Geniza Lab

Legal document. Bū l-Majd b. Thābit, known as Meir b. Yakhin, appoints his brother Hilāl/Hillel as his attorney for all his claims and in particular those resulting from the estate of his deceased wife Sitt al-Dār bt. Bū l-Faḍl. Information from Goitein’s index card.

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Awaiting description - see Goitein notes linked below.

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The part preserved here contains mostly eloquent expressions of longing. Verso: Upper part of a letter from Shelomo (b. Eliyyahu?) to "my honored father." In Hebrew (which is unusual for him). He reports that he intended to come to Fustat. May refer to the tax authorities: בעלי המכס. "I went up, I and my mother and the bride to the dear young man (ha-baḥur ha-yaqar) Tamīm in Minyat [...]...." (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Yeshua ha-Ḥaver b. Zabaga, who moved from Jerusalem to Fustat with his family, asking for help from the community in Fustat. He wote a few letters and left space to write the addressees. In this letter, he wrote "Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yosef". Around 1030. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 621, #338) VMR

Legal document from the time of Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) regarding a debt of 96 dirhams. Written by Shlomo b. Eliyyahu. AA

Verso: Note in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking the addressee to pay the bearer one dirham, "because the need for it is urgent." This is written on the back of a torn fragment of a legal document from the time of the Nagid Avraham Maimonides. (Information from Cohen.) AA.

Letter from an unidentified sender to a certain Yisraʾel. In Hebrew. Concerning the delivery of letters or books.

Business letter mentioning the sender's son.

Earlier document: Letter from a certain Abū Saʿd (aka Seʿadya) to three addressees: David, someone else (Avraham?), and someone called only al-Ḥasid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 13th century, based on handwriting and typical titles and names (it might be possible to narrow this estimate). The letter conveys personal wishes and sadness to have missed the addressees in synagogue on the past Shabbat and also to miss them on the coming Shabbat. The postscript reports that "our master" (sayyidnā, i.e.., the head of the Jews) told the sender that the addressee needs (or: has nothing more belonging to him except) flour and meat. Later document: One of the addressees of the original letter crossed out all of the honorifics and terms of self-abasement, inverted them, and added a brief response to the letter, partially in between the lines and mainly in the margin of recto and spilling over onto verso. The sender of the response says only that he too missed the sender of the original letter and twice urges him to greet Abū Manṣūr the cantor on his behalf. For other cases of the addressee inverting all the abasement/honoring clauses and sending back the same note, see T-S 6J5.18, T-S 8J16.1, and Bodl. MS heb. f 101/43. ASE

Letter containing good wishes.

Fragment of a letter conveying greetings and expressing sadness about being separated from the recipient. Likely a join with T-S 13J8.23 (identified by Oded Zinger).

Official letter from the office of one of the later Maimonidean Nagids. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: between the late 13th and 1355 CE. Instructing the beadle Sulaymān to urgently summon to court a woman who had refused to accompany her husband Ṣadaqa Ibn al-Rofeʾ the previous week when he came to the court to complain about her. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 178, 464, and from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Letter likely from Yedutun ha-Levi. In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing advice concerning the domestic affairs of the recipient. "This small piece of paper contains a short letter to a husband who fought with his wife, who was also his cousin (FBD). Apparently, the wife left the home for her fatherʼs house, and the husband is told that if he desires his wife, he ought to go to her father and accept what he has to say. Then the couple should give the marriage another chance for two months, without the wifeʼs father or mother entering into their house. If this does not work, he ought to divorce her immediately." Information from Zinger's dissertation, p. 343.

Letter reporting, among other things, the very high price of wheat and lamenting that 'our children are dying of hunger.'

Fragment of a letter from Yehuda b. Sahl, Alexandria(?), to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: ca. 1050. Regarding goods, several of which are for shipment to Sicily. Mentions interesting information about delivery of books. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #723) VMR

Appeal for help with a personal problem.

Fragment of a letter in which the author refers to hardships being endured.

Letter to the cantor Shemuel from a friend who expresses his affection.

Letter from a woman in the countryside to her husband in Fustat. She refuses to join him there in the capital. The letter is to be delivered to the shop of Bū l-Majd in Sūq al-Barbar. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 178)