Geniza Lab

Recto, with the address on verso: Letter from Abū ʿAlī, apparently in Fustat, to Abū l-ʿIzz al-Sharābī, also in Fustat, specifically Sūq al-Kabīr. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. This Abū l-ʿIzz may be the person known to us from various documents from Avraham Maimonides' circle. The sender reports that 'the mother' and Yūsuf arrived safely in Fustat some time ago. He has sent a maqṭaʿ cloth with Qāsim the blind (al-ḍarīr). The sender has sent previous letters asking for the news of al-shaykh al-mukarram Abū l-ʿ[. . .] and his wife and the rest of the family and friends. The jars (jirār) have not arrived; the addressee must send 100 jars quickly with any acquaintance of al-shaykh al-mukarram. Goitein's index card adds that the mother's journey was strenuous. He also says there is an "almost identical letter in..."—but he did not fill in the shelfmark. Verso: Response from Abū l-ʿIzz to Abū ʿAlī. In Judaeo-Arabic, headed by a basmala and tarjama in Arabic script. The Hebrew-script handwriting and orthography are quite rudimentary. He says that he has purchased the jars and makes excuses about why he has not been able to send them yet. He, too, says that he has sent several letters without receiving any response, including two letters tied together with a string, one from himself and one from Abū l-Ḥasan b. Qanṭūr (or Ḥanẓūl?) in which he mentioned something about three people. Greetings to the mother. AA. ASE.

Recto: State document. Report to al-Ẓāhir about a tax farmer, beginning only. Dating: 1021–36 CE. (Cited in Khan, BSOAS 53 (1990) 25; Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections 311 n27 with partial transcription.) Indirect join: Oded Zinger.

Incomplete letter to Moses Maimonides congratulating him on becoming the Head of the Jews of Egypt. The name of the sender is not preserved; Friedländer conjectured that the letter was written by Yosef Ibn ʿAqnīn. The sender is concerned that the new duties will keep Maimonides from writing books. (Information from Friedländer, Ein Gratulationsbrief an Maimonides, in Cohen, & Cohen, Hermann. (1912). Judaica : Festschrift zu Hermann Cohens siebzigstem geburtstage. Berlin: Verlag von Bruno Cassirer, p. 257-261.)

Recto: Letter from Moshe b. Ḥalfon b. Y[...], probably in Yemen, to a judge (who had a son named Netanel), probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1168–1204, based on Maimonides' years in Egypt. The sender asks the addressee to ask Moshe Maimonides to issue a decision in a case between the sender and a judge (dayyān). The sender apologizes for sending two copies of this letter—he did so because of the vicissitudes of the journey. He sends regards to various people, including probably Munajjā al-Kohen. Verso: Postscript containing a similar request from Yaḥyā b. Muqbil, asking the addressee to obtain Maimonides' decision for him and send it together with the decision for Moshe b. Ḥalfon. Underneath is another postscript, apparently containing only a greeting. Goitein suggests convincingly that this letter was sent from Yemen, on the basis of the style, the script, the names, and the fact that two copies were sent. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Hayya Gaʾon (d. 1038), in Baghdad, to the brothers Avraham and Tanḥum b. Yaʿqov of Fez, in Fustat (possibly to be forwarded to Fez). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address written also in Arabic script (where the addressees are called Ibrāhīm and Yaḥyā Tanḥum b. Yaʿqūb). Apparently in the handwriting of Hayya Gaʾon himself. The addressees also appear in T-S 13F2 (left margin of recto at 90 degrees), which preserves legal queries that they submitted to Hayya's father Sherira b. Ḥanina Gaʾon. Dated: 26 Adar 1318 Seleucid = 16 February 1007 CE. (Gil reads 19 Adar = 9 February.) Hayya has sent this letter with Abū l-Ṭayyib ʿImrān b. Hillel ha-Levi and has enclosed responsa for the addressees' queries. He had received a letter from Abū l-Faraj Aluf (=Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Ibn ʿAwkal) seeking a response to another legal query which never arrived. Ibn ʿAwkal also informed him in that letter of the death of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿaqov b. Nissim Ibn Shāhīn of Qayrawān. "This was one of the most distressing disasters and blows that we have suffered… and I eulogized him in our meetings and gatherings, and the community wept over him… This was a sorrow added to the sorrow over the demise of our diadem, the Gaʾon our father (=Sherira, who died approximately 5 months before this letter was written)." Ibn ʿAwkal also reported that Khallūf b. Yosef had sent 70 dinars for the yeshiva from Aghmāt (near Marrakesh), but these have not arrived, and the addressees are urged to look into the matter. Hayya asks the addressees to support the Yeshiva, as his own house and those of his family and followers have fallen into disrepair. Hayya asks the brothers for advice about whom he should rely upon in Qayrawān now that Ibn Shāhīn is dead. (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #38 and VMR; https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/genizah-fragments/posts/throwback-thursday-study-babylonian-jewry; and Jennifer Grayson's dissertation, p. 82.)

Ketubba with no names preserved, dated 15 Ḥeshvan [...]. Mentioning a dowry of 90 dinars. Signatories are too fragmentary to be legible. (Information from CUDL.)

