Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower half of recto, upper half of verso). Dating: Likely 12th or early 13th century, based on names, titles, overall style. The sender wants the addressee to obtain the signatures of 10 Jewish men of the town/city to the effect that they don't know anything about something and then to advertise that fact. R. Yosef told the sender that the addressee is not obligated to do anything. The sender adds that he examined "the documents" (al-masāṭīr) and found them "nice and effective" (milāḥ nāfiʿa). But 'the Rayyis' is upset (ḍajūr) about something. The sender plans to take al-Muhadhdhab Abu Saʿīd with him, which he hopes will appease the Rayyis. The sender mentions the addressee's letter to the Rayyis and also assures him that the Rayyis thinks well of him. EMS. ASE.

Letter (right half) from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi to a Kohen whose father is named Yehuda. The upper half consists of praises and blessings for the recipient and his son. Moshe then requests urgently that he send him wages or payment of some kind. In the margin he apologizes for his handwriting and style, because he wrote it in a hurry by the light of a lamp. ASE.

Legal query, draft, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Regarding the money left by a dead husband. In the margin: "As for the 70 dinars that my brother mentioned, it is the last of the sale that we made (or: from the last sale that we made). . . and my husband collected it and went out and died." See PGP 2959

Legal query (in a different hand than recto) concerning the case of a widow holding a statement of trustworthiness, who had declared that she possessed none of her husband's possessions. She refused to let the elders into her house as she had been advised, but later opened the door after all. However, the inventory was not taken away. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 255, and from Goitein's index cards.) NB: This used to be called T-S 10J21.16 on PGP.

Business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and in Arabic script. Mentions people such as Abū Zikrī (to whom the writer owes 1 dinar); ʿAlī al-Ramlī; Ḥasan al-Ashqar; Ḥasan al-Munādī.

Letter from a certain ʿAbd al-Karīm possibly to someone named Ḥasan or Iḥsān (margin, line 1). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 13th or 14th century, based on hand, linguistic features, names, and epistolary conventions. What remains of the letter consists entirely of good wishes for various people, especially for the recovery of the boy Sulaymān, and blessings for the high holidays. The addressee is probably the sender's brother-in-law, as Sulaymān is the son of the addressee and of "the dear sister" Sitt al-Ḥasan. The Niessen and Shivtiel catalogue suggests that there are also well wishes for a good match ('shiddukh'), but it is not clear where this is mentioned. EMS. ASE.

Awaiting description - see Goitein's index card.

Informal note addressed to Abū l-Bahāʾ. In Arabic script. In which the sender apparently insists half a dozen times that he has fulfilled his promise to purchase something and send it to the addressee.

Document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe mentioning Yosef b. Job and al-Mahalla. (F. Niessen and A. Shivtiel, ed., Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, 616) EMS

Recto: Court record concerning Yaʿaqov b. ʿAyyāsh, a minor reaching maturity who wishes to marry his widowed sister-in-law (in a levirate marriage), but she refuses to do so. Mentions Elḥanan b. Shemarya (now deceased), who was previously involved in the case in Ṣahrajt. Verso: Two court records in the hand of and witnessed by Yefet b. David. The first, probably a continuation of the record on recto, is witnessed by Menashshe b. Avraham ha-Kohen. The second is a court record in which Yosef b. Yaʿaqov, called al-Zamin (‘the ailing’) obliges himself before the court of al-Sahrajt to pay his divorced wife Ra’isa bt. Moshe one-half dirham per day for their son. Signed by Yefet ha-hazzan b. David ha-hazzan, Shelomo b. Yefet. Confirmed by the court and signed by Menashshe ha-Kohen b. Avraham, Yefet ha-hazzan b. David ha-hazzan. Dated: Thursday, 26 Elul 1338 Seleucid, which is 1027 CE. ENA NS 7.24 contains a record concerning the same case from several months later (Kislev 1339 Seleucid). (Information from Goitein; EMS; CUDL; Eliyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS, Vol. 18 (1967), 15.)

From a volume of Saadya Gaon's responsa in Judaeo-Arabic. Join by Amir Ashur. See FGP for detailed description.

Letter referring to Saladin’s grand-nephew al-Malik al-Nasir Da’ud (‘the victorious King David’) in which he is assured of the writer’s longstanding and unfailing loyalty. Nasir is called “the sultan, may God make his victories glorious.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:354, 604) EMS

Legal document. In Hebrew. Location not specified. Dated: Tuesday, 4 days into ḥol ha-moʿed Sukkot 5325 AM, which is 1564 CE. Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham Medina the scribe commits to copying out an entire Torah scroll for Meʾir Jibālī for a sum of 30 Venetian ducats (peraḥim zahav banādiqa). They specify the details of how the scribe will allow the patron to erase and rewrite one word and also the payment schedule. No signatures.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Apparently a response to an inquiry about copies of the Torah. Not entirely clear.

Bifolio containing an inventory of books in Judaeo-Arabic (3 pages) and a page of accounts for foods and materia medica in Arabic script (1 page). The booklist was edited by Allony et al (who called it T-S NS J 94.53). It includes 57 books, listed apparently at random. Several titles are marked with an overline, perhaps indicating that they were sold. Dating: No earlier than 12th century, as the latest author mentioned is Yehuda ha-Levi (d. 1141). (Information from Allony.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Short and wide piece of paper. The content is cryptic. "When what happened happened and the messengers came and brought us [to the] police station, and my little son was stood up(?), the other one פטע(?). . . [when a certain woman] learned about this she hung on to us and said. . . and I want them to bring me the other one. . . . who worked with the shaykh my brother. . . . the gold." On verso there is Hebrew piyyuṭ,

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 13th century. Headed by the motto הנה אל ישועתי. Fragment (upper part only). The occasion of the letter is to inform the addressee that al-Shaykh al-Rashīd Abū Manṣūr has arrived. In the margins there are very faded jottings in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. On verso there is Hebrew piyyuṭ.

Letter from an unidentified sender to [Asher?] b. Peraḥya Ḥalabī (the Aleppan). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or early 12th century. Reports on various business matters. Mentions Barakāt b. Khulayf.

Business/family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower left corner). Mentions Abū ʿImrān. T-S NS J533 and Moss. II,176.2 appear to be in the same hand and to be related: each includes the identical phrase "אלתוב אלקטן ואלפרו מע."

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Mentions Abū ʿAbdallāh, al-Sharīf, and various dates, weights, and sums of money.