Geniza Lab

Letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by Sedaqa b. 'Ayyash to Abu Nasr b. Sahl (Bareket and Ben- Sasson) or Hesed b. Yashar (Gil). The letter deals with shipments of goods to the Maghreb and Sicily. The letter also mentions the triumphal march of Mu'izz b. Badis, ruler of the Maghreb, Dated ca. 1023 (Bareket and Ben-Sasson) or May 1027 (Gil). (Information from M. Gil, Vol. 2, p. 462; M. Ben-Sasson, p. 233; E Bareket, Shafrir misrayim, p.253)

Recto: Petition to Masliah Gaon from a woman wishing to have a divorce. Probably 1127 CE. Discussed in detail, with translation, in Oded Zinger's dissertation, pp. 201–02: 'Malīḥa bt. Abū al-Faḍl wanted a divorce. She claimed that her husband suffered from many illnesses and that his children from a previous marriage were irreligious. Malīḥa feared for the well-being of her children were she to die. We have a resolute petition written on her behalf to the head of the Jews, Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, informing him of the following: "I am the wife of Adam, the money changer. For the past eight months, I have asked repeatedly for divorce, but could not obtain it. I had thought that with the arrival of your most venerable presence, you would not postpone giving a ruling to me or to another (on my behalf) a single hour. He is a man afflicted with many illnesses and sicknesses. He has children far removed from religion and others. The servant fears lest what is sealed upon people (i.e. death) overtake him, or me. There is no assurance what will happen with him and with my children.1 By the divine law that you possess! Examine my state and quickly issue a verdict, whatever it may be.2 The servant appointed a representative, but from all that was done to the man; he said that he would not return to mediate between us. The servant is bashful, I do not have a tongue to speak with. By your parents! Examine my state and please liberate me.3 .... All that I want is the liberation of the servant, by any means necessary. And what the divine law obligates."4 We hear of Malīḥaʼs ultimate success in her bid for divorce in another document, T-S 8J5.4 2v. A four-line entry in a page from a court notebook records that on 28 June 1127, Malīḥa appointed Nathan ha-Levi b. Abraham as her representative to sue her husband. This short entry is followed by another entry recording an unrelated appointment of a representative. The next entry in the court notebook, however, records that on the very same day, a cantor who was one of the witnesses of the first appointment came to the court with two parnasim from the community. The three men declared to the court that they had made the symbolic purchase from Malīḥa confirming that she relinquished the entirety of her meʿuḥar and was willing to take an oath over her claims regarding the dowry. Her husband also made the symbolic purchase confirming that he had no claim over her. It appears that Malīḥa got her divorce.'5 Margins of recto, and verso: Copious jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script. It is unclear how much, if any, pertains to the main letter on recto. Shelomo ha-Levi b. Moshe is named. Many of the Arabic writings appear to be formulaic phrases from a letter to a dignitary (titled in one place Imam and Amir).

Sub-leasing agreement of a tax farm of silk production for the town of Bush and its surroundings, which was worth 3.5 dinars. Dated Tammuz 1458/ June 1147. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 606, 607)

Letter from Yehuda Leib the Ashkenazi to the Nagid Yiṣḥaq Sholal. In Hebrew. Dating: 1502–17 CE. The writer congratulates the Nagid on regaining a post from which he had been ousted.

Letter by a cantor in a small town, addressed to Rabbi Eliyyahu the judge, complaining bitterly about his lack of opportunity for further study and about doing nothing but jingling off prayers. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p.88)

Legal document. Dated: 1448 Seleucid, which is 1136/37 CE. Very faded. Signed by: Moshe b. Ṣadoq ha-Ṣadiq Av Bet Din b. Yoshiyyahu; Moshe ha-Ḥazzan b. Yehuda.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Written and signed by Berakhot (b. Shemuel). Expressing thanks to the poet Yiṣḥaq b. Shelomo for his “sweet poems and powerful words” with which he had honored the writer. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from a mother in Aden to her son in Egypt.

