Geniza Lab

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Sedaqa in Tripoli, Libya, to the physician Shemuel in Cairo, thanking him for his ransom when the sender was captured by the Normans in Jerba, Ifrīqiya. Yiṣḥaq writes Shemuel that he married the daughter of his paternal uncle and that his father sold their house in Jerba for ninety dinars as a result of famine and to cover debts. Dated October 1136. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 30, 117-118, 150; IV, p. 283)

Letter requesting authorisation of a collection on behalf of an orphan girl about to marry. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a community written in calligraphy to a muqaddam who had been disobeyed and humiliated in his new post asking him to return to them. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in the hand of Shabbetay b. Avraham addressed to the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya. Asking him to obtain a caliphal rescript stopping the local governor from charging the sugar cooks twice the normal price for raw sugar (qand). Dating: ca. 1150 CE. Lines 1–6 and verso are written on T-S 10J15.29; lines 7–18 on T-S 10J15.32. (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, 45–46, 531.)

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel in Alexandria to Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Netanʾel to Ibn Barukh, Almeria. Asks him to handle a shipment that the judge Elʿazar al-Qaṣabī has sent from Fustat to his brother in al-Yusāna. Similar to a letter on the same matter to another dignitary (see India Book 4 doc. 62). (Information from Goitein and Friedman) Maybe Alexandria; End of 1139 - Middle of 1140

Letter. Hebrew verses praising an official connected to the government. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to a physician, mentioning Saadya and Abu Mansur and the sender's longing for a third person. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yahya b. Musa al-Majjani, al-Mahdiyya, to Barhun b. Salih al-Tahirti, Cairo, asking him to intervene on his behalf against Ibn Farah al-Fasi and Abu l-Husayn al-Mubarak b. Ishaq regarding the estate of al-Shiraji. Dated 1045. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of condolence to Abu al-Faraj Yeshua b. Shabbatay on the death of his father. The letter starts with four Bible quotations (line 1, Dt. 32:4; line 2, Dt. 32:39; line 3, Lam. 5:14; line 4, Ps. 145:17). "The reason for his death was his 'movement' and agitation and distress (ḥaraka, tanaqqul, inziʿāj) in the state he was in of weakness and illness." ASE

Letter from Isma’il b. Farah, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. September 23, 1056. The letter contains details about shipments of money and goods, and several requests to send letters, as well as requests related to buying goods (mainly sugar) and selling goods (mainly silk) in Fustat. Also mentions a large shipment of wax that was sent to the government. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #490) VMR

Letter from Yosef b. Sahl ha-Bardani in Tripoli, Lebanon, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat, ca. 1060.

Letter from Yisrael B. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray B. Nissim, Fustat. Israel suggests Nahariya to get out of a deal he made and asks for money to buy clothes. The letter includes the news that the "Rosh" - Daniel B. Azarya is coming to Jerusalem, via Nablus, and about his meeting with Eliya HaCohen, son of Shelomo Gaon. August 24, 1052. VMR

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yizhak Furat. Daniel is complaining that no letter had been received from Avraham for a long time, despite their agreement. (information from Gil, Palestine and Goitein's index card). VMR

Letter from Shela bar Mevasser to 'The Rabbi' Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yosef, Rosh ha-Seder ('Head of the Row'). The letter was written before Shela's appointment as a judge. The letter starts with four lines of Hebrew Poetry. (Information from Frenkel. For additional information see Med. Soc. 3:431). On verso there are also the opening lines from a legal document, probably a draft. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a woman to her husband (ṣāḥib al-bayt). In Judaeo-Arabic. After the greetings, which include wishes for the husband's recovery from illness, she continues, "Don't ask what I suffered on the road due to riding. Ever since I arrived, I have been sick (mariḍa). Your father certainly quarreled with me in the middle of al-Muṣāṣa (a neighborhood in Fustat), and not all that was said needs to be repeated. Don't ask what I suffered with the wife of your father, and Abū l-Surūr who was exceedingly generous, and everyone treated me well (are these euphemisms?). May God repay each servant according to his deeds. He (it seems one of her own family members) said to me, 'Divorce him, and I will take care of all that is necessary.' Now, if I divorce you. . . ." The fragment cuts off here. Information in part from Zinger; this translation differs slightly from his. ASE.

Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in Sindābūr (India), to his uncle and father-in-law ʿArūs b. Yosef, in Fusṭāṭ,. In Judaeo-Arabic. He found a slow market when he arrived in Aden, so he decided to travel onward to Sindābūr ("after seeking God's guidance") with the corals and storax (mayʿa, an aromatic resin obtained from trees in Asia Minor). He complains about his cousin Yosef (another nephew of ʿArūs), who "stays in Lakhba (near Aden) with the whores (Heb.), 'the company,' and a beardless youth, who ser[ves them drinks]." He also reports on previous sales in ports on the west coast of the Red Sea: Dahlak, Bāḍiʿ, and Suwākin. In the address on verso, ʿAllān calls himself ʿAllāl (as some other ʿAllāns did occasionally), a form of endearment, imitating the speech of small children. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's edition and translation.)

Letter from Avraham b. Yitzhak al-Andalusi, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1065.

Letter in calligraphic style from a community written by Sahlān b. Avraham. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL)

Letter from ten elders of the community concerning appointment of David b. Avraham b. Maimonides as Nagid.