Geniza Lab

Letter from Yaḥyā b. ʿEli Kohen Fasi, in Qayrawān, to his brother Yosef, in Alexandria. August 1052. It seems like this letter was sent several days after a different letter (see T-S 103 J 26.9) and contains the same ideas. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #405) VMR

Letter from Moshe b. [Ghālib?]. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the fast (Yom Kippur?) in Fustat. Regards from Abū l-Ḥasan, Abū Saʿīd, and al-Kohen al-Ḥazzān.

Letter from Sulaymān b. Shaʾul, perhaps in Sicily, to Salmān b. Shabīb al-Kohen, perhaps in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: mid-11th century. Touches briefly on business matters (he has sent some silk with Abū l-Ḥasan) but most of the letter is an explanation of the difficult circumstances at home. Sulaymān intended to travel this year, but he had to stay home and look after family members. He worries that someone will die and someone else will inherit and a woman will be left without resources. "I cannot describe her condition to you; the stones themselves would weep." The woman has been consoled by the presence of the addressee's son Abū l-Saʿḍ, who has behaved admirably. Sulaymān also reports on the state of Salmān's elderly female niece (al-ʿajūz bint akhūk), which hinges on a matter of inheritance. Uncited in the literature.

Letter from Umm Bū l-Makā[rim](?) to an important person. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. She asks/reminds him to send a letter on her behalf with the bearer of this letter to David b. Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn (see India Book II, p. 16).

Letter of appeal for charity or assistance. Addressed to Peraḥya ha-Kohen. The sender came down with an illness (wa-thāra ʿalā ʿabdih al-maraḍ) and he has been prostrated by it for two weeks (wa-lahū usbūʿayn maṭrūḥ), "may God not afflict any other Jew with this."

Recto: Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary handwriting and spellings. The sender reports that they have dyed the silk. The addressee shouldn't stay away any longer. Jalīla, Manṣūr, and the sender's mother are well; the mother sends greetings.

Verso: Book list. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Rosh ha-Seder. Mentions numerous religious books; a commentary of Galen on Hippocrates; at least two masṭaras (ruling boards), and many more items.

Legal deed in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions payment in installments and the price of the myrobalan. Signed: Shelomo b. Mevorakh ha-Ḥaver and [...] b. Seʿadya. There are two postscripts/validations. Needs further examination.

Legal deed in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Barakāt ha-Kohen rents from his sister 1/4 of a house in the alley of the synagogue, which she had inherited from her father Abū l-Khayr b. al-ʿAraqī for a period of 10 years. Goitein's note card suggests that the rent is 5 dinars, but she gives this to him as a gift, on condition that he make the necessary repairs.

The original document is quite damaged; there is a list of some sort in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. There is also a line in Arabic script including the word al-mamlūk and the name Manṣūr b. [Saʿd?]. Underneath, in large Judaeo-Arabidc and Hebrew, there is a writing exercise in which Shelomo b. Eliyyahu copies out his name and his father's name with many honorifics.

Legal query in Judaeo-Arabic, concerning a dispute over who had the right to lead the congregation in prayer.

Letter from Sulaymān b. ʿAlī, unknown location, to Abū Saʿīd Yaʿqūb, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf, and Abū Sahl Saʿīd the sons of Yisra'el (al-Tustari). In Judaeo-Persian, with the address in Arabic (in Arabic script). Abū Yaʿqūb and and Abū Sahl are probably two of the well-known Tustari brothers. The fragment is labeled "L7" in Shaul Shaked's (unpublished) classification of Early Judeo-Persian texts. OH

Letter from ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Yeḥezqel, in Jerusalem, to ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Ḥayyim, in Fustat.

Recto: Legal document somehow related to verso. Verso: Legal document. Dated: Tammuz 4831 AM, which is 1071 CE. Location: Zawīlat al-Mahdiyya. (This is rare; others from Zawīlat al-Mahdiyya are T-S 13J9.5 from 1047 CE and T-S 20.187 from 1073 CE). Abū l-Faraj Yeshaʿya b. David acknowledges that Abū ʿAlī Yefet b. Muslim known as Ibn Ḥarbash has handed over to him the contract(?) whose value is 75 Tamīmī dinars "in the weight of Egypt" (bi-sanjat/ṣanjat Miṣr), and that Abū l-Maʿālī Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef who is named in the contract is thereby released. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably no earlier than 13th century, based on handwriting. The letter is written on behalf of a group of people and addressed to a group of people. It seems to be a petition requesting that everyone who wishes to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Moshe Rabbenu (at Dammūh?) during this holiday should be allowed to do so.

Letter from Hillel b. Eli (identified based on handwriting) to Avraham al-Ḥemdat b. Natan ha-Sheviʿi. He complains of something to do with the tax (? mas). Needs examination. Information from Goitein's note card.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic calligraphy presenting a Hebrew poem in honor of the addressee's wedding.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Dealing with some matter of communal strife. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Shemuel, in Damietta, to Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Hibatallāh b. Faraḥ, perhaps related by marriage through the latter's sister. The handwriting is often ambiguous, so much of this analysis is tentative. Shemuel opens with the bare minimum of formalities, then, "As for what you mentioned about the events in Damietta, very ugly things came to pass. They took your sister to the ḥujra (barracks?). Then they brought her to the administrative complex (dār al-imāra), and they brought a basket to sit her in it and beat her. I pled and pled (? lam azal ashḥad—this verb is used for beggars, but perhaps he is using the Hebrew meaning: to bribe) until God had mercy and they brought her back to the ḥujra, without saying a word to her. I did not cease . . . until I got her out of the ḥujra to the house of Hilāl. Hilāl stood guaranty for her after a period of house arrest (? baʿd an aqām mudda fī l-tarsīm). He lost 13 dinars. They sold everything that was in the house. They left nothing worth even a half dirham. They took your sister's copper and sold it. No one was harsher than the secretary of the head of police (wālī) in Damietta, who supervises the inheritances. I sent him 10 gold coins with Abū l-ʿAlā' Muslim." The next line is tricky and involves something called "kutub al-sulṭān." At this point the writer switches to beseeching the addressee to do his utmost to protect the interests of his own family and of the writer: "Go to the amir Sayf al-Dīn, and to the owner of the house, and meet with Sayyidnā al-Rayyis. Let him go and meet with all of the amirs and bring up these matters that interest you and me." They are also to go to al-Amīr al-Ṭahīr (? אלטהיר. There is a qāḍī with the same epithet in the Arabic document T-S Ar.41.9. But perhaps it is al-ẓahīr). The subject matter on verso becomes still more obscure. The writer tells the addressee not to begrudge a certain payment, "for the amir Fakhr al-Dīn has promised me every good thing in the world. He has bestowed favor on me beyond description. He does not take a penny; others do." There follows another obscure passage: perhaps the writer obtained a loan of 30 gold coins from the amir that he needed for a bribe (shaḥadtu bihā, the same verb used during the beating). He then goes back to describe how the house was completely emptied; not even a nail was left behind. Finally he relates the episode described by Goitein as follows: "In Damietta, the Egyptian seaport, a makhzan was located in a dihlīz, or entrance hall [of the house of Abū Saʿd]. A jug containing a thousand gold pieces was discovered there and, of course, confiscated by the government." Med Soc IV, 79. Goitein mentions this letter one other time: "As with government offices in general, there was no clear-cut and fixed division of duties among the various branches of the judiciary and the security force. Thus we find, for example, in Damietta, the office of the chief of police (wālī) dealing with cases of inheritance, normally the prerogative of the qadis." Med Soc II, 371, referring to recto, lines 12–14. ASE.