Geniza Lab

Recto: copy of a legal document detailing a financial agreement between Moses b. Meʾir, descendent of Ḡaʿim, and his mother. Dated Tuesday 1st Elul 5586 (= 1826 CE) in Egypt. There are no signatures. Verso: pen trials in square script. (Information from CUDL)

Business letter from Seʿadya b. Avraham b. Sasson of Alexandria to his relative Ṣedaqa b. Ṣemaḥ of Fustat, a maker of Sūsiyāt textiles. Seʿadya opens by inquiring about Ṣedaqa's ill health. "I was tranquil when I received frequent letters from you, and when they ceased, I became distressed due to imagining (? tajwīzī) an illness or something else. May God protect us from what we fear. Then my cousin (ibn ʿammatī) arrived and informed me that you had become ill, and that you had begun to recover, and I and those with me rejoiced and thanked God for that." Saadya also Ṣedaqa if he wants to secure passage on the Byzantine ship that had just arrived. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 31; V, p. 103; and Goitein's index cards.) ASE.

Letter from Natan ha-Kohen b. Yosef to Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov the judge, whom he calls his son. He writes about some small business matters and asks about his sick wife (wajaʿ al-bayt, r8–9). (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, III, p. 160, and Goitein's index cards.) Alternate description: Letter to ‘my son’ Isaac ha-Kohen b. Jacob the judge from ‘his father’ Nathan ha-Kohen b. Joseph (obviously not father and son in the strict biological sense, as he also sends greetings to Jacob the judge, the actual father), concerned with business matters, for example the trade of indigo. Mentions people including Abū l-Riḍā, Abū l-Ḥasan, Judah, Aaron and ‘my son’ (Abū l-)Wafā. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Toviyya ha-Kohen b. Eli ha-Kohen ha-Me'ulle to his brother-in-law, the judge Natan ha-Kohen he-haver ha-Me'ulle b. Shelomo ha-Kohen he-Hasid, regarding various errands concerning textiles and other matters. He also refers to a stepdaughter as 'bint al-mara.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 311, and Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Judge Eliyyahu to his two sons Abu Zikri and Shelomo. He wants them to come back from Jerusalem. 13th century.

Letter from Barhun b. Salih Tahirti in Fustat to his cousin and partner, Barhun b. Moshe Tahirti in Alexandria, reporting about merchandise sold in Fustat and requesting that more be bought in Alexandria. He also has some personal requests. The letter was written over a period of five days. It also deals with the market fluctuations for the period. In a postscript Nahray b. Nissim writes that he is moving from the Tahirtis' house into a rented space of his own. This indicates a dating of the latter around 1050, from the early years of Nahray's involvement in the commercial life of Fustat after his arrival there ca. 1045. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Letter from Shabbetay b. Moshe to Peraḥya b. Sasson 'ḥemdat ha-yeshiva'. Mainly in Hebrew, with a few phrases in Judaeo-Arabic and part of the address in Arabic script. The reports on the shipment of linen and asks for a shipment of glass. He cites his illness to excuse his tardiness (margin, ll. 1–5). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Unfinished business letter sent by Mubarak b. Natan to Mubarak b. Ibrahim in Tyre, to whom he had already written three letters. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal/official document in Arabic script. Drawn up in the majlis al-khidma of an amir with grand titles (...majd al-khilāfa ʿizz al-dīn jamāl al-[...] fakhr al-mulk sayf al-dawla wa-[...]hā b. al-M[...]m ṣanīʿat amīr al-muʾminīn...). Dated: 16 Rabīʿ II 504 AH = 1 November 1110 CE. In which Rawʿ b. Ḥammūd, a Muslim funduqānī (proprietor of a caravanserai), undertakes to transport to the Ṣināʿa ("the Arsenal"), the river port of Old Cairo, all falat (goods that had evaded the payment of dues) and all those for which customs had to be paid, whether they had been brought to his own place or to other caravanserais, or had otherwise come to his knowledge. Reused on recto for Hebrew poems. (Information in part from Goitein's note card and Med Soc I, 189–90.)

