Geniza Lab

Ketubba from Yemen. Date unknown. The first two lines, which included the date and the place, are now missing. The city Ṣanʿā' is mentioned in the content. The groom is Sālim b. Saʿīd al-Akhlūfī. The bride is Saʿīda bt. Saʿīd al-Ḥatrūshī. The document differs greatly from the usual ketubba and contains a number of Arabic phrases as אלפצה אלמדכורה. One of the two witnesses is יודא ן' מורי מוסי אלשחב (the other is illegible). Information from FGP.

Ketubba from Yemen. Date: Friday 19 Adar 2203 Seleucid, which is 1892 CE. Location: Al-Maḥābisha in northwest Yemen, also known as Quzayyiz, near lake al-Qaṭf. Groom: Ḥayyim b. Sulaymān. Bride: Shamʿa bt. Dā'ūd. Witnesses: Saʿīd b. Sulaymān Najjār and Yaḥya b. Saʿīd Kabbāsī. Information from FGP.

Legal formulary with instructions in Judaeo-Arabic, including the template for a bill of divorce.

Legal formulary, including templates for a deathbed will and for a release (meḥila)

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee is called ha-Nasi ha-Gaon. A certain R. Yehuda is mentioned. The remaining content is almost entirely formulaic.

A letter from Eliyyahu al-Qustantini b. Shelomo, writing to Efrayim he-Haver b. Shemarya, head of the Ben Ezra congregation. Eliyyahu was held captive in Constantinople until the Fustat Jewish community paid for his ransom. He seeks the assistance of the head of the community, as all the money he had was a loan from non-Jews. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Petition appealing for help from Shemuel ha-Nagid (1140-1159). A woman asks him for help paying the capitation tax for her husband, who is in detention for non-payment and the family has no food.

Letter fragment from ʿOvadya to an unknown addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Abū l-Faraj; asks the addressee to help al-Shaykh al-Rashīd in some legal dispute on behalf of the writer, because that would save the writer the trouble of traveling and the exhaustion; mentions Sayyidnā al-Rayyis and Shelomo and R. Shemuel ha-Dayyān (perhaps Shemuel b. Saadya ha-Levi, who served in Maimonides's court in Fustat, and appears in documents ranging between 1165–1203). Information in part from FGP. NB: Either the FGP images or metadata for Halper 380 and Halper 381 are assigned to the wrong shelfmark; see 381 for the description of 380 and vice versa.

Letter from Shemuel b. Yehuda. In Judaeo-Arabic. He reports that he sent all the money that Sālim b. Khaṣīb(?) owed to Abū ʿAlī Ḥusayn, namely 21 dinars + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/8. The remainder discusses a quarter-dinar that he evidently subtracted from this total and various legal documents relating to the debt. NB: Either the FGP images or metadata for Halper 380 and Halper 381 are assigned to the wrong shelfmark; see 381 for the description of 380 and vice versa.

Letter from ʿOvadya, Avraham, and Yefet the sons of Shemarya to Avraham b. Natan 'the Seventh', titled Ḥemdat ha-Yeshivot. The letter opens with a paragraph of at least 20 lines of panegyric blessings in Hebrew. The 18 remaining lines are the content of the letter in Judaeo-Arabic, which is also laden with honorific terms. The writers express their longing for Avraham yet decline his invitation to visit him in Syria (אלשאם), as they will be staying in al-Maḥalla (in the central Nile delta), with friends from Aleppo for another two months. The addressee also received the letters T-S NS J131 (from the Nagid Mevorakh ben Saadya 1094–1111); Bodl. MS heb. d. 68/29; T-S 13J15.24 (from Solomon ben Yeshua, the same hand as the previous); T-S 10J11.16 (there: b. Nathaniel); T-S NS J24 (from his brother Araḥ); T-S 18J4.2; and T-S 13J15.24. He appears in a list of dignitaries in BL Or. 5535 (Margoliouth, vol. III no. 1131). A biographical sketch of him was assembled by M. Cohen, Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt, 1980, pp. 130–31. The address on verso is followed by a basmala in Arabic script. Information from FGP

Letter from Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār Madīnī of Palermo, Sicily, to Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā b. Menashshe Ḥalfon (Fustat). Ca. 1060. The sender, who is writing from Alexandria, has visited Fustat and stayed with the family of the recipient. In the letter his expresses thanks for their hospitality and asks to send him next year the silver spoon he had forgotten. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 163-164 and Goitein notes linked below.)

