Geniza Lab

Letter from Eli Ha-Mumhe b. Avraham to David and Mevorakh b. Amram, Fustat, probably 1050.

Letter from Bū Manṣūr b. Abū Saʿd Shemuel to Avraham al-Maḥallī al-Talmid (the student/scholar). Addressed to Fustat, the synagogue of the Palestinians, situated in Zuqāq Khabīṣa. The letter consists entirely of well wishes and greetings for the holiday. Sending regards: the children, Sitt Rayḥān, Najmiyya, Thanāʾ, ʿAfīf. Regards to (among others): Yosef b. Abū ʿImrān and his mother and brother-in-law and wife, and Rabbenu Yeḥezqel ha-Dayyan ha-Gadol. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index cards.) VMR. ASE.

Short letter written by Meshullam, the head of family of judges. His son, Sasson, was a judge in Cairo; Sasson had a son called Yiṣḥaq who was also a judge in Cairo, see Med. Soc. 2:514, #24, #25. (Oded Zinger, Women, Gender and Law: Marital disputes according to documents of the Cairo Geniza, p. 332) EMS

Letter from Alexandria reporting a false rumor regarding one of the honorable members of the community and about the phenomenon of 'hatreds' deliberate mistreatments of Jews. On 'hatreds' see also the letter of Arah b. Natan: T-S 13J22 23 (Frenkel, Doc. #73). The document contains no hint to its date, but perhaps the reference is to the turmoil in Alexandria in 1141, during Yehuda ha-Levi's visit to the city. (Information from Frenkel). Further information from Goitein: Letter in which Abu al-Ḥasan al-Dimashqi asks the Ra'is to use his influence against local expressions of anti-Semitism and in particular to rescue an elder who was falsely accused of having been found in the company of a woman of bad reputation; see Goitein, Med. Soc. 2:279-280).

Letter, probably sent from Alexandria by a man to his brother, a student of Maimonides, who participated in a class of Rabbi Moshe, advising him to also get medical training from his teacher. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to Judge Elijah from his brother-in-law Abu-l-Fadl of Alexandria (13th century).

Letter sent by a man from Sicily who had immigrated to Tyre, describing a civil war in Sicily and the bad economic conditions under which his family lived. Dated to the mid-11th century. (Information from Gil and Ben-Sasson.) The writer and addressee are both unknown. He mentions Abū Yūsuf b. Ismāʿīl [al-Andalusi], known from several other letters of the mid-11th-century. He writes, "I witnessed things I never wanted to see: the bloodshed was such that I walked on corpses like walking on the ground; a great epidemic (wabā')"; and a great inflation. His own warehouse and that of his brother Saʿīd were pillaged. Years after these events, two months before the death of his father, his father purchased a house with gardens for 100 dinars from a Christian. The civil wars (fitan) then resumed, the house became worthless, and his father died. He and his Saʿīd then set about collecting all the debts owed to their late father and the goods their father had deposited with others, chiefly with one flax dealer. Saʿid told him they would split everything 50/50. The entirety of verso deals with how the writer was initially cheated out of his share of the inheritance—it seems by Saʿīd who was in cahoots with their brother-in-law Yaḥyā b. al-Munajjim—and the aftermath. ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Sahlan b. Avraham, approximately 1030.

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ b. Yakhin to Shelomo b. Shelah starting with 18 lines of bible quotations (l. 1, Genesis 5:18; l. 2, Psalms 24:5; l. 4, Psalms 25:14; l. 3- 12, Psalms 112:3; l. 13, Proverbs 2:6 and 28:14; l. 14, Deuteronomy 33:11; l. 15, Deuteronomy 14:29; l. 15, Genesis 28:3; l. 16-18, Psalms 121:8). The sender sends good wishes to the addressee and hopes especially that he will produce many children. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Order of payment from Ascalon to Fustat, August-September 1116.

Petition from a woman to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1140–59 CE. "'I am a 'cut-off' (munqaṭiʿa) woman and I do not have (recourse) except to God’s gate and yours. I have fallen in with a man who is unashamed of the unseemly things spoken about him. My father does not enter my (house) for anything because of what happened to him. My brother is a young man, bashful and has no tongue… I have no supporter except God, the exalted, and you. May the holy One not lock your gate in the face of every munqaṭiʿ and oppressed (maẓlūm).' This woman is munqaṭiʿa even though she has a father and a brother, because these male relatives are unable to help her. So she is a munqaṭiʿa because she does not have effective male kinship." Information from Oded Zinger, "The Use of Social Isolation (inqiṭāʿ) by Jewish Women in Medieval Egypt," JESHO (2020), 827–28 and Oded Zinger, "Women, Gender and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents of the Cairo Geniza," 388–90. She goes on to ask for the Nagid's assistance, and mentions a bill of divorce, the delayed marriage gift, and her husband’s failure to provide for his family. EMS

Letter from Yehuda b. Ṭoviyya he-Ḥaver (the muqaddam of Bilbays, ca. 1170s–1220) to a notable named Yehosef, titled 'the diadem' (al-nezer) and 'trusted servant of the realm' (amīn al-mulk). In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking him to deliver some documents from the sender to a government secretary and to spend Shabbat night at the writer's house. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 14.)

Letter from Moshe b. Ya'qub, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat

Letter from the widow of the cantor Ben Nahman to a Head of the Jews (entitled Gaon) concerning the difficulties she is having with her husband's sons and their aunt over her right to domicile in the house to which she had a claim. Cf. T-S 10J16.4, an earlier plea from the same woman, also T-S Ar.18(1).107.

Letter addressed to Yeshua b. Shabbetay in Alexandria from Elazar b. Ḥalfon in which the writer expresses his condolences, and those of his father, for the death of Yeshua’s father. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Letter to Benjamin b. Yaqob from Sedaqa b. Yiṣḥaq concerning small business matters. The writer sends greetings to Abu al-Muna, his Abu brother al-Faraj, and his son Abu al-Majd. EMS (Information from Goitein's index cards)

The second page of a two-page letter written in the 11th of May 1141 by Abu Nasr b. Avraham from Alexandria to Ḥalfon b. Nethanel of Fustat. The letter reports the scandal that took place between the poet Yehuda ha-Levi and the convert Ben al-Basri. The letter contains information on the legal authorities in Alexandria, the relations between Jews and Muslims in the city and on trade in silver and textiles. (Information from Frenkel). A new edition in India Book, IB IV, no. H81 (AA)

Letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 3 Sivan (4901 AM), which is 11 May 1141 CE. This is the second and last page of a large letter. The first page has been lost. This letter was written when Yehuda ha-Levi was on the ship in Alexandria. Abū Naṣr reports on Ibn al-Baṣrī, a Jew who converted to Islam and caused an uproar in Alexandria. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English to come)

Letter from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to the community of Jerusalemites in Fustat, approximately 1020.

Letter in which Elazar ha-Kohen b. Yehuda sends good wishes for the holidays to Mevorakh b. Saadya in his own name and in the name of the congregation and their children. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 627)