Geniza Lab

Letter from Qūṣ in Upper Egypt. Fragment (missing a small piece from the top and a large piece from the bottom). In Judaeo-Arabic. Many blessings to the address (e.g., "may God avert the eyes of your enviers and rub in the dirt the noses of your opponents"). The sender reports that the addressee's letter (from Fustat) finally arrived in Qūṣ after a lapse of 50 days. From that letter, he learned about what happened to Abū l-Ṭāhir b. Nānū (perhaps the death of a son). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from the wife of Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat, to her husband Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Alexandria. The letter was dictated to Abū l-Faraj, who gives his name toward the end of the letter (v9-10); Gil suggests that he is their son. The writer conveys her concern for what she heard of her husband's illness (wajaʿ). She describes her father's and her own misfortunes, and discusses the famine in Fustat. The sugar and the rose preserves that Yehuda said he sent never arrived. Dated September 26 (18 Tishrei), 1070 CE (Gil's suggestion based on the similarity between events described in the letter and those known to have transpired in 462H). ASE.

Letter from Abū Manṣūr, perhaps in Alexandria, to his 'brother' Abū Saʿd, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century, based on the script and appearance. Dealing largely with business matters. The writer has sent 1 2/3 raṭls of flax/linen with this letter. Both he and the addressee are in the garment-making trade. The writer gives instructions for hemming an ʿarḍī garment with either silk or linen or both. The addressee's mother is mentioned. Vitriol (zāj) is another commodity they deal with; the addressee had promised to send some, but he never did. T-S 12.309 is another letter with the same writer and addressee. ASE

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dating: ca. 1090 CE. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. One ‘Ulla and one Yaḥyā release one another from a partnership. These individuals are likely Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā b. Samuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī and Abū al-‘Alā ‘Ulla b. Joseph ha-Levi al-Dimashqī, who repeatedly release one another and rekindle their partnership in a number of documents in the Geniza corpus. The majority of the present document concerns the establishment of a 2-year long-distance trading partnership. This release from that partnership includes the text of the contract. One of the partners invested 120 dinars, and the other one 150. Both partners would trade actively. Profits and losses are to be split evenly. The active partner is liable for losses at sea, a departure from the commenda model (see also the verso of T-S K25.153, PGPID 9291, for an example). On the verso there are jottings and accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals ("expenses on Sunday: syrup(?)... sugar... a cup of [...]... chicken: 3...."). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 273-274; and from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter of condolence from the cantor Natan b. Mevorakh ha-Kohen, in Ashqelon, to the father of an Efrayim. The letter contains many biblical quotations. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The handwriting is very likely that of Mūsā b. Yaʿqūb/Moshe b. Yaʿaqov writing from somewhere in the Levant in the 1050s CE to an addressee in Fustat. Compare the documents edited in Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, #514–#517, all of which are addressed to Dāʾūd b. Shaʿya (and two of which also suffer from a milder version of the wet-ink problem). The distinctive feature of the present letter is that the ink was still wet when it was folded/pleated, so almost all of the text is obscured by mirror-image imprints of other lines. (Goitein glanced at it and wrote, "Letter in Hebrew characters on which decorative patterns were printed. (?)") Probably most of it will be illegible until someone devises a clever way to subtract the reflected text. Some of the phrases that can be read are as follows: "... selling the pepper of my master the elder, and I did not know the intention of my master the elder, and Ibn Hillel already received his share... in Damascus and the letter arrived... the caravan already departed from [...]... from Tyre to Egypt... it is not concealed from my master that... 200... if my master the elder has bought some merchandise, its price returned... what he collected from the comb traders (? al-mashshāṭiyyīn) and the Sindis (?! אלסינדיין - this would be exciting but is probably wrong)... (verso) ... in Damascus it is 2/3 dinars per qintar... Damascus... this week... the rosewater... the caravan from Damascus...[skipping to the end]... may your peace increase... if you see fit to write and for the agent to pay for the [...] and charge you(?) for it... writing harshly(?)... for he will come around by being gentle (ʿalā l-mulāṭafa)..." ASE

Booklet made of parchment, containing a calendar for the maḥzors 256 and 257, each year written on a separate little scrap. Beginning with 1095 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Large fragment of a detailed order for textiles, specifying 18 different colors, sent to Spain, perhaps from al- Ahwaz. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 106, and from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of a letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, probably to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. The letter deals with trades, especially of fabrics. Yisrael b. Natan returns some pearls to Fustat because he is disappointed with their marred color. He asks that they be sold in Fustat, and some carnelians purchased with the money. Nahray is also asked to urgently provide parchment in order for Yisrael to do some work as a scribe. The last part is about Avraham b. ha-Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda. Yisrael asks Nahray for bitumen (qifār) for his eye problem because he cannot get any in Jerusalem; see also T-S 12.364; T-S 13J26.4; and T-S 10J10.24. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 145-148, #472) VMR. ASE.

