Geniza Lab

Complete calligraphic letter without names or details, reminding some persons to induce the jamā‘a (community) to contribute to the collection (מן מאלהם במא אלהמהם אללה). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS and VMR

Dirge, mentioning suffering, evil words, mockery and reproaches, and referring to some of the last kings of Judaea (Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Josiah). Probably lamentations for the 9th of Av (qinot, or a similar type of text). (Information from CUDL)

Letter/petition. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 12th century, during the tenure of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The sender asks the addressee to assist him with ‘tadbīr’ (management, regimen) so that he can petition or something similar. He offers blessings for the recovery of the Nagid Shemuel. (Goitein’s index cards). EMS

Recto: letter to Moses ha-Kohen השר האדיר, whose name appears in the opening of the letter and in the address on verso. Also mentions Mordechai השר הנכבד. It is prefaced with two lines of biblical quotations, marked with supralinear dots in a triangle. The extant text consists of opening blessings; the content (not preserved) is introduced by [אלו הטורים להו[דיע. There is an additional greeting in the top margin, ושלמה יגדל. Verso: address. Probably late 11th-12th century. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Blessing on someone, mentioning Ya'ir ha-sofet b. Avraham. Verso: Short text discussing usages of ידח and ידחו, followed by a citation of Job 37:1. (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Letter from a man who travelled from Alexandria and stayed in Fustat only for the Sabbath. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:12, 506) EMS Verso: Jottings in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Letter requesting (probably financial) help from someone addressed as ‘my lord': the writer asks for something to be sent to him through his sister's husband. He complains that his expenditure is increasing and makes reference to ‘more than an Egyptian dinar'. A number of names and titles are given, including ‘the son of the Ga'on זצ״ל', Shemuel ha-Kohen and Nataniel he-haver. (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Elʿazar Shammāʿ (candle maker or seller) to Abū l-Fakhr b. Abū l-Maʿālī. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Only the opening and the address are preserved, along with a note in the upper margin requesting a speedy response, together with the fatwas (responsa) of Bū l-Maʿālī. EMS. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment of letter containing polite formulae and mentioning the fast day of Yom Kippur. EMS

Letter from Yosef b. Aharon the cantor to a certain Abū l-Faraj. Mentions the Nasi; his brother-in-law Abū ʿAlī; the gloating of enemies; then, "by God and by the bones of your father! Do not lift your hand from (supporting) me; they have cut off my living(?). The Rayyis cried out and said everything, but it didn't help at all. You promised me that you would be on my side." The letter concludes with blessings in Hebrew. EMS

Letter from a member of the nasi family of Mosul addressed to Shelomo b. Yishay describing a visit of the writer when he was a young boy to the house of Moses Maimonides. He mentions a servant of Maimonides, describing him as the “keeper of the curtain,” a duty similar to that of an usher. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:381, 454; 5:65, 522) EMS

Business accounts. In the hand of ʿArūs b. Yosef?

Letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Ḥisday ha-Nasi (a Qaraite communal leader) concerning a husband who wishes to divorce the wife he had been coerced into marrying in Alexandria. The husband demands to pay the marriage gift in installments (i.e., never completely) after all that he had suffered from her bad character (al-tarbut raʿa). He has been with her for three years, but it feels like twenty. He is perishing from his illness (maraḍ) and poverty and bad wife. If his request is refused, he threatens to flee the country and leave her an ʿaguna. Shelomo is probably not writing on his own behalf, as it is unlikely that he would consult a Qaraite Nasi for a legal opinion. Contains elements of both a petition and responsum. There is a provocative (mis)quotation of Leviticus 14:45 on verso: "I have broken (should be: he shall break) down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, etc." With this the husband is comparing his wife (referred to as one's 'house' in Judaeo-Arabic) with a house stricken with ẓaraʿat. (Information from CUDL and Oded Zinger, Women, Gender and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 87, 149, 180, 220, 260.) EMS. ASE.

Letter fragment from the lepers of Tiberias, approximately 1030. There are only traces of text on verso.

Letter from Shelomo ha-[...] to semarya [...]. The writer informs him that he (or perhaps someone else) has reached Hanes (Tannis). (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Letter from Yusuf b. al-Lukhtūsh, probably from Granada, to Ḥalfon, after leaving Granada. After October 1138. The writer writes about his willingness to see Ḥalfon again and to receive a letter from him and mentions some business matters with Yehuda b. Ghiyat. (Information from Goitein and Friedman "Ḥalfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar (India Book 4), pp: 210-213) VMR Probably Granada; After October 1138

Recto: Letter opening, fragmentary, in Hebrew in which the writer praises the recipient. Some faint Arabic text is preserved in the top margin; the names of the writer and addressee are not preserved. Verso: Fragment of an unrelated text in Judeo-Arabic. The top margin (first line of the fragment) is in a different hand and contains Arabic jottings, matching the Arabic writing on the recto. EMS and VMR

Letter by Shelomo b. Meʾir Rosh ha-Seder, descendant of Meʾir Gaʾon, to Avraham Kahana b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from CUDL)

Letter by Ḥalfon to the Dayyan Yosef explaining that the Nagid told him that the daughter of the late Mufaddal b. al-Dimyati al-Kohen was otherwise engaged and should not have married Nissim Abu al-Ma‘ani, the writer’s business partner. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Response to the inquiry on the recto, in which the judge replies, “I learned that this girl was engaged several times, but it is not clear to me whether a marriage was contracted with anyone of those who proposed and became engaged to her.” There was a ‘milak’ but it’s not clear if there was a ‘qiddushin’. The judge states that the mother would know. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:80, 443) EMS