Geniza Lab

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is a complete and well-preserved letter, which is rare in the Yefet corpus. Goitein's note card points out that Yefet and Peraḥya are the two brothers of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi Ibn al-Qaṭāʾīf and that the brothers also had at least two sisters. In this letter, Yefet thanks Peraḥya for the 10 dirhams for their mother and conveys her prayers for him and for Ḥalfon (from this Goitein deduces that Ḥalfon and Peraḥya regularly supported their mother and sisters in the Rīf, but note that in other letters the mother and sisters appear to be in Fustat). Yefet reports that the cassia fistula (khiyār shanbar) and gum (ṣamgh) arrived. Yefet sent to Ḥalfon the bitumen (uṣūl(?) al-qifār) which he had requested. Regards to Sitt Naʿīm (Ḥalfon's wife). ʿIwāḍ told Yefet that Peraḥya complained about Yefet's failure to write him letters, which Yefet now strenuously denies: "[I write to you] even when I have nothing to say except to ask after you and your health." VMR. ASE.

Letter fragment from Dā'ūd b. Azhar. Containing directions. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Business letter from Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi b. Simḥa al-Nīsābūrī to the parnas ʿŪlla ha-Levi. The writer recommends a young Jewish man and describing him as being very good at kattan work, indicating the scotching and hatchling of flax. Also mentions the silk market and prices. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:105, 402, 418, 455) EMS

Business letter, fragment, from Abū Naṣr b. Ibrāhīm, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Fustat. Ending only. Dating: Early 1130s CE. The letter includes information on trade in wheat. This is one of the earliest letters of Abū Naṣr to Ḥalfon: from the contents of the letter he appears inexperienced and Ḥalfon serves as his instructor and patron. (Information from Frenkel)

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yūsuf. VMR

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Fustat; 1132 This short letter was sent by Abū Zikrī Kohen, the merchant's clerk in Fustat, to Ḥalfon shortly after he left for Qūṣ, on the way to the east. Abū Zikrī Kohen served as Ḥalfon’s representative and paid a debt to Khiyyār for him. Also mentioned here were businesses that were in Halfon, in which Abū Zikrī Kohen and Khiyyār participated together. Other businesses were between Halfon and Abū Zikrī Kohen alone. Several other personalities were mentioned, some of them known from other places, some of them unknown. The small sums of a few tens of dinars mentioned are surely leftovers from accounts for larger businesses. Ḥalfon intended to stay for a certain period in Qūṣ, because Abū Zikrī Kohen knew that he would be there when the letter and the few goods he sent there reached him. From there Ḥalfon intended to go to Aden, and Abū Zikrī Kohen ordered pearls from there for his little son. The letter was written in 1132, and it is alluded to in Abū Zikrī Kohen’s letter to Ḥalfon, from Fustat to Aden, certificateח 15 , lines 7-13. Abū Zikrī Kohen asked Ḥalfon to write to him from wherever he could get to. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, in Qalyūb, to his father Eliyyahu the judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing with various small business matters and ordering collyria (ashyāf). (Information in part from Goitein's index cards)

Late letter from Judah Levi, mentioning people including Joseph and Sitt al-Maṣūna. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Mashā'il (=Misha'el?) b. Natan, location unknown, to Khalaf b. Barakāt b. al-Dayyān, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer has had no news of the addressee's family ever since he traveled, so he asks them to write to him with their news (r5–12). He sends his gratitude to Umm Khalaf and to the wife of the ḥaver, Umm Bū ʿAlī, probably for their hospitality (r12–18). He is very worried on account of the children's sickness (ḍuʿf al-ṣibyān, r10 and probably r21 and v8). The letter is ambiguous, but these are likely his own children rather than children in the addressee's family. He asks the addressee to be diligent in 'doing the thing I mentioned with those people, for it will save our lives, with this weakness (ḍuʿf) we are in (again ambiguous: ḍuʿf can refer to illness or financial need or any difficult strait) (r18–22). The nature of this task is unclear, unless it simply refers to sending him a letter with their news. Verso consists of further regards and gratitude. (Information in part from Goitein's index card). VMR. ASE.

