Geniza Lab

Letter from Moshe b. Yaʿaqov, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, c. 1045-1096.

Legal document in Arabic script. Involves a certain [...] al-Yahūdī. One of the witnesses is Aḥmad b. Nuṣayr b. Muḥammad. Needs further examination.

Letter draft from an anonymous shaliaḥ, in Fustat/Cairo, to an unknown addressee, in Jerusalem. In Hebrew. Dated: Monday, 22 Raḥamim, 5595 AM, which is 1835 CE. There is some ambiguity about the specific day. If Raḥamim is Elul, the 22nd should have been a Wednesday. But perhaps Raḥamim here means Av, when the 22nd did fall on a Monday. The letter conveys a remarkable tale of the writer's fortunes ever since he left Jerusalem on a fundraising mission on behalf of a certain Kollel. He first went to Gaza (not Giza as his spelling might suggest), where he bought passage to Suez with some gentiles from Bethlehem. In Suez (or before arriving there?), he came down with a terrible fever for ~24 days. He paid a Muslim woman a qirsh a day to wash his soiled clothing in the sea. When he entered the city, he found an epidemic (cholera?). All the gentiles were trying to flee in boats to Jedda. The writer too tried to flee, but a certain officer came and commandeered the boat, kicking him and a group of Damascenes off of the boat. The writer then had a second bout of fever ("my whole body burnt, and my tongue cleaved to my palate, and I went to the doctor, who treated/cured me a second time"). By this point all his money had run out. Shortly thereafter he developed an eye disease. There follows a long tale of how he relied on the hospitality and charity of various strangers, mentioning various "polisas" (securities), various letters proving his status as a shaliaḥ that he had to present, and various people--Jews and gentiles--whom he turned to for help. Relatively early on he made his way to Fustat/Cairo, where he had little success raising money or gaining allies. The capitation tax collector (baʿal ha-kharāj) apprehended him for failing to pay for 'the third year' (he had only paid for the years '50 and '51) and he spent three days in prison, where he fell ill again for the fourth time. He got out of prison through the intercession of Muʿallim Bekhor. His subsequent luck raising money was no more successful than before. He mentions going to the Beit Midrash to sleep there, because he had nowhere else to turn. The end of this letter is a plea for the addressee to send him money. The letter ends mid-sentence, and there is no address, suggesting that it was never sent (and thus could find its way into the Geniza). ASE.

See join for description and transcription.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Calligraphically written. Addressed to a person with many titles but whose name does not seem to appear: al-Rayyi al-Jalīl al-Fakhr(?) al-Fāḍil al-Aṣīl. . .

Letter of appeal for help. In Judaeo-Arabic. Written on behalf of a woman, probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "A divorced woman complains that her former husband constantly asks her to return to him. She has left for Alexandria and all the time he keeps asking her to return to him in Fustat which she is afraid to do. Even the Rabbi's servant continues to pressure her to comply (ghulām al-rav baqiya yulzi(mu)nī ʿalā al-safar) saying that “it might be good for you.” Information from Zinger's dissertation, p. 47.

Letter from an unknown man, unknown location (not Fustat or Alexandria), to his mother Umm Mufaḍḍal, in Alexandria. Written in Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. He briefly expresses concern for his mother's health, because he heard that she has been ill for one year. He then gets to the purpose of the letter, which is to solicit his mother's help in obtaining the divorce he has been wishing to obtain for a year, for he has been prevented from remarrying (presumably by the local authorities wherever he is, because they learned that he was still married to a woman in Fustat). He sent the bill of divorce with the bearer of the present letter, a man from Iraq. He asks his mother to receive the messenger richly. If the wife is still in Fustat, the messenger should continue on his way to complete the mission. If the wife has come to Alexandria, the mother should deliver the bill of divorce directly. He also asks her to send something to Ibrāhīm and to send her response with Ibn Abū l-Najm, "because we have two capitation taxes (we still have to pay)." Information in part from Zinger's dissertation, 246–47.

