī witness that they know Maḥfūẓa bt. Avraham al-Lādiqī and that she was married to אבן אלמנחמה, who divorced her and died. Information from Goitein's note card.

Shelomo urges Abu'l-Makarim in Qalyub (?) to collect money to pay the capitation tax of needy people

Yefet b. Shelomo b. Yefet b. Nājī, after having acquired 3 out of 24 shares in a house from Efrayim b. Moshe, also known as Nafīs al-Sharābī, grants him the right to purchase them back, under certain conditions, during three years. Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen Sijilmāsī (aka Abū Zikrī Kohen). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: first half of the 12th century. Mentions people such as Abū l-Faḍl b. Muʿallā; Ibn Ṣaghīr; Abū l-Yumn Ibn Ṣaghīr; Hiba al-Ḥamawī; Yosef b. ʿAṭāʾ; ʿAllūsh; Ibn Ḥārith; Abū l-Faḍl Ibn Ṣaghīr; Ben Yiju; Ibn Semekh(?) al-Daʿwa; Yiṣḥaq; Khiyār b. Faḍl. Mentions places such as Barqa, Almeria, Egypt, and Aden. Reports on mercantile transactions and taking oaths (a judge and a Torah scroll and a crowd of people are involved).

Letter from "the sons of Palṭiel" to Yosef the Turgeman/Turjumān. In Hebrew with a couple words in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 10th or 11th century. The sender may be the son-in-law of Yosef ha-Turgeman, as he conveys greetings (and prostrations) from himself and from Shelomit (presumably his wife). They have been doing well ever since Yosef departed. The children were sick, but now they are better. They rejoiced to learn that God saved Yosef from some danger that is too faded to read. The substance of the letter is that someone was supposed to send someone money, but no money has arrived. When Yosef's letter arrived, the sender of this letter went and spoke with the mother of אבולפד (=Abū l-Pad? Abū l-Faḍ[l?]) who said that she would write to him about the matter. Further down, there is a line that reads "... to the king, and your companions...." On verso there is a second letter addressed to אבולפד, which consists largely of honorifics (including Rosh ha-Qehillot). A woman (his mother?) greets and prays for him. His beneficence is lauded, and presumably he is asked about the money in one of the portions faded beyond legibility. ASE

Letter from Perahya b. Yosef in Mazara, Sicily, to Avraham b. Eliyyahu in al-Mahdiyya, inquiring about Perahya's uncle, Avraham Ibn Yiju and letter No. 68 (?). Dating: ca. 1151/2.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic concerning the India trade. Apparently the second or the third folio of a very long letter. Mentions numerous people and family members and business matters and Sicily and Bijaya. The first folio may be T-S Misc.28.33 (identified by Oded Zinger).

Testimony in the Jerusalemite synagogue regarding an estate of a Maghribi pilgrim to the Holy Land. Dated: Av 1652 Seleucid, which is July 1341. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Ṭoviya b. ʿEli, in a provincial town, to his cousin Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, probably in Fustat. Dating: 1122–50, based on the dated documents of the addressee. The writer sends thanks for the forwarding of a prescription from one physician, Abū l-Bahā', and reminds Natan to obtain a second prescription from another physician, al-Amīn, both for his sick wife. The latter physician was perhaps a Muslim or Christian, since the addressee is asked to transcribe the prescription from Arabic to Hebrew (but cf. T-S 8J16.19 + T-S NS 323.13, in which a Jew is asked not to use Arabic script). "Favor your servant with the answer to be given by my lord al-Amīn, may his reward be doubled. Please transcribe for me the prescription into Hebrew letters.") As requested, Ṭoviya provides an elaborate update on the condition of his sick wife: "She has six attacks (fawra) during the day and four during the night. Perspiration (ʿaraq) overcomes her from the sockets of her eyes (maḥājīr ʿaynayhā) to her chest (fu'ādhā). Owing to the high fever (min ʿuẓm al-nār) she has a feeling that her neck first burns (iḥtaraqat) and then becomes cold (yabrud). At the same time, she suffers pain in her knees (wajaʿ rukab). Owing to her grave sufferings (min ʿuẓm al-alam) her menses (al-ṭamth) have stopped. Finally, because of her great anxiety (min kuthrat al-takarrub), she is affected by mild palpitation (rajīf yasīr) of the heart." The same illness is also described in an earlier letter (T-S 12.234). From a later letter (T-S 13J25.15) we learn that she eventually began to feel better. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 254, 255; V, p. 106. It is possible that no fever is described, only a sensation of burning (nār). It is also possible that the phrase "knee pain" (wajaʿ rukab) should be read "pelvic pain" (wajaʿ rakab), especially as the next sentence describes the menstrual changes brought on by excessive pain. In the margin, changing the topic, Ṭoviya asks for a loan of the piyyut שיר השירים אסלסל (a liturgical poem for the Seventh of Passover composed by Shemuel b. Hoshaʿna the Third) from 'the rayyis,' sends regards to family members, and reports that the family's situation was very difficult when the tax collector arrived on Purim.