Geniza Lab

Letter from Avraham b. Abi al-Hayy, from Alexandria, to his brother Musa. Around 1075. The writer is worried about their sister, Jarba, who is about to get married but still does not have a bed and bedsheets. Abū l-Ḥayy is sick and Avraham asks again that he will get him a prescription. He first asked in the preceding letter, F 1908.44C. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #470) VMR

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ottoman era. The year actually appears on verso but does not make immediate sense: 24 Ramadan נסץ(?). Beautiful hand. Items sold include food, materia medica, and steel.

Deed of sale for the sale of a female slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: Tuesday, 1 Nisan 1537 Seleucid, which is 31 March 1226 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. This is a copy of T-S 13J4.2. Yiṣḥaq b. Yehuda Ibn al-Mashshāṭ, agent (wakīl) of Yeshuʿa b. Hillel Ibn Zikr, sells to Hillel b. Barakāt the female slave Ḍiyāʾ, who was born into slavery (muwallad) and was brought (musayyara) to Fustat. Price: 25 dinars. Not signed. Seems to be a (good) copy made by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 433, 458, and from Goitein's index cards)

Accounts similar to CUL Or.1080 J250 and CUL Or.1080 J261. ʿArūs b. Yūsuf is referred to (in another hand). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, late.

Letter from Isḥaq b. ʿImrān, probably in al-Maḥalla, to the parnas Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Yahya, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. The letter concerns Efrayim, a poor man from al-Maḥalla, whose wife did not wish to live in the Rīf and traveled to Fustat on her own without his permission. The sender had previously received instructions from the addressee about this case. The man is poor and cannot afford to live in Fustat, but offers her the option to live in Damietta. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

A miscellany. On recto there are very elaborate praises for God in Judaeo-Arabic. On verso there are three different keys to Hebrew ciphers. The first is the same as in Bodl. MS heb. f 102/28, the second is simply atbash, and the third is based on the mnemonic הקץ עצל דיך מנום כזב גרש פן תסף חטא, a Hebrew version of "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." On the facing page there is a prescription for a medicinal syrup ("sharāb mudabbir") (cf. Chipman, The World of Pharmacy and Pharmacists, p. 189).

Letter from a man, in Fustat, to his mother, unknown location. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th or maybe 13th century. He speaks about his children (he probably also had a wife). He had been in al-Maḥalla for 2 months, then came to Fustat intending to stay only 5 days, but it was impossible to leave on account of the children. He now sends her 40 dirhams with Ibrāhim Ibn al-Ashqar. She should pay 5 to Abū ʿAlī and buy 10 dirhams of wheat (qamḥ) for the children. He gives further difficult-to-understand instructions for what to do with the rest of the money—maybe orders for spinning (istighzāl)? He is staying with Abū Naṣr b. Karīm at Qaʿāt al-Fāḍil. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Barakāt al-Ḥarīrī in Alexandria. See Goitein Nachlass material (transcription). See also ENA 2559.10 - same writer, same recipient.

Legal notes notarized by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Dating: Early 13th century. (1) Location: New Cairo. Shelomo b. Yiṣḥaq had paid 30 dinars and Abū l-Faḍāʾil b. Abū l-Barakāt 52 dirhams into a partnership. It was agreed that Shelomo, who was also the agent, would take 23 parts and Abū l-Faḍāʾil only 1/24. Shelomo had left the whole sum in Qūṣ and takes responsibility for the whole sum of the money or its equivalent. (2) Yaḥyā ("ha-Sar ha-Yaqar") receives from Shela b. Berakhot 3000 dirhams as loan. No additional details. (3) The same two men each produced 600 dirhams, each for a partnership to last a year. At the bottom of verso there are additional notes (accounting?) in Judaeo-Arabic, Arabic script, and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentions Bū l-Khayr al-Nafīs. (Information from Goitein's attached notes.)

Letter from a local Dayyan to Avraham Maimonides. Dating: ca. 1229/30 CE.

Letter to a certain [...] Ḥemdat ha-Yeshiva b. Yosef ha-Zaqen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Generous space between the lines. Mentions the addressee's arrival in (or departure from?) Bilbays; a letter from a Gaon; and many people send their regards (Abū l-Barakāt; al-Baghdādī; Abū l-Faraj; Hiba; Abū Saʿd; and Yūsuf).

