Geniza Lab

Letter, explaining how the writer and the community went to visit Abū l-Munā, who had just arrived in Damīra. Ca. 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from a letter, mentioning Sitt Mubārak. (Information from CUDL)

Letter concerning business matters. In Judaeo-Arabic. Many tantalizing details, but too fragmentary to understand. Mentions: 1000 dirhams; "whatever you wish, send it and I will sell it... [and tell me what is] in demand, and I will send it to you"; a group of people called אלכתלאניה (the Catalans??); 2200 dinars and maghribī dirhams; half of the silver is for Ibrāhīm; a Qaraite man; Bū l-Thanāʾ or Bū l-Munā; a funduq and silk; the ṣināʿa (either the main port / customs house in Fustat or the arsenal); the guard; the Franks; Ismāʿīl; the ḥujra (barracks?); Ismāʿil leaving the funduq; and "his partner Manṣūr and a lot of money." (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower left corner of recto). He complains about the lack of letters ever since he arrived in his location. Not much else is preserved. (Information in part from CUDL)

Lower part of a court record concerning a sum of money (150 dinars) and a house. Dated: Ṣafar 523 AH (= January/February 1129 CE). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from a woman, referring to a previous conversation during which the addressee had pointed out that the writer was owed money by a third party, probably from her dowry. Quite possibly written by the woman herself as the hand is slightly crude. Mentions the Nagid and a Ḥaver. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: letter from Meʾir to Ḥananʾel al-Talmid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Confirming that action in a previously raised matter will be taken, possibly on the coming Sunday. Mentions two copies of books that should be perused. Verso: document in Arabic script. Probably a commercial account. Refers to various people (al-shaykh al-ajall X), including Natan. Might mention a sum of dinars at the bottom. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment in a late, very crude hand, probably a letter. (Information from CUDL)

Letter/petition in Judaeo-Arabic. Recto is mostly extended expressions of deference and flattery. Starting about halfway through verso, it appears that the sender is asking for an appointment as a cantor (תגעלוני בחכם... פי מנזלה חזאניכם). The ḥaver (probably the addressee) should judge between the sender and (presumably his rival) Menashshe the musician (? al-Mizmār). He then cites the saying of Yehoshuaʿ b. Qarḥa from BM 83b, "Let the owner of the vineyard come and eradicate his thorns" (יבא בעל הכרם ויכלה את קוציו). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Begging letter asking for financial support. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a communal letter in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. The middles of four lines are preserved, wide spacing between the lines. May be a letter of appointment for a muqaddam and/or cantor, or instructions to resolve a dispute about leadership: "... with your staying (or: his staying with you?) on whichever Shabbat he chooses... and he is deserving and must be honored... and helped and supported for various reasons, the first of which...." (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Fragment (upper right corner). The addressee is called al-shaykh al-ajall... al-muwaffaq al-ṣadīq al-kohen al-vatiq. The sender complains that this year he has perished and his flesh has been afflicted (...fī hādhihi al-sana alladhī halaktu... ilā allāh taʿālā wa-qad baliya laḥmī...). On verso there are jottings of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 12th century. Addressed to 'my brother,' a notable given many titles and blessings (לכתר עם האלהים... תפארת בני מ.ל... וכל מנצח גם משורר לו יעידון... פאר עמו ועטרת עדתו... יחייהו ויזכהו נוטה זבולים לבנין... ויזכה בקרוב לחופה יקרה בחיי...). Headed by the verse יקימך ייי לו לעם קדוש (Deut. 28:9). The sender reports on the settlement he has reached with someone; "the evil was from Abū l-Khayr..."; my settlement was difficult to me...." Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic; might be the continuation of recto, but might be in a different hand. Mentions the tax/customs of אלחמירה(?); how certain people's houses were locked up and sealed; Faḍāʾil al-Naṣrānī (the Christian) was forced to go into hiding (amr aḥwajahū ilā l-khafiyya); then mentions, "going out to you every day of the week to stay with you... on Saturday, al-Bama (? אלבָמָה) will go while he is weak(?) of eyesight(?)... write him the letter of your justice(?)... and he will not stay. Know, O my brother... the envious one(?) from the family of(?)... requires the [...] and secrecy...." (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Recto: letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. CUDL dates it to 14th–15th century probably based on the use of the verb "ארסל" for "send," but in fact this verb is used frequently in the classical Geniza period. Little of the content is preserved. Verso: dirge in Hebrew for a deceased mother. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter of appeal for charity: the sender asks for half a dirham to buy food. The sender may blame 'the gentiles' for his distress in l. 9. Otherwise mostly formulaic. (Information in part from CUDL)

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Written by Hananel b. Shemuel. He exhorts the addressee to assist al-Shaykh al-Nafīs, evidently concerning a legal query which the latter had submitted. "The illustrious Judge" will inform the addressee all the details of the case. On verso there are also Greek/Coptic numerals, possibly accounts, together with the word "the total" written in Arabic script. (Information from AA, Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition, and ASE.)

Letter mentioning Alexandria, ca. 15th-16th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter, referring to a person who writes piyyuṭim. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a man to his father. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 1238–52 CE, as it has to do with the removal of David I Maimonides from the post of Rayyis al-Yahūd (his tenure began in 1238, and he was reappointed in 1252 according to T-S 16.63). The sender reports on a circumcision that he performed on the 9th of Av for (the newborn son of) Mufaḍḍal al-ʿAnbarī, the paternal uncle of Muhadhdhab and Abū Saʿd al-ʿAnbarī. He then reports that the majlis of the Head of the Jews (=David I Maimonides) has been closed (the sender is on the side of David's opponents). R. Ḥananel has disappeared; some say that he went to Qūṣ, some say Alexandria, and some say he is hiding in Fustat. His son now gives public lectures on Shabbat and Monday and Thursday eves. "The ban of excommunication, the shofar, and the name of the Rayyis in the ketubba have all vanished from Fustat/Egypt." On Shabbat Devarim, the new Nasi, the brother of Shelomo, delivered the sermon. The same day, a decree was proclaimed, requiring Christians and Jews to wear a distinctive mark (ʿalāma and zunnār) under threat of life and forfeit of property. The sick son of Mardūk is improving; "the wife" is in her 7th month of pregnancy; the pressing (of grapes) has been much delayed this year. Information in part from CUDL and Goitein, "A Letter to Maimonides and New Sources regarding the Negidim of this Family" (Heb.), Tarbiz 34 (1965). ASE

Letter from Abū Saʿīd to his son. In Judaeo-Arabic. The son was ill. The letter concerns the forwarding of responsa. The writer is also in difficult straits. (Information in part from CUDL)