Geniza Lab

Letter from [...] b. Yefet to Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning various business matters and mentioning Damietta. The writer's name appears to be covered up with a piece of paper.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The names of the sender and the addressee and the date are all covered up by a sheet of paper, along with some additional text on verso, so the physical manuscript will need to be checked. There is a [...] ha-Levi ha-Ḥaver and a [...] b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi in the address. The sender apologizes for something and excuses himself by saying he was worried the boat was going to depart. He mentions "... and his son 'The Fourth' Shelomo ha-Kohen the son of our master... Gaon..." (the adjacent text is covered by the sheet of paper). He sends a message to Abū Saʿd al-ʿAkkawī al-ʿAṭṭār who lives in Cairo, namely that he has sent a certain judge two copies of something, one with Abū l-Mufaḍḍal the in-law of Ibn Ḥajar.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat.

An incomplete deed of a sale of one quarter of a house by a public leader, Ibn al-ʿAjamī, to the wife of a money assayer for 1,000 dirhams. The sale took place with the permission and in the presence of the woman’s husband. The purchase may have been an investment. Fustat, 29 Marḥeshvan, 1541 Seleucid (18 October 1229). Verso is blank. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 1, p. 462n123, Vol. 3, p. 328, Vol. 4. p. 283.)

Draft of a letter from Avraham b. Natan, in Fustat, to Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl, in Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. Yeshuʿa is in Alexandria probably to welcome a relative. He ordered mats through Avraham, and Avraham sends him a folded string in the letter, to show the mats’ length. A mats maker is willing to send him a mat as an example. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #699) VMR

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: First decade of Ḥeshvan 1493 Seleucid, which is 1181 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In which Fakhr bt. Thaʿlab, the divorcee of Abū l-Khayr b. Avraham, appoints Maʿālī b. Khalaf al-Dajājī as her representative to sue her ex-husband for the 12 dinars owed to her under the terms of her ketubba. Written and signed by Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active ca. 1181–1209). Also signed by Levi b. Avraham ha-Levi (likely identical with the cantor Abū Sahl Levi, the father of Yedutun and Moshe). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Accounts in Arabic script, headed "with .... Abū ʿAlī 29 dirhams." There follows a tally of different amounts of dirhams received at different points.

Letter of appeal for charity from Abū Dāniyāl to Maṣliaḥ Gaon. The house where the writer lives with all his family is collapsing around them. There are several interesting spellings in this letter, e.g., אלצצֿירה for الصغيرة.

Letter from Seʿadya b. Avraham to his 'brother' Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Seʿadya has been worried about Ṣemaḥ's travel, because he is inexperienced in travel, did not go with a companion, and did not send a letter informing Seʿadya of his safe arrival. Seʿadya has sent various commodities to him with Sason. He also gave Sason 8 dirhams for the expenses or setbacks of travel ("in Zājī(?)"). He gave a dirham to the brother of the blind man who said that Ṣedaqa had promised it. He urges Ṣedaqa not to neglect doing business in Jerusalem with the proceeds from the sale of the sūsiyyāt and/or to send the money. Ṣeʿadya was going to send something (לחמה?) until he heard that there was no craftsman in Ṣedaqa's location who could process it. Greetings to Abū ʿImrān Mūsā and to 'the mother' and to Shibl. He asks for a piece of rhubarb. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Yosef b. Maḥfūẓ to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya, complaining about Abu Sa'id. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Shelomo b. Natanel Ha-Shulhani (money-changer), Fustat, to Sadoq Ha-Levi b. Levi, president of court, approximately 1030.

