Geniza Lab

Recto: Family letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, asking for news of female captives which had been expected to arrive with ships from Acre. Verso: Another letter in a different hand, from a husband to his wife. He encourages her to send their two sons to school in the morning and in the evening, and sends along with the letter payment for their teacher. He warns that the boys’ noble descent will not help them - only their studies. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Hebrew. Dating: Late—Mamluk or early Ottoman era. From [...] b. Moshe to Yeshuʿa b. Nathan and his father, concerning a number of events including monies owed (in ducats/peraḥim) to various parties as well as reporting the deaths of a large number of Jews. The postscript on verso deals with events that have occurred since the recto was written. Mentions several individuals: Sulaymān b. Zikrī, Abū Makhlūf, Moses Tūnisī (תונסי), Yosef Ḥotani (חותני), Avraham, Yiṣḥaq the doctor, the wife of Yosef the Proselyte, and the cities of Gaza and Hebron. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Power of attorney from Sason b. Nathan to ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yaḥyā (Parnas), in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli (1066-1108 CE). Signed by Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Solomon and Joseph b. Elʿazar. Information from CUDL.

Piyyutim in an unknown hand. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shemarya b. Elhanan (966–1011 CE) about a woman abandoned by her husband ('Agunah) for seven years. The letter is apparently written to the maternal uncle (a communal official) of the deserting husband. This official is encouraged to sort this matter out, so that his family sets a good example. Letter is undated. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Baruch b. Yiṣḥaq to Yosef b. Shemuel, at Fustat, Misr. Baruch asks about events in Egypt and supplies information about his own community and activities, describing his devotion to the study of the Torah. 1094 A.D.

Marriage contract (ketubba), fragment. Includes a portion of a dowry list. Signed: Ḥalfon b. Mevasser; Elʿazar ha-Mumḥe; Mevorakh b. Avraham. On verso there are a few words in Hebrew, significance unclear.

Accounts in Arabic script with names and numbers arranged in neat columns. Needs examination. The space around this document has been filled with Judaeo-Arabic text going in all directions. Most of the Judaeo-Arabic is calendrical reckoning. But in the middle of the page: "Ibn Abū l-Faḍl al-Parnas died on 25 Tishrei 603 AH / 4967 AM," which is 1206 CE. On verso, the page is filled with a Hebrew panegyric to a certain Shelomo b. Yehuda (line 28) (if this is the famous 11th century gaon, 150 years would have to have elapsed between the poem and the Judaeo-Arabic text on the other side; though this could conceivably be a copy of an earlier poem). In the margins there are Arabic letters strung together in magical chains. In between the antepenultimate line and the penultimate line of the Hebrew poetry it says in Judaeo-Arabic "the number is 60 verses." At the very bottom, in Arabic script: al-ḥurūf al-nāṭiqa sabʿa ("the 'speaking letters' are 7"), which is followed by 7 letters that appear to be Coptic. ASE

Description from T-S 20.145: Letter/petition from ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen "the seventh" (the son-in-law of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva, Evyatar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen) to dignitaries in Fustat, including the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya. Dating: 1108–09 CE. The sender wants the addressee to exercise his influence to have the Fatimid navy rescue Evyatar and his family from Tripoli in the period between the summer of 1108 CE (when the populace of Tripoli overthrew Ibn ʿAmmār) and 12 July 1109 CE, when the Franks sacked Tripoli. (Information from Brendan Goldman's edition.) Description from T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177 (old PGPID 17817): Letter. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1108 CE, as it refers to the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār from Tripoli and how he left it in the hands of his cousin Abū l-Manāqib. The layout is like a formal report, with a narrow width and wide space between the lines. The sender says that he has previously sent a letter concerning "the same matter" to "our cousin," a great dignitary and a kohen. "They took it and traveled with it... toward the beginning of Shabbat Vayoshaʿ (=Beshalaḥ?), the day that Ibn ʿAmmār traveled for Beirut—let him return no more to his house, and let not his place know him any more (Job 7:10)—and then traveled for Tiberias (? טברי) to fortify himself there, and the city is now in the hand of his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū l-Manāqib." (Information in part from CUDL.) Joins by CUDL (for T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and Alan Elbaum (for T-S 20.145 + {T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177}). For an example of the Fatimid state document format which this is emulating, see another report concerning this period in Tripoli (unpublished): T-S AS 129.149 + T-S AS 116.11 + T-S NS 137.20 + T-S NS 207.44 + AIU I.C.73 + T-S NS 238.99 + T-S NS 244.84 (+ T-S NS 125.135). ASE