Partnership or investment (ʿisqa) agreement. Probably from a court notebook. Between Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi and Abū Yaʿaqov Yosef b. Shuʿayb/Shaʾul Ibn al-Najera. Location: Fez. Dated: Last decade of Ṭevet 4898 AM, which is January 1138 CE. (Ḥalfon's father Netanel was still alive when this document was written.) No witnesses. The document is written almost entirely as a first-person declaration by Ibn al-Najera. He has contributed 40 murābiṭī mithqāls and Ḥalfon has contributed 60 murābiṭī mithqāls to the partnership. The active partner (the sole partner doing business with the money) is Ibn al-Najera. (Information from India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter in the hand of Moses Maimonides containing instructions for a local judge on how to retrieve the assets of a murdered merchant who left his brothers as heirs. One of the brothers brought the letters of the local judge to Moses Maimonides. (Information from Goitein's indexcards)

Literary letter/epistle. It is not clear that the descriptions on Goitein's index card apply to this fragment.

Fragment of a letter from Isma’il b. Barhun al-Tahirti to a relative (probably his sister’ son, his nephew). The writer protects and supports one of his brothers. Asks his relative to buy him shoes, probably in Fustat. Mentions his brothers Salah and Yishaq. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #123) VMR

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Arranged in an unusual format with breaks between paragraphs. The teacher ʿIwaḍ tried to sell the Masoret but couldn't find a buyer. As for the physician al-Ḥakīm al-Naṣīr(?), the sender told him about Sayyidnā's request concerning Kitāb al-Taṣrīf fī Istiʿmāl al-Adwiya (perhaps a volume of al-Zahrāwī's magnum opus?). The physician was abashed and said that he has had a most pressing need for it lately so has been unable to fulfill the request. The next paragraph is extremely vague: "as for the person who had the matter, he sent me a messenger concerning doing the thing. . . ." The portion of the letter on verso mentions the mizmorim and a scene that took place when the sender walked in on somebody in the majlis where he prays, as he was wearing a ṭallit and praying. That man's son appeared and seems to have rebuked the sender. The letter then mentions 'the house where the Torah scroll is.' And another person mentions Ben Sarjado/Sargado and the numbers 8 and 4. The document needs further examination to make sense of all this. ASE

Recto and verso: Unidentified document in Arabic script, possibly a letter. Verso: Unidentified document in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly legal. Needs examination.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi. On parchment. Fragment (long vertical strip from the left side of the document). Mentions the Nagid and Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār. Seems to be the dissolution of a partnership (the same partnership as in T-S 10J4.10, which involves Abū l-Munā al-ʿAṭṭār Yaʿaqov b. David?) and a mutual release by the partners.

Legal document(s). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves a woman probably related to the Yaʿaq[ov] mentioned in l. 1 and/or the Sason ha-Levi mentioned in l. 2. She testifies concerning the will that the father of her son made for that son and bemoans her state as a "cut-off" woman. There is also someone named Moshe b. Yeshuʿa involved. The continuation of the document is damaged and difficult to make sense of, but mentions an orphan son, debts, expenses, and quotes different people's speech. This legal record is followed by a blank space and what may be a new legal record underneath.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to a certain Avraham, c/o the shop of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣā'igh, in Fustat. The sender asks the addressee to send two cubits of malā'is(?) with the muleteer (al-mukārī). It seems that the sender will send the price back with him. “If Ibn ʿAmmār arrives, inquire from him about the news of my paternal uncle. For a man named ʿAṭṭāf b. Maḥmūd Ibn Sākin arrived and reported that my uncle with a group of […] merchants arrived in Java . . . . . from Java to . . the land(s), and [that] they are well, may God reunite us quickly, God willing.” ASE

Fragment of a letter from Nehemya ha-Kohen, the Pumbedita Gaon, to one of the heads of the Babylonian community in Fustat, probably 963. Mentions an internal disagreement among the members of the community in Fustat about the cantor (hazzan). The main part of the letter concerns the Gaon’s desire to renew the community’s support for the Yeshiva. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, #18) VMR

Recto: end of a legal document concerning an inheritance and the sum of four dirhams, signed by Joseph ha-Kohen b. Ab[raham]. 11th century or earlier. Verso: piyyuṭim, the second introduced with אחר (‘another one’). (Information from CUDL)

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Deed of manumission (geṭ shiḥrur) for a female slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tishrei 1510 Seleucid, which is 1198 CE. Theoretically the date could be 1520 Seleucid, but that is probably too late, given the signature of Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi on verso. Abū l-Maʿālī al-Levi al-Tājir b. Khalaf al-Dajjānī frees his female slave named Saʿāda. Written in the hand of the court scribe Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1181–1209). Signed: Menashshe b. Yosef. The attestation on verso that the deed was delivered into her hand ('in the Iraqi synagogue') is scribed and signed by Yosef's father, Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (c.1165–1203). Also signed by Menashshe b. Yosef. (Information in part from Moshe Yagur via FGP.) ASE

Fragment of a will by Abū al-Faraj b. Maʿarūf the perfumer in Fuṣṭāṭ, 1130 CE. He gives to his wife her ketubba, trust, and control of the household goods and her children's inheritance. Scribe: Natan b. Shelomo haKohen. RR. See Rivlin, Inheritance and Wills, #39, pp. 366-367.