Deed of sale of one half of a house in the al-Musasa quarter in Fustat, in which one owner sells his half to the other owner for 300 dinars to be paid in three installments. Dated Tishri 1451 Seleucid, which is September 1139 CE. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 288)

Account and agreement between the Qodesh and a partner, ca. 1156. A certain al-Nadiv, otherwise known as the perfume maker, tenant of a compound partly owned by the qodesh known as al-Burj, carried out repairs (probably in that compound) for which the qodesh owes him 19.5 dinars. He had previously received 9.75 dinars from the qodesh and owes 3 dinars representing his rent for four months. Thus, the qodesh still owes him 6.75 dinars. His expenditure of an additional sum of 10.5 dinars is approved, for repairs to be made in his brewery. As the qodesh will pay half of this, its total debt will come to 12 dinars. Also, some minor improvements in the compound will be made jointly. The debt of 12 dinars will be returned to him by counting it as his rent for 16 months. For this purpose, a deed of lease will be written in a Muslim court also. This arrangement is made toward the end of January 1156, one month before the former lease expires on the 24th of February. The new lease will start on the 25th. Coptic numerals are used. Mentions a wind catcher (bādhanj). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 287 #59)

Certificate of the Qodesh in Alexandria, ca. 1253. The leaders of the community of Alexandria grant Elazar b. Shelomo the right to receive bread from the qodesh as well as the sum needed for the capitation tax. The right is granted to him by reason of his poverty, old age, and membership in a family of scholars. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 477 #144)

Bill of divorce. Location: Cairo. Dated: 15[..] Seleucid, which is 1188–1288 CE. Probably in the second half of this range, to judge by handwriting (which is likely known). Husband: al-Rayyis Yaḥyā [...] al-Levi. Bride: Sitt al-[...]. Signed: Pinḥas ha-Kohen; ʿOvadya b. Yehuda ha-Dayyan. On verso, apart from the note that the wife received the get in front of witnesses, there is a list of three men somehow related to the case: Abū l-Riḍā b. al-Nagid; [...]r b. al-Sukkarī; and Abū l-Majd b. al-ʿAwwād. This part is also signed by ʿOvadya b. Yehuda ha-Dayyan and one other person.

A representative appointment deed. Deed in the hand of Ḥalfon ben Menashshe ha-Levi (there are documents in his hand from 1100-1138) in which the bride appoints her father as her representative for the arrangement of marriage. In other appointment deeds, such as T-S 13J25.20 + T-S AS 153.12, the wife appointed her father or another agent to choose for her any groom he sees fit. However, in this deed the bride appointed her father to arrange the marriage with a specific groom. The deed is without signature and might be a draft. Edited in Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, 1:218-19.

Legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Reconciliation between al-Muʿallim Manṣūr al-Dajjājī (same as in T-S NS 297.76?) and his wife, in which Manṣūr submits to various conditions concerning his wife's property. Mentions the 'waraqa' that is 'against him' in the Muslim courts. The name Shemuel al-Amshāṭī appears in the margin. Signed: ʿOvadya b. Shemuel; Yehuda b. Moshe.

Letter addressed to al-Rayyis Abū l-Najm and/or Hillel ha-Sar and/or Yehuda ha-Sar. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer reports that he met with the addressee's cousin (ibn ʿamm ) al-Rayyis Abū Manṣūr and complained about his difficult circumstnaces. The whole letter has the feel of a letter of appeal for charity, but it seems somewhat more complicated than the writer asking for money. (Information in part from Amir Ashur and from Goitein, Med Soc II, pp. 228–29)

Colophon draft for a muṣḥaf (Torah). The scribe is Shelomo ha-Levi b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya b. [Yiṣḥaq?] b. Yaʿaqov. The same man appears in T-S 8J6.9 (1231 CE); his brother Yosef b. Shemuel was also a well-known scribe and judge; and their father Shemuel was a judge in Maimonides' court. (Information in part from Amir Ashur and from Goitein, Med Soc II, pp. 228–29)

Bill of sale for a female slave. Dating: ca. 1100 CE (based on Med Soc II, p. 601 n. 18). The name of the female slave may not have been preserved. Parties to the transaction: Ḥalfon b. Seʿadya and Netanel ha-Levi b. Ḥalfon. The document and the qiyyum (validation) are scribed and signed by Avraham b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva, apparently in the same session. Witnesses for the main part of the document: Moshe ha-Levi b. David; Menaḥem b. Shemuel. Witnesses for the validation: Aharon ha-Kohen b. Ḥalfon ha-Ḥaver; Mevorakh b. Natan. Information mainly from Goitein's note card.