Business letter relating to the India trade. In Judaeo-Arabic. The names of the sender and addressee are not preserved. Goitein initially thought the handwriting was that of Abū Zikrī Kohen but later crossed out that identification. The sender reports that he sent cloves before embarking on a ship; Ibn Efrayim aided him somehow. He mentions that a wimple/veil (miʿjar) was 'in the mountain' and that nothing arrived from India. Where the text resumes on verso, he may be writing about commodities including 2 pearls (durratayn, although Goitein later crossed out this reading) that sold for 12 royal (malikī) dinars. With this money, he bought more cloves and sent them with Tamīm. Regards to Abū Saʿīd b. Thābit. (Information in part from Goitein notes linked below.) ASE

Letter from Mardūk b. Mūsā (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim; probably 21 July 1046. Talks about sending back sacks and about an inkstand (Gil) that Mardūk asked to be sent to him but that is being delayed in Fustat. Mentions difficulties in selling cotton and linen. Nahray is about to travel to Būṣīr. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 769.)

Letter undated and unsigned.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly a letter of appeal for charity.

A letter from the 13th century in polished Arabic from Hibat Allah asking for a loan of 60 dirhams, which she promises to repay quickly. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from Salāma b. Mūsā of Sfax, in Mazar, Sicily, to his partner Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The longest letter in the Geniza. Dating: Early 1060s according to Ben-Sasson, based on the military disruptions mentioned. 7 September 1064 according to Gil, based on his identification of the battle discussed as that between the Qā'id of Sfax and the Zīrid ruler Tamīm b. Muʿizz on that date. Many details about a wide variety of commodities are mentioned, as well as financial transactions. "In essence, this long letter had a single purpose: to convince Yehuda b. Sughmār, Salāma's partner, not to dissolve the relationship between them." Salāma in fact agrees to the dissolution of the formal partnership (ṣuḥba), "I got your letters this year, and you swore that you wanted to dissolve. I want this to happen even more than you do. If the partnership continues there will be discord. . . . Now we no longer feel as we used to, when we relied on each other" (v4–5, 30). Despite this, Salāma suggests other ways of continuing their relationship, including Yehuda's mentoring of Nissim, a new junior associate Salāma is sending to him, and Yehuda's sending Salāma some goods in agency. Jessica Goldberg, Trade and Institutions, pp. 296–99 ("Salāma b. Mūsā's Disastrous Year"). Salāma opens with his shock and dismay at the letters full of blame that he had received from Yehuda. "I had expected you to congratulate me on my survival in al-Mahdiyya, my deliverance from destruction, and the terrible ordeal (al-mawqif al-ʿaẓīm, also mentioned in r23) that I would not wish on anyone. I was bound (kutiftu) and almost killed (or executed, ʿuriḍtu ʿalā l-sayf) four times (or five—the ink is flaked here). Even if there were no partnership (sharika), love, (mawadda), or association (ṣuḥba) between us, this would have been incumbent on you. Now, more than one year later, the terror has not subsided, rather the fright remains in my heart. My greatest trial in al-Mahdiyya was my concern for your business. . . ." Interestingly, when Salāma mentions Yehuda's illnesses of last year (mā laḥaqak tilk al-sana min al-ḍuʿf wa-l-tawajjuʿ, r75), there is not a word of the usual sympathy or congratulations on his recovery. Gil understands Halper 414 to be a follow-up from this letter; Goldberg believes that Halper 414, a small sheet, was inserted into Halper 389, which seems to agree with Goitein, who calls it a "continuation" of Halper 389 (see Goitein notes linked to PGPID 35364). Information from Goldberg, Ben-Sasson, and Gil. ASE; MR

Letter from Salāma b. Mūsā Safāquṣī (Māzar) to Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, 1064. This letter is a follow-up from the letter in Halper 389 (Gil) that hints at the possibility of breaking up the partnership between the sender and the recipient. In this letter, Salāma b. Mūsā Safāquṣī demonstrates his readiness to make concessions in settling their accounts and is prepared to bear himself the loss of 60 dinars. He expresses his wish to continue with the partnership. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 475. See also Goitein notes.) (Formerly PGPID 5735)

Business letter from Marduk b. Musa, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. There are details on moneychanging, and the order of various commodities, mainly gems and perfumes and spices, which the writer asks Nahray to get him in Fustat. January 10th 1048 (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #534) LB see also Goitein Nachlass material

Scrap containing several names. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. Including: al-Ḥakīm Aharon; Elazar b. Shela ha-Levi; and Sitt al-Yumn bt. Yefet(?).