Marriage contract of Faḍā'il b. Yosef and Sittunā, signed in Abyār. Dated: December 1070 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 388)

Letter from the cantor Musāfir b. Yosef ha-Bavli, in Alexandria, to his relative Yehuda the schoolteacher in the Iraqi synagogue of Fustat. Musāfir writes he had left Alexandria, where the family had fought with each other over a piece of bread and had lived in Fuwwa for a year. The situation was now better and he says he would assist the family in Fustat. This seems to be the reply to DK 315 (alt: 11). See also T-S 13J10.10 (?). (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Document in Arabic script. State document? Mentions a payment of 9 dirhams a day for the month Ramaḍān al-muʿaẓẓam, for a total of 270 dirhams. Reused on recto for Hebrew literary text.

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham, in Qayrawan(?), to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1050. The writer expresses his sorrow for the situation in Qayrawan. Mentions Nahray’s mother who is still in Qayrawan. It seems that the writer would have preferred to move to Egypt. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #754) VMR

Letter from Manṣūr b. Maḥfūẓ, in Alexandria, to Abū Saʿīd b. Berakhot al-Melammed, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1487 Seleucid, which is 1175/76 CE. The letter opens without about 30 lines of eloquent, often rhymed expressions of longing and good wishes. The substance of the letter begins with wa-ghayr dhālika at the bottom of recto. The sender asks for a copy of Seder Moʿed. And if the addressee sees the sender's cousin (ibn ʿamma), he should inform him that the sender is still owed 21 dirhams by the cousin's partner. The remainder of the letter consists of greetings to various people, including: Rabbenu Elʿazar; 'all the students/scholars' (talāmidha); 'the father, mother, and brother'; Rabbenu Yiṣḥaq; Abū l-Ḥasan; Abū Manṣūr; Yosef; Abū l-Maʿānī and his brother; Rabbi Nissim; Rabbi Daniel and his son; Abū l-Faraj al-Ṭabīb; Barakāt b. Rosh ha-Qahal; Avraham b. Abū Naṣr; Abū l-Faraj Hiba; al-Rayyis Abū l-Mufaḍḍal and his brothers. On verso there are also some sums in eastern Arabic numerals. ASE

Letter from Musa b. Abu'l-Hayy to Evyatar ha-Kohen Gaon, ca. December 1094.

Letter from Daniel b. Yiṣḥaq he-Hazzan from Jerusalem to Eli b. Sadaqa. Probably ca. 1060.

Letter by Shelomo b. Yeshuʿa ha-ḥaver, in Damīra, to Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Natan ha-Sheviʿi. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. The writer raises charges against the muqaddam of Damira ("he does not deserve to be the rear (mu'akhkhar), let alone the head (muqaddam)," r18) and refuses to take on additional duties in order to avoid conflicts with the local community leader. Someone named Abū Naṣr is in a bad state (miskīn) from an eye disease, otherwise he too would have written to support the writer's complaints. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 73, 189, 589.) ASE.

Letter from Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief Rabbi of Aleppo, Syria, to a colleague, it seems in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1100. Asking him to send him legal documents concerning the property belonging to some orphans, which was worth more than 30 dinars. The sender requests the documents to be sent by special mail, for the merchants are being detained and are hardly reaching Aleppo. . (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 271; IV, p. 277)

Legal document. Bottom part only. Perhaps a marriage contract, as there is a note in between the document and the qiyyum making a statement about the value of the delayed dower measured according to 'the weight of the Bedouins' (? ṣanjat al-ʿarab). The main document is signed by [..]LM b. Yosef; Shemuel b. Yiṣḥaq; [...] b. Shelomo b. Manṣūr nin Qāṣir; [...]Sofer; Yehuda ha-Ḥazzan b. ʿEli ha-Ḥazzan b. Moshe ha-Ḥazzan; Suhayl b. Mevasser. The qiyyum mentions [..]l b. Aharon; Meshullam b. [...]; Shemarya b. Moshe; and [...] b. Efrayim.

Legal document of some sort. Only the bottom part is preserved, which includes praises for the Nagid Sar ha-Shalom (or at least a Nagid with that title). Signed: Natan b. Shelomo; Peraḥya b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Yefet b. Araḥ; Avraham b. Seʿadya.

Legal document dealing with a widow in a small town who died, leaving a girl of three and a small house. The judge, among other questions, asks for a report about who took the orphan into his house and cared for her. Signed by Mevorakh b. Natan, Shemuel ha-Levi b. Saadia and Elazar b. Michael. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 303)