Geniza Lab

Letter (upper part) from the Nagid Mevorakh b. Sa'adyah to Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. al-Rayyis R. Natan, whom he addresses as Hemdat ha-Kahal, asking him to intervene in the strife of the Jewish glassmakers of al-Fayyum. Information and partial transcription on Goitein's index card.

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper left corner of recto). Mentions his shop; an inability to pay something; someone who received letters; someone who has many worries; "fulān b. fulān" and Abū ʿAlī.

Court records. Dated Nisan 1093 CE. Including: (1) A case involving Yaʿaqov b. Yefet and Ṣedaqa al-[...]. 1 dinar is to be repaid by Pesaḥ. (2) The wife of Abū l-Faḍl b. Mardūkh did not receive support for the baby girl until Pesaḥ as was stipulated on the day of their divorce. She 'cried out to the Jews' for help, and they sat/assembled and issued payments for the girl of 1/2 dirham a day. (3) Yaʿaqov al-Shaʿʿāb sued his in-laws for 3 dinars. (4) Abū Saʿd b. Avraham ha-Levi agrees not to not insult his wife. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing a beautifully styled request. This may not be addressed to the writer's mother and father. Rather, the sender is making a request of another man "so that the heart of the venerable father and noble mother may be eased." The request itself is not preserved. He apologizes for his haste in writing this letter in the margin of verso. Goitein identified the hand as that of Abū Zikrī b. Eliyyahu the Judge, based on comparison with the script in 10J16.16 (which is from an ophthalmologist named Abū Zikrī, who is likely but not definitively identical with Abū Zikrī b. Eliyyahu). Information in part from Goitein's index card.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Not a lot of the substance remains; the writer effusively thanks Abū l-Faraj for delivering 15 dirhams.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy, Fustat. Around 1080. The writer supports Musa’s family. Mentions trading with Byzantine merchants and merchants from other places in Europe. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #438) VMR

Contract between Abu al-Ḥasan and Abu al-Ma'ali regarding tax-farming in the town of Bush and its environs. Dated Elul 1460/ August-September 1149. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 607)

Letter of appeal for charity addressed to the Nagid Abū l-Faḍl. In Hebrew (for the introduction) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body). The writer has been sick for 4 months, unable to do work. The times are difficult for everyone, even for aṣḥāb al-rasāmīl wa-l-dawālīb. This is a relatively long letter; merits further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Letter from the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Ramle, to his son Abū Isḥāq Avraham, in Tyre or Damascus (Shelomo does not know which, so he arranges for the letter to reach Avraham in either case). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: June 27, 1033 CE, based on Gil's assessment. Shelomo had traveled from Jerusalem to Ramle to see his daughter, because she had given birth prematurely to a boy at 7 months. It seemed at first that the newborn would survive (kānat ʿalāmatuhu khayr), but he died soon afterward (r4–6). Shelomo's daughter remains ill with an intermittent fever (r19, where the word "nawba" is probably to be understood in its technical sense of "paroxysm"), however it seems not dangeorusly ill, since Shelomo plans to return to Jerusalem in two days. Shelomo had sent two previous letters with the same content: he had sent one copy to Tyre, to be forwarded to Damascus, and he had given the other copy to a Damascene Muslim in Abu Musa's caravanserai in Ramleh, who was to pass it on to R. Moshe al-Ḥaver (r6–10). Information in part from Goitein's note card and in part from Gil ASE

Letter addressed to a man with many titles (rabbenu, ha-sar, ha-ḥasid). The writer mentions R. Mevorakh and various business transactions. The language is deliberately very vague.

Letter from Yehuda ha-Kohen, in Bilbays, to Shelomo b. Natan ha-Levi, in Fustat. Mentions that there is only a single Torah scroll at the synagogue; the writer asks Shelomo to persuade the leader of the community to add another one since prior promises to do so have not been kept. Regards to Abū l-Ḥasan al-Levi b. Maḍmūn. Also mentions al-Shaykh al-Iftikhār and al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab.

Letter addressed to a dignitary (Rosh ha-Qahal) in rhymed Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Very elegantly written; wide space between the lines; many vowels and diacritics. Most of what remains is flattery and blessings.

Letter from Sulaymān b. Bū l-ʿAlā al-Tājir to Eliyyahu the Judge. Partially in Arabic script, partially in Judaeo-Arabic. Only the beginning and two different addresses are preserved.

Letter addressed to Moshe ha-Sar. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Asking for instructions or a favor from the addressee. The specifics are difficult to make out.

Letter from Barukh b. Zikrī al-Makhmuri, in Ifrīqiyya, to his relative Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmuri, in Fustat. The writer asks for help as his place was "sieged by the Byzantines." Cf. 10J14.20. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

An urgent summons to appear before the court from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides.

Betrothal (erusin) contract. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Location: Fustat. Dating: Probably before 1120 CE. Groom: Abū ʿAlī (Yeḥezqel), the brother of Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, who agrees to pay a fine of 15 dinars if Abū ʿAlī should cancel the betrothal.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Needs examination.

Legal document. T-S 13J8.2, part of CUL Or.1080 J7, and T-S NS J149 all include versions of the same document, or at least concerning the same case of Surūra bt. Shelomo and her husband Surūr b. Yaʿaqov Ibn al-Jāsūs. See alternate records for description, and see Goitein's index card.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Alexandria, approximately 1020 (?). Verso: Badly damaged text in a different hand to that on the recto. (Information from CUDL)