Geniza Lab

Letter from Avraham b. Se’ada, who complains about his brother Tabian. Around 1000. The addressee in unknown. Seems like this letter is on the same matter as T-S Loan 18. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #230) VMR

Letter mentioning a certain Sibyan and Shemarya b. al-Hanan.

Letter fragment from the lepers of Tiberias to Faraj b. Avraham, probably in Ramla, approximately 1030.

Recto: Letter opening to Joseph the Nagid (יהוסף, probably the Nagid Joseph b. Samuel, from the second half of the 11th century CE). Only extensive opening greetings are preserved. Verso: Commentary in Judeao-Arabic on Psalms. The text on verso is in a different hand and much less neatly written. Information from 2018 Genizah Research Unit catalog. The text on verso appears to be instructions for when to invoke certain Psalms for various needs: against an enemy (Psalm 2), for example, or for a headache. ASE.

Second leaf of a letter from an unidentified merchant, probably in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 1052 by Gil and 1066/67 by Goitein (in Mediterranean Society, II, p. 534). Addressed to the sender's brother, saying that the sender is trying to put an end to a dispute between the Muslim indigo merchants with the aid of a respected Muslim man and a law expert. Mentions the invasion of the Banū Qurra and "the slaves" into Giza. Community members tried to collect money with the Qaraites, but they did not show up to the meeting. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #816.) VMR. Almost certainly the same sender (but probably not the same letter) as CUL Or.1080 J268. ASE

Letter from Saʿīd b. Marḥab, in Aden, to Shelomo b. Yehuda ha-Kohen, probably in Fustat. Dating: Mid-12th century. In Hebrew (for the long, eloquent introduction) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body). Discusses various mercantile, legal, and communal matters. Awaits examination. (Information in part from India Book VI, 51.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem, to Sahlān b. Avraham, in Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: 1029 CE. "Here is a description of old age in the hand of Solomon b. Judah Gaon, the president of the Jerusalem yeshiva and official head of the Jews of the Fatimid empire, written nineteen years before his death. The time was excruciating for him: things in the yeshiva and the community at large did not go according to his wishes. Abraham b. Sahlan, a leader of Egyptian Jewry, Solomon's 'peer,' with whom he had probably studied many years before, had just died, and his own son was on his way to Aleppo in northern Syria, a voyage fraught with danger. . . . But old age, like life in general, has its ups and downs: the rich correspondence of the Gaon shows him as being active in affairs and rich in style during the long years following the passage translated above, although a premonition of death is certainly felt in it. 'I am a descending sun, soon to set. My soul is very much depressed since my peer passed away, may he rest in Eden. I ask God only to keep me alive through this year so that people should not say: "Both died within one year." Take notice, my dear, that I am going about like a shadow [cf. Psalms 39:7]. I have no authority (reshut), only the title. My strength is gone, my knee is feeble, and my foot staggers. My eyes are dim, and, when I write, it is as if I was learning it, sometimes the lines are straight and sometimes crooked, and so is my style, because my mind is disturbed since the day my beloved [son] traveled to Aleppo to fetch some goods he had left there. I pray to God to bring him back in safety "before I depart and be no more" [Psalms 39:14]'" (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 120, translating lines 19–25).

Letter from Mūsā b. al-Mughanī to Yosef Raʾs al-kull b. ʿAwkal, spring 1011.

Astrological prognostications. See Goitein's index card for further information.

Letter from Zekharya b. Ya’aqov b. al-Shama, from Tripoli (Libya), to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Early August 1062. The writer complains about the accusations against him and mentions shipments of goods, including textiles, olives, oil, and beads. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #668) VMR

Large letter in Judaeo-Arabic about communal strife and denunciations. Abū l-[...] Ibn al-Dayyān told 'sayyidnā al-faqīh al-ḥāfiẓ' that the sender had said something derogatory about the Muslim jurisprudents (al-fuqahāʾ) in Hebrew, a phrase meaning "al-ẓalma al-athama(?)." (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) Should be edited. Same hand as T-S 10J6.4?

Letter from Hillel Ha-Ḥaver b. Yeshuʿa Ha-Hazzan, Tiberias, probably to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat, approximately 1050.

Letter from Yosef b. Yaʿaqov al-Atrablusi, Qayrawan, to Yosef b. 'Awkal.

Letter from the merchant Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef, in Qayrawān, to Ismāʿīl b. Barhūn al-Tāhirtī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1020 CE (Gil) or 1022 CE (Goitein). Asking him to assist his brother-in-law ʿAyyāsh b. Nissim, who was supposed to conduct business on Abū Zikrī's behalf in Egypt. Abū Zikrī mentions the honors (including a dove-colored mule and robes of honor) bestowed upon him and upon the addressee's brother by "the Illustrious Lady" (al-Sayyida al-Jalīla), i.e., Umm Mallāl, the aunt of the Zīrid sultan al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs, who ruled the country in the early years of his reign until her death in October 1023 CE. (Information from Gil, Goitein, Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 190, 560, and Goitein's attached translation in Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders.)

Recto: Letter in Arabic, probably the end. Verso: Commentary, heavily philosophical, on biblical verses. ASE.

Letter from Yusuf b. Musa al-Tahirti, probably from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, regarding shipments of goods. Fall 1063. The writer describes difficulties in selling and mentions various goods, including carthamus, camphor, sugar, resin, crocus, indigo, wheat, wool, wood, ruby, beads, pearls, oil and more. Yusuf also discusses trading with Spain and the Maghreb, even though the roads are dangerous, and notes the passing of his brother, Barhun b. Musa. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #374) VMR

Letter from Mūsā b. Yiṣḥaq b. Ḥisda, in a city in middle Egypt, to Yosef b. ʿAwkal. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 11th century. The covering that the addressee sent for Avraham (who is sick) is too light and cheap. He is asked to send another one, but heavy this time (v11–13).

Egypt, probably Qalyūb, Monday, 17 of Shevat; January 8, 1140 Ezekiel wrote this letter to his brother Ḥalfon, who is staying in Alexandria, ten days after his previous letter (document ח63). Letters or a letter from Ḥalfon arrived, but these were old letters that still had no reference to Yeḥezqel’s last letters to his brother. The first news item deals again with the case of Abū Yiṣḥaq. Abū Naṣr (Shmuel) son of Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi, the late brother of Yeḥezqel and Ḥalfon, returned from a visit to Ḥalfon in Alexandria but did not bring letters and corals from his uncle that he should have delivered to Abū Yiṣḥaq or letters intended for Yeḥezqel. The writer says that he bought a store in Qalyūb and mentioned unsuccessful cheese businesses and more. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter fragment from Isḥāq b. Khalaf, probably from Alexandria, to David b. Shaʿya, probably in Fustat. Around 1060. Mentions the arrival of Byzantine and Andalusī merchants, as well as the ships of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ and Ibn Shiblūn, shipments of textiles, and a deal in Byzantine quarter-dinars. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #738) VMR

Account of the Qodesh: building expenditures, ca. 1037. A very damaged record, mentioning the supply of different materials, such as oakum, straw, reeds, bricks, lime, twigs, clay, nails, water. Also, payments to sawyers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, and helpers. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.161 #9)