Geniza Lab

Letter from the Qaraite Jews of Ashqelon to the Qaraites and Rabbanites of Fustat. Dating: Summer 1100 CE. The letter deals with the ransoming of Qaraite captives from Jerusalem following the Crusader conquest of the city. (Qaraites represented a large percentage of the small number of Jews who still lived in Jerusalem after the Seljuk conquest[s] in the 1070s.) The letter also explains that the fortified city of Ashqelon had not yet fallen, but the residents are struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and the need to make large payments to the Crusaders to ransom back Jewish captives - men, women and children - as well as books and scrolls pillaged from the synagogues of the Holy Land. Despite the terrible circumstances, they take solace in the fact that that the Crusaders appeared not to have mistreated the women. The writers report that they had received the suftaja (bill of exchange), at least the second substantial donation from the Jews of Fustat to the campaign to redeem captives and books. This letter is a request for further donations. The community in Ashqelon had spent over 500 dinars; ransomed over 40 captives; continues to bear the high expenses of caring for the 20 redeemed captives who remain in Ashqelon; and is now in debt for more than 200 dinars. The writers also mention Jews who had escaped from Jerusalem on their own, and others who had been given safe-conduct with the wālī. Of the refugees who arrived in Ashkelon, many had died of the epidemic they encountered there: "The attacks of these illnesses (amrāḍ), the falling of that plague (wabā'), that pest (fanā'), that disaster (balā')" (recto, lines 17–19); later, describing how the refugees perished, "Some of them arrived here healthy, and the climate turned against them (ikhtalafa ʿalayim al-hawā'), and they arrived at the height of that plague (wa-waṣalū fī ʿunfuwān dhālik al-wabā'), and many of them died" (recto, lines 42–44); then, twice more, the writers emphasize their great expenses caring for those who have survived but are still sick, who need not only food and clothing but medicines and syrups (recto, lines 53–55 and right margin 19–20). There are notes by the writers and forwarders of the letter in the right margin on verso, including Yehayyahu ha-Kohen b. Maṣliaḥ, David b. Shelomo and Ḥanina b. Manṣūr b. ʿUbayd. See DK 242 + T-S AS 146.3 for a letter written one year earlier from the Rabbanites of Fustat to the Rabbanites of Ashqelon, also having to do with the campaign for the ransoming of captives. (Information CUDL and from Goldman, "Arabic-Speaking Jews of Crusader Syria" (PhD diss., 2018), 49–58. See also Goitein, Med Soc 5:537; Goitein, "New Sources on the Fate of the Jews during the Crusaders' Conquest of Jerusalem" (Heb.) Zion, 17 (1952), 136; Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 241-242; and Goitein's notes attached to Bodl. MS Heb d 11/7 (page 9f). ASE/MR

Record of testimony about a deposit with only fragmentary date surviving. Dated 14??/late 11th- late 12th century.

Minutes of court proceedings, recto dated Kislev 1454 sel. (December 1142), written and signed by Natan b. Shemuel. Written and signed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo. Verso dated 1455/1143-44.

Record of a division of an estate detailing the items included. Dated Av 1413/July-August 1102.

Letter and bills from Sicily, probably to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal, Fustat. Some of the bills are directed to b. Awkal for washing fabrics, and it seems like the other bills and the letter are addressed to him as well. Mentions selling linen and indigo in Palermo. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #201) VMR

Complete letter by Mubarak b. Yiṣḥaq b. Sabri to Abu al-Faraj Nissim complaining about a business issue and urging a prompt response to his letter.

Note written on the verso of a court document (technically a legal query) concerning litigation between a separated husband and wife. This note invites the plaintiff to court to receive the answer to his queries orally. The recto is written by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal query addressed to Maṣliaḥ Gaon. In Judaeo-Arabic. Scribed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Signed by Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo, Nathan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver and Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Halakhic question concerning a possible excommunication over a legal dispute. Mentions a reclamation document (ורקה אלדעאוי), al-Kohen Abū l-Faraj, al-Melammed Sayyid al-Kull the cantor and Ṣadaqa. Regarding certain claims on clothing, on tamarind (kept on hand as medicine for when they fell sick), 43 dinars and 20 dirhams between husband and father of divorcee. Husband refuses to pay alimony (mezonot) to the amount of 1 dirham. (Information from CUDL and from Goitein's note card.)

Draft of a halakhic question. (Information from CUDL)

Testimony signed by Aharon ha-Kohen b. Amram and two others regarding the kashruth (ritual lawfulness) of some cheese made by the Karaites (of Samaritiqa), ca 1050.

Complete letter to Abu Zikri, who is hailed as 'brother' by the writer, discussing a business dispute in a past partnership between the two. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Court record of a case in which a man appoints an agent to deliver a bill of divorce to his ex-wife, releasing her from any claims he might have against her. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Verso, and possibly also the Arabic script on recto: Elaborate medical prescription(s) in Arabic script.

Recto: letter from Fusṭāṭ, dated 15th Shevaṭ 5505 (= 1745 CE), describing the appointment of Joseph ha-Levi as cantor and minister at the Karaite synagogue. Signed by Elihu Ḥassūn, Moses Shalom, and Shemuʾel Naʿīm. Verso: brief text in Judaeo-Arabic concerning this same Joseph ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL)

Agreement from Fusṭāṭ, dated 5562 (= 1802 CE), between Abram ‘the witness’ b. Shabbetay ‘the witness’, and Yaaqov Abzaradel. Witnessed by Yehezqel Ḥaffaḍ, Efrayim [...], and Yosef Ḥassān. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Bnaya b. Musa, from Tinnis, to Nissim b. Ḥalfon, Fustat. 1046. The writer mentions the information that the lacquer is not sold in Tinnis. In addition, he mentions the drought in the Delta region and that it is not possible to get bread there. The writer calls the addressee “my father” but it seems (because of the name) that he is his step father or a relative, maybe a cousin that is much older than him. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #601) VMR

Unwitnessed agreement from Fusṭāṭ, dated 5570 (= 1810 CE), between Jacob ha-Levi (known as ʿAkubas) and Moses Ṣevi (known as Ḥakari)š. (Information from CUDL)

Agreement of partnership from Fusṭāṭ, dated 14th Nisan 5576 (= 1816 CE), between Joseph Romano and Nissīm Ḥāmī. Witnessed by Jacob ha-Kohen and Ezekiel Basrī. (Information from CUDL)

Release granted by the wife of Abu al-Makarim al-Katib to Abu al-Ḥasan, whom she released from all obligations after having received from him three deeds of a house in the Mamsusa quarter inherited by her father. Signed by Mevorakh b. Natan. Dated to the mid 12th century. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of an unfinished calligraphic letter including an order for wheat and wine. Dated ca. 1210. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 435-436)