Letter from Ayash b. Ṣedaqa, Alexandria, to an unknown addressee. Dating: January 1051. Lists of goods that were bought or sold. Some details about the market and credit conditions as well as details about shipping. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #486) VMR

Legal document. Written and signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle decade of Iyyar 1484 Seleucid, which is 1173 CE, under the authority of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom b. Moshe ha-Levi. (This is the earliest known document from Sar Shalom's second term in office, after Maimonides held the title ca. 1171–72.) Abū l-Maʿrūf Ṣedaqa b. Shemarya has taken in the orphaned boy Hiba of his late brother Abū Saʿd al-Miṣrī, and he asks the court to grant money for him to support the boy. The court agrees to provide 10 dirhams a month out of the estate deposited in the name of the orphan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 299, 493.)

Verso: Letter from a father, unknown location, to his son Baqāʾ, in Fustat. The letter was sent to the shop of Meshullam/Musallam to be held for the addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 12th century. Written on verso of an Arabic petition to a high Fatimid official; Goitein suggests that the sender of the Judaeo-Arabic letter may have been an official in the same office (hence with access to this scrap paper). The father has sent 20 dirhams with Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, of which 11 dirhams are for the capitation tax and the remainder for his wife ("bayt"). He exhorts his son to behave well (ḥusn al-ʿishra) with the latter's mother, wife, and siblings. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.) ASE

Recto: Petition to a Fatimid dignitary regarding a theft of money. In Arabic script. The archer Manṣūr b. Zakī al-Dawla (or: Rukn al-Dawla?) complains that Badr, one of the horseman of the amir Tāj al-Maʿālī with whom he was travelling, left the camp and took with him two dinars of wages that belonged to the petitioner. A tarsīm regarding these facts has already been issued. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Bu l-Khayr to the local school teacher, asking him for a loan of 400 dirhams against a security to help him out until his partner Manṣūr comes back. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Verso: Statement of sums due to Shelomo b. ʿAzzūn from Faraḥ b. ʿAṭṭiya for a banker’s note. Lists payments made with cash, with textiles, and with a sheep. The currencies are Ẓāhiriyya dirhams (r. 1021–36 CE) and Nizāriyya dinars (these are the coins of al-ʿAzīz Billāh, aka Abū Manṣūr Nizār, r. 975–96 CE). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Document in Arabic script, in a calligraphic hand, without wide space between the lines. Likely a letter. Five lines are preserved, but they are very faded. Appears to mention "the pillars of the bathhouse" (arkān al-ḥammām). Needs further examination.

Marriage contract (ketubba) with an ornate border. Location: Fustat. Dated: Friday, 14 Nisan 5532 AM, which is 1772 CE. Groom: Yehuda b. Moshe Masʿūd. Bride: Sitt al-Bayt Vieto(?). Total payments: 300 Abū Ṭāqa reals. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Letter(s) in Ladino, with occasional sentences in Hebrew. The sender of the main letter has had an attack of "mal de ojo" (evil eye? or simply an eye disease?). Most of the letter deals with business matters, including the trade in indigo (אנייר) and wine. Mentions many people, including ʿOvadya; Shemuel Amato; Moshe ʿOvadya; Moshe Botaril. Mentions places such as Alexandria and Crete. Addressed to Yaʿaqov Kapiloti (?קאפילוטי). Needs further examination.

Three long drafts of letters in elaborate Hebrew, sent from the court in Fustat. The first deals with the cantor Yiṣḥaq of Ṣahrajt who permitted a woman to marry before three months from her divorce had elapsed. Dating: Early 11th century. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter (with Fatimid petition/report formulary) sent by the shammash (beadle) of Sunbāṭ in the center of the delta to Shemuel ha-Nagid (1140–59) describing a brawl and accusing the opponents of having arranged with the wali beforehand to look the other way. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 368, 369, and from Goitein's index cards)