Letter from Meir Messina to his employer or business partner in Gaza. Written in Hebrew. Dating: Second half of the 16th century or beginning of the 17th century, based on the assessment of Avraham David. Deals with business matters, including trade in textiles and ppers. The writer describes borrowing money with interest and business dealings with gentiles. Information from FGP.

Letter to a judge asking him to summon someone to his court to be paid a certain amount of money being transmitted with this letter and to issue a release.

Letter fragment in Arabic script. Very deferential. Twice mentions "the late Mujāhid." Needs further examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Calligraphically written. Appears mostly formulaic.

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Reminding the addressees to give the money to a certain poor man that they had promised to give.

Letter, copy. Written in poetic Hebrew. Possibly a letter of appeal for help, since the author describes his woes. Join by Dr. Ezra Chwat. See Goitein's index card.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late 17th or early 18th century. Mention is made (ll. 17, 21, 25) of The Nazir Joseph ha-Levi (d. 1713), an emissary from Hebron who settled in Cairo and served as the head of its court. In his responsa Mate Yosef, (Istanbul, 1717-1726) he is often approached to deal with questions related to collection emissaries ([ש[לוחי] דר[בנן) (A. Yaʻari: Sheluḥe Erets Yiśraʾel / Abraham Yaari. Jerusalem : Mosad ha-Rav Ḳuḳ, 1977, p. 932). Also mentioned is an agent collecting for Safed named Ḥayim Ravuaḥ (l. 13). One of the subjects here is the issue of the transmission of a divorce bill. Information from FGP.

Literary. Late. "Book of letters. The ends of the letters are in written in graphic form, using inverted triangles; The bottom of two folios from a book of letters, apparently composed for literary value. Florid Hebrew prose, heavily decorated with biblical phrases, and some Talmudic ones. The letters are copied successively into a codex; One of the letters is signed על הכתב[...] צבי ה״ה בן לביא probably a pen name." Information from Penn Catalog.

List of angels' names. In Judaeo-Arabic.

On recto there is the beginning of Fuṣūl Ibuqrāṭ (Hippocrates) in Arabic script. It is not clear whether verso is part of the same text, or an independent document. It may be business accounts, listing various foods and materia medica and weights. Needs further examination.

Prescriptions or recipes in Judaeo-Arabic and Aramaic. "Instructions, mostly in Judeo-Arabic for preparations of different remedies. In the margin of the recto are instructions for extracting duck fat, written in a smaller hand. The last two items on the verso are in Aramaic, for killing spirits and for a woman whose sons has died." Information from Penn catalog.

Amulet for the synagogue of Qalyūb. In Hebrew. Written in mirror image. The ink seems too distinct to be the imprint of another fragment. Perhaps a draft for copying onto wood for producing a block print?

Recipes in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. "Number of lines varies according to content; text breaks in fols. 1-3 denoted by three puncti; 1r remedies extracted from dogs, from foxes, in Hebrew, starting סגולות השועל; 1v remedies extracted from ducks. in Hebrew; 2r two paragraphs of cures, in Judeo-Arabic; 2v record of words, maybe a magical chant, in Aramaic; 3r instructions in Judeo-Arabic for the preparation of different remedies, followed by Hebrew instructions for the preparation of an amulet, engraved into a heart; 4r in a different hand; contains instructions in Hebrew for preparing parchment for a Torah Scroll. Headed: עיבוד גויל של ספר תורה מן מעשה. The term מעשה usually infers a unit of transmitted practical Halakhah, most common among the literature of the Erets Israeli tradition. This too is not written as a Halakhic monograph, but rather as a recipe, in second person format:תקח עפץ. This is a complete, distinct essay, ending towards bottom of recto: תם תם; 4v (in the same hand as recto) contains the same, in Judeo-Arabic. The heading: הדא עמל אלריק." Information from Penn catalog.