Geniza Lab

Business letter from Rahamim b. 'Imran in Tinnis to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dated ca. 1055.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Letter from Ibn Qaḍīb to Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū Saʿīd. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning business matters such as the sale of gum mastic, and mentioning people including Tamīm Ibn al-Zayyāt, Munajjā b. Abī l-[...], Abū Naṣr, Abū Yaʿqūb, and the fact that Shemuel is arriving in Fusṭāṭ. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy, Fustat. Around 1080. Regarding several shipments of goods. Details about payments and supplies that the writer sends to Musa’s family in Alexandria. Mentions Mevorakh b. Se’adya the Nagid, about helping orphans. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #437) VMR

Letter from a man in Fustat to his brother, a silk weaver, who has fled to Aswan to escape the capitation tax collectors. He assures his brother that he can return since the capitation tax had been paid for the whole family.

Letter from the wife of Baṣīr the bell-maker (al-jalājilī) to the Nagid David, asking him to help return her husband, who was living in a Sufi community, to his family and to the Jewish faith. She also asks for medicine for her child. "Our Lord has promised the little one a medicine for the ear, for he suffers from it. There is no harm in trying it out, seeing that even the barber is playing with it without experience. May God have mercy!." "[This very night.]" (Information from CUDL)

Accounts containing a list of names and numbers in Arabic script with Coptic numerals, in the right margin and on the back of a letter (see PGPID 3737).

Letter from the Karaite congregation of Alexandria to the leader of their community, complaining about the helplessness and dissolution of the community. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 365) Reused for Arabic accounts with Coptic numerals (see PGPID 35173).

Letter in which the writer remarks that he was pleased to learn that the recipient, who had not written in a while, was well and promises to keep writing if his letters are reciprocated. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 294, 588)

Verso: Letter in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: Ca. 1026 CE. Referring to a speech made by Abū Isḥāq (Avraham b. Sahlān), a member of the Babylonian yeshiva, concerning the eclipse of the exclusive juridical authority of the Palestinian yeshiva (i.e. the authority of Efrayim b. Šemarya). (Information from Gil and CUDL)

Recto: Official letter in Arabic script. The beginnings of four lines are preserved. Refers to the beginning of the ebbing of the Nile. The rest is difficult to make sense of without the context. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter regarding business from Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī, probably in Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim (c. 1045 CE). On verso is the continuation of the letter and a (draft of a) letter in a different hand and ink, mentioning Abū Zechariah b. Menashshe and expressing the hope that [...] b. Abū Ibrahim al-Iskandarānī, who travelled from Barqa, is fine.

Letter from Farah b. Yusuf sending condolences for the death of a relative of the addressee and also discussing business. (Information from Gil)

Letter addressed to R. Yiṣḥaq by way of Binyamin ha-Zaqen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Repeating a request that a cantor leave the capital for the writer's village in order to conduct prayers there and promising that the cantor will be able to return immediately afterwards. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Beginning and address of a letter from Tahor b. Avraham to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zechariah. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter fragment from an unidentified sender, in Damsīs, to Abū l-Faraj Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Ibn ʿAwkal, likely in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: first half of the 11th century. On verso there are 5 lines of an unrelated account in Arabic script, referring to rent for a house and listing amounts and names. At the top of recto there is alphabet writing practice in Hebrew.

Fragmentary letter to a friend mentioning repeatedly the writer's gratitude. The hand resembles that of the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi, supported by his mention of his brother Musa. But needs further examination. ASE.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: Mamluk period (1250–1517), per Goitein. This document preserves a partnership agreement between two teachers, Raḍī b. ‘Abd al-‘Azīz b. Raḍī and Yeshu‘a Dukhān, in the manufacture and sale of cheese and other dairy products, for an unspecified fixed period. Each partner contributes both labor and capital: Raḍī is to be responsible for manufacture in the cheesemaking courtyard, bringing fifty qintār of halloumi cheese to the partnership. Yeshu‘a is to be responsible for sales, remaining in the shop and investing 1,000 silver half-dirhems, to be brought by Yeshu‘a in payments according to a schedule (see lines 10-12). Raḍī is to keep accounts. Profits and losses are to be divided equally, including rent for both the shop and the courtyard. Line 13 refers to the trustworthiness of the partners, important in this case since the two partners will not be working side by side. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 188)

Fragmentary business letter anxiously inquiring about the state of the wakils and the effect of some unknown event on them and on the public. Dated to the beginning of the 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 190)