Geniza Lab

Letter from Menashshe b. Shemuel, possibly in Damietta, to Abū l-Barakāt b. Ṣadaqa, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1153–56 CE, since T-S 10K20.1 is a synagogue calendar for those years which mentions the same Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa and Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥashīsh who are mentioned in this letter. The sender expresses his sympathy for some distressing event and makes excuses for why he hasn't been writing. He sends regards to a Kohen and to Abū Saʿd. He has heard that Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥashīsh is planning to come to Damietta to collect the gold owed to him. He is annoyed about this, apparently because he planned to come to Fustat and pay. He concludes with greetings for the addressee's father-in-law (right margin) and to Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa (upper margin). (But note that this Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa is not the addressee's father, since that Ṣadaqa is dead.) On verso, at 180 degrees to the address, there is a list of about a dozen names in Arabic script, e.g., Bū Isḥāq Maʿālī, Abu l-Faḍl, [...] al-ʿAṭṭār, Bū l-Munā, Yūsuf. Some family relations are given. Significance unclear. AA. ASE.

Siddur R. Nathan from Sijilmasa

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli (1066–1108). Rough draft of an agreement between spouses, detailing the conditions that the husband must obey when he takes a second wife. It is implied that the first wife is barren. Among other things, the husband undertakes to leave the female slave to his first wife when he dies. On verso there is a distinct document, also in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli, dealing with a business partnership between Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Ṭībān, Abū l-Ḥasan Yūsuf, and ʿUlla.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. May be the handwriting of Abū Sahl Levi and addressed to his son Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Not a great deal of content is preserved, except that he is talking about the capitation tax (al-jāliya) and refers to inflation (ghalā) and "the burning of Fustat" (ḥarīq Miṣr). (So perhaps shortly after 1168 CE? See T-S NS J174 and citations there.) The addressee's mother and siblings send their greetings.

Complete letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat. He sent 23 dirhams with the bearer and gives instructions for its disposal. The recipient is to buy lemons (?) for one dirham and give them to the Rayyis Abu Zikri (the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi?!). He also orders white paper for 3/4 dirham. Of the remaining 21 1/4, Baqa' Ibn al-Sab' gets 20. Apparently Moshe also has some money with the recipient, which he then adds to the remaining 1 1/4. Mahfuz is to get some. 'Imran Ibn al-Dajani gets some. All of these people are to give receipts. The recipient is to tell Moshe's paternal uncle Tahir that he got for him from Abu l-Ḥasan the partner of Salim 13 dirhams after great difficulty, and he is willing to send them. "As for the maqamah that you sent me, it is mine and in my own handwriting. And tell Abu Sa'd [...]." He could plausibly be referring to DK 173, an autobiographical maqamah in his own hand. ASE.

Small fragment from a legal deed regarding a payment to a woman, probably written by Hillel b. Eli (Date: 1066-1108).

Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. There is the end of one poem (an elegy) and the beginning of another one "for someone who died by drowning."

Small fragment containing Judaeo-Arabic poetry in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī.

Upper fragment of a letter sent by a merchant from al-Mahdiyya to Abu Zikri Yahya b. al-Majjani. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 693)

Legal question concerning some property a man wants to sell or inhabit. The writer asks for some Arabic document establishing the man's rights to the property if he is prevented from living in it.

Remnants of eight lines in the hand of the court clerk Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi (dated documents 1100–38) consisting mainly of legal verbiage. Yosef Lebdi's son, Abū l-Barakāt, set out to retrieve the goods and other assets his father had left on the India route. Abū l-Barakāt appointed Yosef's widow, probably his own mother, as a caretaker to look after the estate until he returned from his voyage.

Legal document possibly a debt acknowledgement mentioning a sum of (thirty plus) dinars and the Jewish month Elul.

Letter/petition concerning a legal case. In Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to a dignitary. The case has to do with Abū l-ʿIzz and a partnership, possibly in raw sugar (qand). Probably too fragmentary to make out many of the details. The number 77 is mentioned.

Letter or petition from a group of people in Fustat. Headed by a biblical verse, then the rest is in Judaeo-Arabic. "We the undersigned of this document (hādha l-manshūr) who live in Fustat... our knowledge that the worship of God the exalted in the... Israel in what happened before... and it came about (?? nusija) from us—due to our great sins—... the action, and we found in it readiness (? taʾahhub) and demoralization (? inkisār qalb)." Might be a draft, since it does not appear to continue underneath this line. The content is intriguing but the context and dating are unclear.

A late JA private letter to Mordechai b. ‘Ajla

Small fragment of a legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. No details preserved. Mentions the parties "striving in this" (mujtahidīn fī dhālik), so maybe a partnership agreement.

Letter from Abū l-Munā b. Yaʿaqov, unknown location, to an unidentified addressee, presumably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Same writer as T-S AS 167.24; may be an indirect join. The sender says that he is unable to leave the children for some reason. He reports that the Zanzibari ship (אלמרכב אלזנגברי) has not yet arrived. Mufaḍḍal is on that ship. The sender suspects that it might be in Mirbāṭ (in present-day Oman). The sender offers to receive and hold on to any letters intended for Muḥsin. "As for the female slave (al-waṣīfa), we have not found anything"—it is not clear if they are looking to purchase a slave or if they are looking for one who has run away. Mentions someone named Munajjā in the margin. Very little of the text is preserved on verso. Mentions tar (qiṭrān). Greetings to the addressee's son Sulaymān. The final two lines are a complaint about the sender's condition (loneliness and ḍīq al-ṣadr ('constriction of the chest')). AA. ASE.

2 pages from a list of revenues and expenses for the end of 1200, written by Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. Published Vaza, pp. 252–57.

Small fragment from a letter by Yehoshu’a ha-Nagid (date: 14th century) to Abu al-Faraj the beadle.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Very faded. May mention Fez.