Geniza Lab

Dirge for a R. Maymun. (Information from Goitein's index cards) T-S 10J22.2 C, D

Panegyric (madḥ) in the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham. Addressed to Abū Saʿīd al-Dā'ūdī (a Nasi). In Hebrew with the heading in Arabic script. Calligraphic. Dated: Iyyar 1357 Seleucid, which is 1046 CE. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards, where the panegyric is called "rather lame")

Ruya asks for the safe return of the haver, the leader of the Fustat community, who had traveled to Alexandria to force Yosef to repay a loan of 2.5 dinars. The writer wanted to travel to Malij to find Yosef because the latter intended to leave for Tyre and Jerusalem, but the parnas 'Allun and Yosef's wife held him back with force. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Poem of praise for a scholar visiting Alexandria, and for an Avraham, possibly the scholar himself. Written by his brother, Hananel. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Astrological instructions for a doctor regarding how to know the illness of a patient by using the constellation of the stars at the time of the visit. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter, from the elders of the Jewish community in Ṣahrajt, Egypt, to Efrayim b. Sehmarya he-Ḥaver, in Fusṭāṭ, confirming receipt of Efrayim’s letter and implementation of his instructions relating to an improper marriage. Dating: 1034 CE. Mentions [...] b. Nāmūs, and Raḥmūn, Ibn Yosef, and [...] Ibn Yāʾīr. (Information from CUDL.)

Legal query and responsum regarding joint ownership of a house. The person who holds three quarters of the house demands from the man holding one quarter to either sell his share to him or to buy his three quarters. The answer is signed by Shelomo b. Yishai ha-Nasi. In the line below, the name Faraḥ b. Yūsuf appears. Information in part from CUDL (via FGP). Needs further examination

Legal document. Power of attorney, Fusṭāṭ. A freedman, Mukhtār, is named as one of the parties. He was formerly an attendant of the Gaon Ebiathar ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society, Mann's Jews in Egypt and Palestine, and Shaked's A Tentative Bibliography)

Legal document in which Abu al-Khayr b. Naji ha-Parnas releases Yiṣḥaq 'Amid al-Dawla b. Yosef from any obligations for goods sold by the latter on his behalf in the Dar al-Wakala. Dated Kislev 1454/ November- December 1142. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Chronological work, very similar to Seder ʿOlam Zuṭṭa. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's index card.

Two paper leaves, very damaged, which form a part of a collection of letters from Evyatar ha-Kohen Gaon b. Eliyyahu, sent from Tyre. The first letter is addressed to Isaac b. Shemuel, the Spaniard, a Dayyan in Fustat. Evyatar appeals to Isaac to help the parnas "ha-Kohen we-ne'eman" ("trustee"), referring to Eli b. Yahya of Fustat. Greetings are sent to a certain parnas Abu al-Ridha and to the Hazzan Abu al-Mu'mar. Dated 1091. The second epistle is evidently addressed to a priestly scholar in Iraq who was authorized by the exilarch Hezekiah. It appears he had written Evyatar about a widow who had become liable to the levirate as her husband Yefet had died without issue. Evyatar sends greetings in the names of his two sons, Eliyyahu and Sadoq, and the banker Shemuel b. Aaron and the shaykh Abu 'Ali Ḥasan are also mentioned. (Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimids, NY: Ktav Pub., 1920-22, rpt. 1970, 1:192-4, 2:228-9; and Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University, 1980, 112) EMS

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dated: 1452 of the Seleucid era (= 1140 CE). (Information from CUDL) Aden; Marcheshvan 1452; October 14 - November 11, 1140

