Geniza Lab

Recto: possible letter dealing with preparations for marriage, quoting BT Ketubbot. Verso: pen trials including various doodles. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to Shemuʾel al-Jibālī from his cousin (15th-16th century). (Information from CUDL)

Letter, c. 16th century, written on behalf of and signed by Joseph Karo, in the land of Israel, to Jacob Villarreal, in Egypt. Joseph requests repayment of a loan, and that payment should be made through Shelomo Sirilio and Isaac Alashqar. (Information from CUDL)

Letter, from Shemuʾel ha-Kohen, in Jerusalem, to various community leaders in Fusṭāṭ, in which the writer asks whether he can use a sermon to discuss his financial needs. Mentions Abraham Ashkenazi, and Isaac Ezmeralda. (Information from CUDL)

Left side of a letter sent by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe to his brother in law, in which the sender writes that Eli had served the Tala'i', and asking the recipient to send him a mantle for his shoulders. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 47, 518, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the office of the Nagid Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355), to the Jewish community in Cairo. He is ordering them to pay back to the public collection for the money (150 dirhams) that was taken from it to the capitation tax, for the poor that could not pay. This amount of money was taken from the "food for the poor" section in the collection. Mid 14th century (Ashtor estimation). VMR

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zecharia from Mansur, regarding the dispatch of some books. (Information from CUDL)

Calligraphic letter sent by Eliyyahu b. Khalaf to a man, evidently the head of the Jews in Fustat or Cairo, emphasizing that the community in his town enjoyed security and peace. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 349, 350, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Fustat. Dating: 1141 CE. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ reports on quarrels and intrigues within the Alexandrian community regarding the visit of Yehuda ha-Levi and also includes information about the compilation of Yehuda ha-Levi's new poems in a dīwān. He adds a clandestine postscript in Arabic script, "Burn after reading." (Information from Frenkel.)

Family letter sent to New Cairo. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 14th–15th century if not later. Starting with biblical quotations and containing greetings to various people, probably relatives of the sender.

Letter sent from Qayrawan by Yosef b. Labrat al-Fasi to Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. Awkal in Fustat, inquiring about merchandise sent to the Maghreb and mentioning Yaʿaqov b. Nissim ibn Shahin and a manuscript ordered by Ibn Awkal. (Information from Gil)

Letter fragment. In Hebrew. Dating: end of the 10th or beginning of the 11th century. From Yosef b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn Abitur, in Spain (either Merida or Cordoba), probably to Shemarya b. Elḥanan, in Fustat. Greetings are sent on behalf of the writer’s sons Isaac and Mordechai, seeking the support of the recipient. Mentions Khalfa b. Taḥkemon. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Abū l-Ḥayy b. Avraham, in Ifrīqiyya, to his uncle, Moshe b. Abī l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Mid-11th century. A moving letter, describing two sieges (on Qayrawān?) by the Hijazis (the Hilal Bedouins) and further threats of persecution of the Jews. The addressee's brother is very sick. He started to improve, but is now deteriorating from 'the constriction of his akhlāq' (meaning uncertain, but see tag) and from the pain. The writer does not seem to expect him to live long ("may God unite the two of you before he leaves this world"). (Information in part from Med Soc II, 283, 588, and from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣadaqa al-Maghribī, in Jerusalem, to Abū Zakariyyā Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār b. Madīnī ("Palermitan"), in Fustat. Dating: ca. March 1055 CE, according to Gil. Abūn first consoles Ḥayyim on the death of a son, and he then vehemently refutes allegations against his integrity (charges of debts to the government and the office of the inheritance up to 1000 dinars). He curses his enemies with ṣaraʿat, the biblical disease akin to leprosy, citing a rabbinic dictum: "Anyone who suspects an innocent man is afflicted in his body." Abūn wrote this letter in "bitterness of spirit." He excuses Ḥayyim's bad behavior, as he knows he Ḥayyim is not himself due to his grief; "The afflictions of Fate change one's akhlāq, especially such a disaster as that which afflicted your heart." Abūn complains that Nahray b. Nissim has received his letters but does not respond. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Broach, India; 1134 This is a draft from the top of a letter that had to be sent from northwest India to Aden, to a Ramat Ma'alah personality known as רייס. As Goitein surmised, it can be assumed with certainty that the recipient was Masmun b. Hassan, the head of the Jews of Yemen and the 'official of the merchants' there. Some of the business was already arranged in Aden, 'in his seat' and in his presence. The writer stayed in India for a second year. He sends a large shipment of fabrics to Aden by Barakāt b. Mūsā al-Ḥalabi. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon, in Tinnīs, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: August 20, 1046. The writer describes his difficulties. He almost did not collect the debt from al-Ḥarīrī (the silk merchant) in Damsīs. Selling linen was hard because a better product arrived from the Levant (Ashqelon and Arṣūf (and?) Tyre). Selling Nahray's silk was hard, as wel,l because of the superior silk the ghulām of Ibn Abī l-Zaffāt brought from Spain. It was likewise hard to sell lacquer. When he arrived back home, he found his son and daughter ill with smallpox. "When I arrive{d} I found the little one ill (ḍaʿīf). He became affected by smallpox (itjaddara), he and his sister, and people are preoccupied about him (wa-huwa taḥta shughl). May God grant relief in His mercy." Gil reads instead "itjaddada," which would simply mean that the illness was renewed and there was no smallpox. But perhaps this is less likely, because the letter does not describe any prior reprieve from the illness, and because the subject of the verb is "he and his sister," not the illness. Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #583 and Goitein's note card (#27119). VMR. ASE.

Letter sent by Ṭoviya b. ʿEli ha-Kohen, writing from the countryside to his cousin, the judge Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen. Dating: 1122–50, based on the dated documents of the addressee. In a mix of Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, the latter used especially for sensitive topics. The letter describes the pillage (nahb), famine, and the persecution of the Jews it entailed and describing many other public and private issues. On verso, Ṭoviya gives a brief update on his wife's condition: she is emerging from her illness (mysterious attacks of chills and burning sensations, see T-S 12.234 and Bodl. MS heb. d.66/141), but she cannot tolerate being near fire or in the kitchen. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 106, 524.) ASE.

Beginning of the taqqanah (ordinance) of al-Mahalla, continued in T-S 16.135. See there for fuller description. Ed. Blau, Teshuvot ha-Rambam, vol. 2, 516-518.