Letter of holiday greetings from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt. 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

T-S 13J22.6 was published By Gil, Palestine, #404. It is the left hand side of the letter. T-S 13J7.6 is the right hand side of the same letter, published by Gil (transcription of the whole document) in his 1991 article of corrections and additions to his 3-volume Palestine. This is a letter of complaint to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat (mid 11th century). The writers complains about the Christian governor Ibn Gorgas who built a church next to a mosque, a controversy arose, and now the Jews are in danger.

Letter from Umm Makīn, the wife of al-Sadīd, in Bilbays, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. The writer inquires from Eliyyahu about her son who was left under the judge's supervision, and requests release of money left to her other children. She is also concerned about the son's capitation tax.

Letter from Perahya to Shelomo ("ha-Talmid ha-Sar"). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 12th or 13th century. Perahya says that Muʿāfā has given the bearer of the letter 30 dirhams, 2 'from the last time' and 28 for the rent payments of an unspecified group of people, which will take them through Nisan. Regards to Abū Zikrī al-Rayyis. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

The teacher Dawud of Qalyub writes to the judge Shelomo b. Eliyyahu around 1225 complaining about his meagre salary and his inability to pay the jāliya (capitation tax). (Information from Goitein's index cards, Med. Soc., CUDL and Marina Rustow)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, probably 1039.

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yosef, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim. Asking Nahray to intervene with Ḥasan b. Bundār. Dating: 1094–97 CE. "This is the opening letter of the correspondence; Amram b. Joseph recapitulates what had been done thus far and asks Nahray b. Nisslm to intervene with Ḥasan b. Bundār through the merchants returning to Aden. Lines 1-13. Excuses for the writer's long silence: he always inquired after Nahray's well-being, but refrained from writing so as not to obligate a response. Lines 13-29. A letter of Abu 'l-Faraj Nissim, containing the story of his horrible experiences, had been forwarded by Nahray ten months earlier. It caused the family great distress, which was exacerbated by the illness of both the writer's sister (Nissim's wife) and his own wife, an orphan whom he had recently married after the death of his former wife, and who had borne him a sickly boy. Economic difficulties did the rest. "Man's road is not his [to choose]." Line 30-verso, line 13. In that letter Nissim had mentioned that he had shipped to Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan b. Bundār 1 1/4 manns camphor with the request to sell them in Aden and to send the proceeds to Nisslm's family; the camphor had arrived in Aden, but Nissim did not know whether Ḥasan had forwarded anything. That letter had been written exactly two years before. Recently a number of acquaintances, all mentioned by name, had arrived from Aden, some with letters and receipts from Adenese merchants. One receipt seemed to be connected with Nissim's shipment, and Nahray is asked to inquire into this and similar matters. Verso, lines 14-24. Having learned that the merchants who had arrived from Aden were returning there, Amram wrote to them letters and now asks Nahray to meet 'all of them' and to give them his letters. They should explain to Ḥasan b. Bundar that his "taking temporary possession of the camphor's proceeds as security against possible claims" was a great sin Verso, lines 24-31. On his way to the East, Nissim had met in Dahlak Sheikh Abu 'I-Ḥasan Salāma al-Maʿarrī, the brother of Sheikh Abū l-Ghanā'im. In the aforementioned letter (lines 13, 29 ff) Nissim had written that he had met that man again and asked him to carry with him the proceeds from the camphor from Aden, if they had not been sent before. Nahray is requested to find out whether this man had arrived in Fustat and whether he had brought any helpful message. Verso, lines 31-38. In the concluding part, Nahray is reminded to enquire about another traveler who was reported to have some news on the matter. One or two lines are missing at the end. {See the introduction to II, 3, for the dating.}" Description from India Book (see attached).

Fragment of a letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1025.

Condolence letter from Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat.

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen Ha-Ḥaver b. Yoshiyyahu, Tiberias, to Eli Ha-Ḥaver Ha-Me'ulle (b. Amram ?) in Fustat, approximately 1050.