Deposition made in court, under duress. Dating: ca. 1130s–40s CE. The issue concerns a house worth 300 dinars; 150 were paid. Then it was estimated as being worth 270 dinars; 100 were paid, and someone had to pay another 10. Threats were made by the nephew Munajjā b. Sulaymān/Shelomo. There is a complicated issue of inheritance and heirs who had converted to Islam ("poshʿim"). Goitein notes that the nephew Munajjā b. Shelomo signed T-S 13J3.6 in 1145 CE (but this shelfmark does not appear to be correct). Munajjā b. Shelomo also signed T-S 8J7.6 together with Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Saʿdān b. Thābit al-Baghdādī ha-Levi, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1135 CE. Goitein identified the sender based on his handwriting (which is corroborated by the content of IV,89). Apparently, Saʿdān had sent Ḥalfon a shipment of pearls. He complains about Ḥalfon’s plan to travel to Damascus by land rather than by ship from Alexandria because Saʿdān expected them to meet there, and so Ḥalfon would pay all or part of the debt that Ḥalfon's brother Abū ʿAlī Yeḥezqel owed to Saʿdān. Ḥalfon had already described to Saʿdān the difficult illness of Yeḥezqel. According to Saʿdān, the deposit of silk which Ḥalfon had deposited with him was not sufficient to repay the debt. Goitein remarks, "The beautiful style abounding in courtesy, even as the writer complains of being harmed, is reminiscent of Spanish letters, and there is no doubt that the writing manners that Saʿdān found while in Spain stuck with him." (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; see Hebrew description below.)

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides, written to Nissim Ha-Dayyan (judge).

Marriage contract (ketubba). Fragment (left side only). In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel. Location: Fustat. Dated: [14]66 Seleucid, which is 1144/45 CE. Groom: Avraham b. Abū l-Faraj. Bride: ʿAdhb. Marriage payments: 1 + 1 = 2. No dowry. Signed by Natan b. Yaḥyā. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Note from David b. Yehuda ha-Ḥaver, in Bilbays, to Avraham Maimonides, in Fustat/Cairo. Dated: 1532 Seleucid, which is 1220/21 CE. He asks to receive the 'reshut' (authority?) from Avraham to preside over this marriage between the groom Abū l-Munā and 'the girl,' who has appointed her father as her agent. He also asks if it is permissible to use the text of the ketubba drafted on the other side. ("If there is an error in the draft, instruct me to correct it.") "Whether or not the Nagid gave his approval to this ketubba is not preserved; the form, incidentally, does contain a few scribal errors." Information in part from Mordechai Akiva Friedman, "The Minimum Mohar Payment as Reflected in the Geniza Documents: Marriage Gift or Endowment Pledge?" (1976).

Legal document. Partnership dissolution. Dated: 1152. Location: Fustat. Under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Hiba al-Abzārī b. Abū Isḥaq al-Tawwazī and Abū l-Faḍāʾil Yaʿqūb al-Raffāʾ release one another from a partnership, leaving Hiba owing Abū l-Faḍāʾil 6 dinars, to be repaid according to a schedule. The separation of the partners also leaves the two partners returning what seems to be a debt to their investor Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-ʿUrs; Hiba will pay 60-70 dinars and Abū l-Faḍāʾil will pay 13 dinars. Interestingly, each of the partners is left with a separate debt to Abū l-Ḥasan, distinct from the assets of his partner; thus, following the separation, the parties are no longer jointly liable even for debts which were accrued during the life of the partnership. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 279-280; Jacob Mann, "The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs," 1:230, 2:237; and Goitein's index cards.)

Marriage contract (ketubba). Location: Fustat. Dated: Kislev 1414 Seleucid, which is 1112 CE. Groom: Meshullam b. David. Bride: Sutūt bt. Ṭahor, the divorcee of Yefet b. Khiyār. Marriage payments: 1 + 3 = 4. No trousseau. At the very end: "she produced her geṭ and we tore it." Witnesses: Elʿazar b. Ghālib; Yiṣḥaq b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel; Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen; Sason b. [...]. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter that mentions the death of Aharon b. Yeshu'a Ibn al-'Ammani. A man writes to his two brothers in Alexandria. He left Alexandria for Fustat in order to get from the sons of Aharon b. Yeshu'a an authorization to receive an inheritance that was deposited with him for them. The writer succeeded in receiving from the sons of Aharon a letter that instructed the third brother, Abu al-Jith, residing in Alexandria, to give to the bearer of this letter the appropriate document, as well as a letter from the Nagid, Shemuel b. Hanan that instructs his Na'ib (his deputy) in Alexandria to give assistance in regards to the will. The entire matter is connected with a dispute with Bani Musa, a powerful family in Alexandria. We learn from the letter that Aharon was in possession of the court documents and he was in charge of their safekeeping. With his death, this responsibility passed over to his son. (Information from Frenkel)