Fragment of a letter (written by Ṣedaqa Nes), to the head of the exile, Natan ha-Kohen Sholal (d. 1502) in Cairo (the penultimate Nagid), concerning a fraudulent cheese seller who was fined by Yosef ha-Nagid, a predecessor of Natan, for selling non-kosher cheese as if it was kosher. Also mentions Samuel and his brother Isaac, the Persians, and Moshe Abū Shaʿra. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index cards.) Earlier description for CUL Or.1080 J174: Confidential letter sent from Jerusalem by Yiṣḥaq to his brother in Cairo. In Hebrew. Dating: Late. The writer complains that a certain Yaʿaqov with the help of a certain non-Jew has stolen a portion of his money, which belonged to Yiṣḥaq's brother, and promises to send the remainder of the money by a messenger or bring it to Cairo himself. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter contains information about trade in silk and pearls. In addition, Abu Nasr reported how he acted in regard to a precious headgear given to him by Yehuda ha-Levi, the Spanish poet. The letter also transmits news from Spanish travelers about the passing away of two great Spanish Rabbis. The letter was written in the 12th of November 1141. (Information from Frenkel.) "I and every human being in the house was ill for forty days. I have not left the house. . . . Your letter arrived in which you asked me to deliver the bales of silk to Abū ʿUmar Ibn al-Bahgdadī al-Laffāt. However, he has not received a thing, for I have nobody who could carry them to him; my brother Abū ʿUmar is ill since his arrival from Cairo and I have nobody able to act for me, for Abū l-Najm (the writer's factotum or partner often mentioned) and his son are ill also. I ask God to turn the end to the good." At the end of the letter: "As soon as I gain a little strength, I will not stay in this city for one hour." See Goitein's note card #27107, and Med Soc V, 103.

Alexandria; 11 of Kislev; November 12, 1141 This is a short and complete letter written by Abū Naṣr b. Avraham to Ḥalfon, who is probably living in Fustat. After the routine opening, the writer apologized for the fact that an illness, which he and his family had contracted, prevented him from writing earlier and fulfilling Ḥalfon’s instructions regarding the delivery of certain fabrics and other goods to his proxy. In the body of the letter, Abū Naṣr is required to note that Ḥalfon made a comment in his letter about a turban and תַוְבּ that belonged to the late Yehuda ha-Levi, which Abū Naṣr still had in his possession, and which Ḥalfon asked that he give them to one Abū al-Maʿālī. According to Abū Naṣr, when Yehuda ha-Levi was already on the ship preparing to sail to the Land of Israel, six months earlier, and he learned from a letter that Abū Naṣr brought him that the boy Yehuda b. Ezra intended to travel from Spain to Egypt, the poet gave him the turban so that Yehuda would sell it and thereby finance his journey from Egypt to the land of Israel. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from the office of the Gaʾon Sar Shalom b. Moshe ha-Levi (in office ca. 1176–95) to a certain community. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Written by Mevorakh b. Natan, with the signature of the Gaʾon at the bottom. Dated: Iyyar 1497 Seleucid, which is 1186 CE. Concerning two teachers, saying that both of them would continue to receive "ṣibbur" (pledges for public charity), but that one of them was permitted to act as a teacher and as a slaughterer, while the other was only entitled to receive fees for writing marriage and divorce contracts and other legal documents, and for performing circumcisions. Lines 1–6 can be found on T-S 10J 29.4, lines 7–16 on T-S 10J 24.7. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 122, and from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter from Yosef b. Gershon (a French scholar appointed by the Nagid Avraham Maimonides to be one of the three judges of the Jewish community in Alexandria), probably written to the Nagid. In Hebrew. Complaining about one of his fellow judges, whose name is not preserved, and seeking confirmation of his position from the local non-Jewish authorities. Also mentions the third judge, Eliyya, with whom he is pleased, and Ṭahīr, an elder of the community. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index card.)

Letter fragment to the congregations of Fustat and in particular to the dayyan Elazar. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter, apparently to the holy congregation in Shafrir Misrayim (Fustat), similar to 10J24f. 9 recto. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Moshe b. Shemuel b. Jami, probably sent from Fustat to his partner in Qabes, mentioning merchandise in the Maghreb and Egypt, and asking Hayya Gaon to find him a good copy of one of the parts of the Mishnah that he could not find in Fustat. (Information from Gil)