Geniza Lab

Letter, likely sent to Abū l-Majd Meir b. Yakhin, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1216/17 CE (1528 Seleucid). The writer urges the addressee to come see his sister, who is very sick. She has a throbbing pain (ḍarabān) in her right hip; a burning pain in her heart; a nonhealing wound (the word looks like khalal) in her right thigh; and her tongue is dry. She prays to God that she will see the addressee's face before she dies. "When your [brother?] said to her, 'Let her take the rhubarb-barberry pastille and make it […] and hopefully it will abate,' my master, she said, 'I do not want any of this unless he obtains a prescription, and the prescribing physician prepares it for me and sends it.' This is deliverance, my master. They prescribed hiera oil (duhn al-iyārij) for her thigh, but it was not effective. What is killing her is the pain in her thigh. I do not need to urge you to come. If her condition becomes fatal, your mother will die next. She will never live after her. The best is for them to slake their yearning for you, and you will gain your mother’s prayers." The letter continues with an update on the addressee's brother Hilāl ('his condition is the same'); a description of a large funeral; something to do with the addressee's request for Masā'il Ḥullin and how he needs to be more specific; a long series of rebukes for the addressee's negligence in writing; and regards to various people. ASE.

Letter from S’hlan (?) to Abu Zakaria. Mid-11th century. Regarding a silk binding that a Spanish person gave the addressee with instructions who should receive it. The binding belonged to Abu al-Faraj Yisha’aya’s assistant. Abu Zakaria does not give it, because he thinks that it belongs to the writer, and the writer owes him money. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #768) VMR

Letter from Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq from Alexandria to his father in law, Seror (Surur) b. Ḥayyim b. Sabra in Fustat. Written a month after another letter: CUL Or.1080 J264 (Doc. #100 in Frenkel). He mentions pillaging in Maḥalla (the writer hopes that Abū l-Ḵayr Mubārak is safe), an epidemic (dever) in Fusṭāṭ and that the writer himself had been robbed. Also mentions Ibn Naḥum the cantor. Probably written in the 1060s. The scribe gives his name too: Musa b. Da'ud b. Ezra. Information from CUDL. ASE.

Note from Eli Ha-Mumhe b. Avraham to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Hagay, probably 1050.

Letter from Salama b. Nissim b. Ishaq al-Barki, from Busir, to Marduk b. Musa, Alexandria. Around 1055. Regarding money and goods that were delivered for the writer, from the Maghreb to Alexandria. Salama sends instructions what to send him to Busir, by Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti, what to sell in Alexandria, and what to keep there for the winter. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #644) VMR

Letter, consisting mainly of greetings, from Judah Levi to his family, including his brother-in-law Sulaymān, his brother Raḥamīm, his cousin Sawād, and the addressee’s sister, aunt and mother, all called Sitt al-Maṣūna. Also mentions Levi, Shelomo, Joseph, Elʿazar, and Shabbetay, among others. Dated 25th Sivan (probably 16th century). (Information from CUDL)

Strongly worded letter in which a young man is ordered to vacate the apartment let to his father and to remove his belongings by noon, for the place was let to his father, not to him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 96)

Letter to a Nagid, R. Yosef, from a community, mentioning that a certain orphan, the son of Avraham, has nothing left for food or clothing. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Meir, apologizing to al-Ḥaver Abu al-Ghayth for not being able to come to Minyat Zifta (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Abū Saʿīd b. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Abzārī, in the Maghreb, to his brother Abū l-Barakāt, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1098 CE. The writer traveled from Fustat for trading and arrived in Bijāya as intended. The Christian ship he traveled with encountered a Muslim fleet that captured Jerba. He describes the naval battle between Christians and Muslims. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #831.) VMR. Join: Oded Zinger.

Letter from Umm Isma'll asking Eliyyahu ha-dayyan to send her any money left in the collection for the poor. On verso are notes in the hand of Eliyyahu's son Shelomo.

Rhymed text (-bī) in Judaeo-Arabic. This may be a poem in honor of Rabbi Avraham. In the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter possibly in the hand of Abū Sahl Levi, possibly sent to Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Containing an answer to inquiry whether a family had left for Dammūh. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from a woman in Fustat to her sons. In a mixture of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic written in an elegant scribal hand. The writer reports the dire conditions in Fustat, including the plunder of the Dār al-Fā'izī (in the Judaeo-Arabic portion) and conveys news of the sick children in the house who are worsening day by day (in the Arabic portion). On verso are jottings in Arabic script, unclear if connected to recto. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Renee Levine Melammed.)

Fragment of a letter. Mentions Shelomo b. Eliyyahu the judge (the writer?), who was a teacher and scribe in Fustat during the first half of the 13th Century.

Letter from Avraham b. Madlūb(?) al-Maqdisī to Abū Saʿīd b. Abū Naṣr, in the square of the perfumers, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with very rudimentary spellings. The letter also speaks about Avraham al-Maqdisī in the third person. Mentions various business transactions and people such as ʿArafāt al-Baḥrī, the addressee's neighbor, Yehuda b. Yeshuʿa, and Ḥasan. The sender wants a certain kind of burniyya (vessel) "of the Fayyūm make." (Information in part from Goitein's index card and transcription.)

Recto: Letter to Judge Elijah from Perahyah b. Joseph about a needed release for a business venture. Verso: Arabic jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Judge Elijah orders a white "burda", some handwriting exercises at the bottom

Letter by Faraj b. Mansur, informing his brother of the death of his own boy and admonishing him not to open the writer's store. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter mentioning Reuben the apostate. In a late hand. Alternate description: Letter, mentioning Reuben ‘the proselyte’ and greetings to many family members, including the writer’s paternal uncle Zigdon and his maternal aunt Ḡarība. On verso are jottings which say ‘from ʿAmram אילא Zigdon’. C. 16th century. (Information from CUDL)