Right side of a legal document. a A barter of 2.5 pieces (thawb) of Indian red silk (ליניס/lēnīs = lānas) against two pots of rose preserve (ward murabbā). Other commodities are also mentioned (such as myrobalan). The parties are Elʿazar ha-Kohen and Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya ha-Kohen. Witnessed by Netanel b. Yosef. Dated: Dated: Iyyar 1420 Seleucid, which is 1109 CE. On verso there are piyyutim. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Enormous letter from Yoel ha-Melammed to Avraham the pious and to his brother Yosef, containing a request for help. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the Egyptian physician ʿAfīf b. Ezra, in Gaza (detained there en route from Cairo to Safed), to Shemuel b. Yequtiel al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew opening. Dating: The beginning of the 16th century. The letter is a plea for help. ʿAfīf reports that Shemuel's letter arrived and was read aloud to the congregation of Gaza, which prayed for him (r19–22). He continues with an account of the illnesses afflicting his family members (r23–v1), all of which he has described in previous letters but has not received any response. "The family had been in the Mediterranean port for two months at the time of the writing of the letter, kept there by illness. The son was gravely ill {with bārida (chills) and sukūna (stupor?) and a nearly unstoppable nosebleed (ruʿāf mufraṭ)}. ʿAfīf says that he had sold everything, including his clothing, for the boy's treatment. The wife was confined to bed (marmiyya), unable to see, hear, or speak {"like a stone thrown on the ground"}. Seven times ʿAfīf cries out "Oh my lord Samuel," imploring him to answer this letter, which was preceded by others that had gone unanswered. Now he promises that this would be the last one, asking the addressee at the same time not to force him to send still another one, for writing such a letter was an ordeal, and finding a carrier for it almost impossible. {"Send me a response before I no longer have a response or need a further letter. O God, o God, o God, I have melted like a candle. 'My heart is become like wax; it is melted in mine inmost parts' (Psalms 22:15). . . . I cannot write a letter and send it but that my heart melts. . . . Every letter that I write is with great distress. I can barely find with whom to send it but that my heart gives out (yanqaṭīʿ) from walking."} ʿAfīf rejects with indignation the charge that he had brought this disaster upon himself (ʿamila bi-rūḥihi) by his own fault (probably by disregarding the warning that the family would be unable to make the journey). Practicing as a physician in Safed (which at that time began to assume its role as a major holy city) was done "for Heaven's sake." No doubt his inability to gain a livelihood in Cairo was another reason." (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 86, notes 196–203.) ʿAfīf additionally reports that the righteous R. Pereẓ died on the same journey. Apart from the implied request for direct financial aid, ʿAfīf asks Shemuel to stand security for his sister in Fustat, who is to sell off ʿAfīf's share in a family property that brings in two half-dirhems (muayyadis) per month. ʿAfīf wishes to return to Cairo, but does not have money for hiring a donkey. ʿAfīf b. Ezra (also known as Yosef the Egyptian), along with his traveling companion R. Pereẓ, also appears in F 1908.44XX, lines 70–94. Information from Goitein (note card and Med Soc V). ASE.

Letter addressed to Hodaya b. Yishai the Exilarch from Damascus who visited Egypt in the 1230s to solicit money from the communities there and overstayed his welcome. This letter mentions that Hodaya's brother (probably Shelomo b. Yishai) had visited the community from which the letter was sent. From other documents we know that Hodaya spent a lot of time in Alexandria, and this letter may have been sent to him there. Verso: Letter in Arabic with pen trials written between the lines. (Information from CUDL)

Bottom of a legal document in Arabic script. About a dozen signatures are preserved. Reused for medico-magical recipes in Judaeo-Arabic, on the uses and preparation of the brains of animals, marrows, and seeds.

Ketubba fragment (lower left corner). In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (1100–38). Bride: Sitt al-Kull, a virgin. Early marriage payment: 10 dinars. Grand total: 95. Witnessed by Meshullam b. […]. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Legal query addressed to the Gaon and Nasi Daniel b. ʿAzarya in Jerusalem with regard to the goods of an Egyptian merchant, which had been requested by the Jewish court of Tripoli, Libya, after the carrier, his Sicilian ? had died on the sea. Dated: January 5, 1059 CE. There is a document quoted that is dated 23 February 1058 CE. See also T-S NS J161 + T-S 12.5 and Bodl. MS heb. a 3/9 (also known as Oxford a3 (2873), f.9, and published by Asaf, Responsa Geonica, 1942, 125–26). On verso there is poetry.

Recto and verso: Last leaf of a letter from a woman to Sitt Khuṣrawān. In Judaeo-Arabic. Expressing deep regret that the addresse, whom she revered more than her own mother, was leaving the country. This regret was shared by Abū l-Fakhr b. al-Dimyāṭī. On the reverse side a male person addresses another male leaving the country. The same scribe wrote both sides; the hand is notable for large, beautiful letters and the substitution of shin for sin. The names Menashshe and Zayn are mentioned. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Fragments of two lines of a grand state document, perhaps a decree. The word ملاحظتك is discernible.

Karaite marriage contract, dated ca. 1000. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 407)

Bill of release. Written (also validated) by Avraham b. Natan Av. Dated: 1104 or 1107 CE. Berakhot ha-Kohen releases Avraham ha-Dayyan and David(?) from a claim that his wife(?) sold a house and other belongings of their late daughter who was married to Berakhot(?) to Abū Naṣr during the prolonged absence of Berakhot in Syria. Abū Naṣr said that Berakhot had made קינוניא(?) with the family of his late wife, since a long time after his return from Syria with his daguther, he had not made any claim. Finally, Berakhot received 12 dinars and gives this bill of release, especially specifying that he will not file a claim in Muslim courts. The house was in Qaṣr al-Rūm, 2 doors, one on the street (shāriʿ), the other on the alley (zuqāq) of Azhar al-Shofeṭ. One of the boundaries: Umm Abū l-Faḍl Ibn al-Shofeṭ. Signed by Ḥalfon b. Yoef, Menaḥam b. Shemuel, Yakhin b. Mevorakh, the parnas and trustee Yosef b. Shelomo, Peraḥya b. Yeḥezqel, Ḥalfon […], […] b. Mevorakh, and […] b. Shemuel. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)