Geniza Lab

Beginning of a letter by the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya (in office 1140-1159) to the community of al-Mahalla, written in the hand of Shemuel b. Natan. Praises their charitability. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Draft of a letter from Fustat to Daniel b. Azarya, concerning "tarima" - a room or apartment, made of wood, that was added to the house's top floor. The writer complains against Ali b. Amram. Around 1060 (Gil estimation). Verso: Arabic document, probably a letter. (Information from CUDL) VMR

Recto: Letter from Natan b. Avraham, in which he urges his supporters to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, lest their party be underrepresented, mentioning the ḥaver Avraham b. Shela. Dating: summer 1039 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Verso: Part of a text in Judaeo-Arabic, discussing a divorce document and the settling of the dowry with Yaʿaqov, the ex-husband. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter by Avraham b. Natan ('ata) concerning the disorder in Tunis and concerning the burial of his father in Jerusalem, 1st quarter of the 11th century.

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, in Qalyūb, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Monday, 3 Iyyar [4900 AM], which is 22 April 1140 CE. Written on a reused state document in Arabic script. (Information from India Book 4. Hebrew description below. Qalyūb

Fatimid decree (possibly in the hand of Ibn al-Ṣayrafī himself?). Two lines preserved. See also the separate PGP record for the letter by Yeḥezqel b. Netanel and similar fragments at T-S 20.80 and T-S 12.774.

Letter by Daniel b. Azarya, apparently in Ramla, to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Ishaq b. Furat, ca. 1054.

Fragment of religious poetry in the hand of Shemuel b. Saadya ha-Levi (1165-1203). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Complete business letter from Nissim b. Yiṣḥaq al-Tahirti, probably in Mahdiyya, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy Khalila in Fustat. Dated September 1051. (Information from Gil)

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Dated: Dhū l-Qaʿda 530 AH, which is August 1136 CE. A wine-making partnership, the amount of the partnership being 1,510 dinars. The manager, Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Abū l-Ḥusayn Yefet b. Benaya, is to take a third of the profit. Two of the remaining three partners, Abū Saʿd Netanel al-Zajjāj and Ṣedaqa b. Bunān, contribute 400 and 100 dinars respectively; the name of the fourth partner and the amount of his contribution is not preserved. The verso seems to record the partnership receipts of 540 dinars. Yeshuʿa apparently violated a prohibited from trading or contracting with others outside the partnership for its duration, but the partners have stated that his violation need not be notarized by witnesses. Yeshuʿa is also the party under whose name the wine-producing enterprise has been registered with the tax-collecting authorities. Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 204)

End of a calligraphic business letter copied by Masliah b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Court record of a case in which Yeshua b. Shemuel claims the sum of ten and a half dinars which his wife Mubaraka bat Shemuel al-Qabisi had given her brother Farah. Probably dated to the 11th century. This is one of two manuscripts given the same mark by error. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 183, 465)

Letter in which Eli b. 'Amram invites a scholar to give a lecture in the synagogue on the following Saturday and requests a prompt reply. Dated to the third quarter of the 11th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 218, 568, and Goitein's index cards.) There appear to be two different folios sharing the same shelfmark. Also under this shelfmark: (1) A draft of a legal document concerning a woman called Mubāraka who had sold her maidservant for 20 and a half dinars and had given the money to her brother as capital for a business trip, but was then sued by her husband as only 10 of the 20 and a half dinars were her dowry, so she empowered her husband to sue her brother for the remaining 10 and a half dinars and profits; (2) a letter to a Ḥaver; and (3) a letter in Arabic script. Information from CUDL. Needs further examination.

Mevorakh (inference) explaining the circumstances surrounding the sale, at less than their value, of some items in an estate belonging to the heirs. T-S 10J9.33

Recto (secondary use): Letter containing a poem addressed a dignitary. In Hebrew. Possibly a token of gratitude for help that the sender received. The letter's main purpose was to wish good health upon the addressee who had fallen ill. "The anonymous poet, who laments that he could not offer a real “gift” (teshura), calls his composition a type of sacrifice pleasing unto God: 'May the Lord of praises prepare healing balm and all types of remedies . . . and strengthen the respected, beneficent leader, the choice of His people, a turban upon all of the communities. To bring you a gift (teshura) is not in my power, though I was determined and constituted it as prayer (samtiha tefilot) pleasing before the face of God as an offering (qorban); may it be considered like a sacrifice (zevaḥ) and burnt offering (ʿolot). It heals like spell-inducing water! We sing a song like the song over the splitting of the depths (i.e., the Song of the Sea, Exodus 15), and the daughters of my people go out with timbrels and drums and sing amid dance.'" Translation by Jonathan Decter, Dominion Built of Praise, 88. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Verso (original use): State document. Response to an endorsement on a petition. A multi-handed internal memorandum. Contains a note by a chancery clerk per Khan JRAS 1990 53. (information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Barhun b. Yishaq al-Tahirti, from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Alexandria. Around 1050. Information about shipments of goods and about the account of the partners. Abu al-Kasim Abed al-Rahman mentioned favorably. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #385) VMR

Treatise with allusions to 1 Samuel 2:6-7 and the names of God. Information from CUDL.

Fragment of a letter to Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Yosef ha-Kohen the dayyan, mentioning Sulayman b. Yosef. (Information from Goitein's index cards)