Letter sent by Mubarak b. Musa b. Ibrahim to Rabbi Nissim b. Shela, informing him that he was going to send to Tinnis the goods that he had ordered. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter sent from Damira by Abu al-'Ali ha-Kohen to Tiqva b. Yeshua, asking him to inform the Nagid about trouble that had occurred in Damira caused by someone named b. al-Wasiti. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 496, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, in Qalyūb or Fustat/Cairo, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel, probably in Alexandria. Dating: November 17, 1140 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably written after Ḥalfon traveled to Alexandria to meet Yehuda ha-Levi. Yeḥezqel writes about the fear that gripped him when Ḥalfon left and boarded the boat, while ill and without any companion. The body of the letter deals with business matters, especially recounting disputes with others regarding debts. Yeḥezqel was helpled by Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ. One of these disputes was with the 'youths' (ṣibyān) who owed money to Yeḥezqel. These youths recruited their Muslim neighbors against Yeḥezqel and threatened that their mother would appeal to the state authorities (al-sulṭān) to exempt them from repaying the debt until ('God forbid!' interjects Yeḥezqel) they recover from their illness. Yeḥezqel had already involved two trustees of the court and the Nagid himself, but the youths too appealed to the Nagid. Yeḥezqel continues with the matter of a certain aristocrat named Razīn al-Dawla, who is angry because he had given Yeḥezqel to purchase a garment for the winter, and the order had not been fulfilled. Yeḥezqel asks Ḥalfon to make haste in obtaining the garment, which should be in a beautiful yellow. It may be sent to Yeḥezqel in Qalyūb or to 'the Jew' (the tax farmer) in Shaṭnūf, which is the iqṭāʿ of Razīn al-Dawla. Yeḥezqel asks for news of Ḥalfon's arrival in Alexandria and asks him to convey an apology to Yehuda ha-Levi for not having written to him or come to Alexandria to greet him in person. Information from Goitein and Friedman. ASE. Probably Qalyūb; Sunday, 5 of Kislev; November 17, 1140

Letter addressed to She'erit ha-Ḥazzan, the cantor in the Palestinian synagogue. The writer thanks She'erit and his wife, Umm Shemuel, for their hospitality, and asks him to sell books which the writer had left with the cantor. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the community in Ashkelon to the community in Fustat. Dating: Probably 1025 CE. Mentions praises to two of the Fatimid governors in Ashkelon. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 pp. 574-575, #314) VMR

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to a personality in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1030 CE.

Page from a letter sent by Abū Naṣr b. Avraham from Alexandria to Ḥalfon b. Netanel in Cairo on the 23 of October 1140. The letter includes a report on the social uproar caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s visit in Alexandria when everybody was eager to invite him. The letter contains a request for Ḥalfon to come to Alexandria to settle the disputes caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s presence in the city. The letter also refers to business matters arising from the India trade, in which both the addressee and the writer were involved. Abū Naṣr complains about his eye illness: "I only wrote these few letters as I was housebound with a flare of ophthalmia that came over me." At the end of recto and beginning of verso, this proves relevant: "The account is in the shop and I am at home, so I do not have the precise details to inform you." Finally, in the last few lines, "Please extend forgiveness, God knows that I wrote this with the kerchief (khirqa) draped (musabala) over my eyes." The use of a dark kerchief to protect the inflamed eyes from light was part of the standard treatment for ophthalmia (see the tag "khirqa" and the chapter on ramad in Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn). (Information in part from Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, p. 523; Goitein, Friedman, India Book 4, p. 417). ASE Alexandria; 10 of Marcheshvan; October 23, 1140

Page from a letter sent by Abū Naṣr b. Avraham from Alexandria to Ḥalfon b. Netanel in Cairo on the 23 of October 1140. The letter includes a report on the social uproar caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s visit in Alexandria when everybody was eager to invite him. The letter contains a request for Ḥalfon to come to Alexandria to settle the disputes caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s presence in the city. The letter also refers to business matters arising from the India trade, in which both the addressee and the writer were involved. (Information from Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, p. 523; Goitein, Friedman, India Book 4, p. 417). Alexandria; 10 of Marcheshvan; October 23, 1140

Hebrew panegyric for Avraham ha-Kohen ha-Rofe ha-Sar b. Yiṣḥaq. See Mann, Jews, II, 86–87.

Form of a recommendation letter to the emissaries of the lepers of Tiberias, probably 1025.

Letter by Toviyya b. Eli ha-Kohen to his cousin and brother-in-law, Natan b. Shelomo, informing him that everything was done for al-Suri (from Tyre) as ordered by Natan b. al-Meshorer, who lost his wife and was unable to find a wife to look after his son and daughter. He also mentions two orphan daughters whom he wants to marry off to his sister's sons. (Information from Goitein's index cards)