Geniza Lab

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, it seems. Fragmentary.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Quite long, and written in an elegant script. The sender gives a convoluted account of a business/legal dispute, involving stakes of over 150 dinars and the underhanded tactics of another merchant. This man was preparing to travel to the West from Rashīd. He gave his merchandise to his wife and his daughter, so that when the Jews asked his father and brother where his goods were, they said "we have nothing, it's all with his wife." Then the women interrogated the wife, who said that she had only 2 dinars and 2 qirats. Her father rebuked her for admitting this, saying that now all of the husband's creditors would come and demand their due. She then reneged on her declaration before the judge. The story goes on. The sender hopes that the addressee will write a letter supporting his side of the case to the judge. Places mentioned: Tripoli (Libya) and 'the West.' People mentioned: ʿAmmār b. al-Dayyān, ʿImrān, Ibn Shammārī, a Rayyis who died, and aṣḥabunā al-Barqiyyīn wa-l-Ghurabā (associates from al-Barqa and the West). Needs further examination. On verso a business account in Judaeo-Arabic (in a different hand).

List of 103 people, households, or groups receiving wheat. Amounts: between 1/2 and 3 waybas (1 wayba = ca. 4 gallons). Goitein there are comments added to the list (‘died,' 'absent’). Before a comprehensive distribution of wheat, communal officials scrutinized the list from the preceding distribution and made a note. of changes in circumstance, such as deaths, changes in economic situation, and departures. The updated list was then copied and used as a basis for the current distribution. One item is followed by this remark: "Note, ruqʿa, from the rayyis: this man should not receive anything." Cohen dates this list to slightly after App. B 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, since 3 people mentioned there are listed here as having died. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, pp. 457-458, App. B 66, Goitein's index card, and from Mark Cohen)

Letter to a merchant away in the Far East, whose interests were protected by the 'Nagid David'. Aden, ca. 1180.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Fragment.

Letter of appeal for charity from Isḥāq b. Avraham to the Nagid Moshe b. Mevorakh (1112–26 CE). What remains is almost entirely in Hebrew, though the body of the letter was in Judaeo-Arabic. "Few petitions by individuals in distress entreating Moshe's assistance are extant. However, the 'broken-hearted' Jew whose torn letter to Moshe Nagid b. Mevorakh preserves, aside from the salutation and the address, some biblical verses about answering the prayers of the needy, was undoubtedly only one of many who sought Moshe's succor." Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 278.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Very faded. The writer excuses the messiness with the fact that he is writing this in the aftermath of an illness and while traveling. Most of what remains appears to bemoan the vicissitudes of fate. The margins have been reused for something in Hebrew script.

Letter from a learned man in the Fayyūm to R. ʿOvadya and R. Ḥananel. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than the late 12th century. The writer hopes to be able to get out of the Fayyūm before Rosh Hashana, but is not optimistic. He has sent a copy of the introduction to the commentary on Avot (probably of Maimonides), and asks the addressees to 'complete it' through the eighth chapter and send it back to him along with the copy of Sefer ha-Madaʿ (the first section of the Mishneh Torah) that they had promised.

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Shemuel ha-Andalusi, in Jerusalem, to Yosef b. Naḥum ha-Bardani, in Fustat. Dating: 5 Adar Sheni, around 1060 (Gil, Palestine, Vol 3). Yosef has arrived in Fustat after a stay in Syria and Palestine. Yaʿaqov tells Yosef that he has purchased two qirābas of olive oil and delivered it to Ibn Al-Tuffāḥī in Jaffa (Gil, Palestine, 1:237).

Legal document drawn up in Fustat, dated either 1173, 1183, or 1193 CE (Adar 14[.]4 Seleucid), under the reshut of Sar Shalom ha-Levi. Regarding Abū l-Maʿālī's rental of a property from Yosef ha-Zaqen.

Letter. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. It seems to be an appeal for charity or another form of help from 'adonenu,' who has a son named Shelomo. Mentions a Kohen from Damascus and al-Dayyān Yosef ha-Kohen. He (the writer? the Damascene?) wants to marry his son to a good Jewish girl.

Letter from Yosef b. Labrāṭ al-Fāsī (identified on the basis of the handwriting), probably writing from Qayrawān, to Yaʿaqov b. Yosef Ibn ʿAwkal. Refers to disagreements in the Qayrawān community, and gives a recommendation to a young man, Yosef b. Avraham b. Sfūs, who is travelling to Fustat and has with him numerous letters and wares. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, pp. 293-294.)

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Very messy. Two lines are crossed out. Mentions the Muslim name ʿAbd al-Jabbār b. Ḥassūn b. ʿUthmān. On recto there is the opening of the ʿamida prayer, translated word-for-word into Judaeo-Arabic.

Marriage contract (ketubba) with an elaborate fleur-de-lis frame. Fragment. What remains is mostly the trousseau list. An item called 'Bunduqī' (Venetian) appears. Some of the monetary values are given in חלק פצה (=muayyadi?) and דינרי קגיגה (?).

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involves Abū Saʿd and a house.

Letter from Barhūn b. Mūsā ha-Tahirti, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: about 1045 (Gil). Business letter discussing trade in silk and linen, including with Byzantium.

Recto: Legal. Drafts of two different documents. One document states that it was drawn up in Fustat, is dated no later than 1081 CE (Tishrei 13[.]3 Seleucid), and involves Khulayf, Ḥalfon ha-Zaqen Ḥemdat ha-Yeshiva b. Fuhayd, and the city of Tyre. The other involves Moshe ha-Kohen. Verso contains Judaeo-Arabic glosses, at least some of which are for the Mishna of Shabbat.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham b. Mevasser, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1030.

Letter in Arabic script from Khalaf (?) b. [...] to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn (?) b. [...]. Reused for piyyutim. Needs examination.