Geniza Lab

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Ganun to Yaʿaqov b. Yosef b. Awkal and his son Yosef.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic from Musa to his brother Meir ha-Sar ha-Adir ha-Dayyan ha-Mufla. Only the upper part of recto and the address are preserved (good candidate for a join). He is distressed not to have received any letters since Pesakh, and he is in distress. Many people are named in the margin: [...] Sa'id [...], [...] Zikri Rosh ha-Kahal, Abu l-Faḍl and his son Abu Sahl, Abu l-Munā, and Abū l-Faraj al-Parnas. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic from "your brother, the diadem (al-nezer)," dated the middle of Tammuz 1155 CE (1466 Seleucid), including only the upper margin on recto and the address on verso. The address spells out the names: Natan b. Shemuel ha-Ḥaver to Netanel ha-Sar ha-Adir. The name al-Shaykh Abu l-Mufaḍḍal is written at 90 degrees. The remaining text of the letter mentions "the deceased brother (ZL)" but is mostly formulaic. Needs further examination, good candidate for a join. ASE.

Letter from Mevasser b. David, in Tinnīs, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 22 Elul (25 August [1068 — Gil's inference]), with plentiful blessings for the Jewish new year. Mevasser inquires about previous letters and asks Nahray to pass on any news from Ifrīqiyya. It is rumored that ʿAbdallāh Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ, who became the (last) Muslim ruler of Sicily the following year, arrived in Alexandria in a ghurāb (river boat) and may have escaped. Probably this refers to his flight from the ruler of Ifrīqiyya, Tamīm b. Muʿizz. In the margin of recto, Mevasser offers an apology having to do with his correspondence, because he has an illness (tawajjuʿ), and his son and wife are sick as well, and his entire household, "may God deliver them. What will become of a small baby and his mother—may God exempt you—who do not have anyone to go in for them (from context, perhaps this should be read yadkhul rather than Gil's yattakil) or go out? Every person is occupied with himself (mashghūl bi-rūḥihi)." Gil understands Mevasser's sick family members to be not in Tinnīs with him but in al-Mahdiyya, which is currently under siege, with no ships coming and going (connecting recto, right margin, lines 4–5, with verso, lines 10–11). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, # 695 and Goitein notes linked below.) ASE.

Letter containing personal, business and communal news from Marduk b. Musa, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1045-1096.

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl, in Fustat, to Khallūf b. Mūsā, in Palermo. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: 8 April 1052 CE. The writer complains about Abū Yūsuf Yaʿaqov b. Azhar, who owes him money. Also concerning various commercial issues. Yeshuʿa opens with an allusion to his many illnesses this winter, but reports that he is now doing well (r3–5). There are also many lines of Arabic script (apart from the address), some superimposed on the Judaeo-Arabic text. There are also some brief accounts in Judaeo-Arabic in a different hand than the letter. (Information in part from Gil.)

Engagement agreement between the widow Rashīda b. Yiṣḥaq b. She'erit and the widower Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe, Minyat Ghamr, Tishrei 1315 CE, under the reshut of the Nagid Avraham II (who receives nine lines of titles). Both appear in court; both appoint wakīl. The bride undertakes to educate the groom's little son for the duration of two years. Information from Goitein's note card.

Business letter from Aharon ha-Kohen b. Shemarya to Abu al-Afrah Arus b. Yosef, thanking him for the 10 dinars he stood surety for on the writer's behalf, and saying that he has returned the 10 dinars to two men, at the request of the addressee. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Note from Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal’s agent in Alexandria. The writer informs b. Awkal about a ship that suits b. Awkal’s needs and that its owner is a trustworthy person. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #196) VMR

Letter from a novice India trader, ʿAydhāb, to his brother, Libya. Dating: 1103. Complains about the hardships of travel from Fustat to ʿAydhāb. He had run into Makhlūf b. Moshe, known as ʿAyn Sarra (Goitein's rendering of the name, "the son of the man with the gladdening eye(s)," missed the interlinear addition; Elbaum and Rustow render it "Happy Eyes"), who told him about how pleasant life was in India, and at least as the writer represents the situation to his brother-in-law — guiltily, as he had left home without saying goodbye — he somewhat spontaneously decided to travel to India. It would be significant if the barriers to entering the Indian Ocean trade were as low as they seem here. Yet he also complains — with puns — about various locations in the Red Sea (ʿAydhāb/ʿadhāb, Dahlak/muhlik, etc), again presumably in order to reassure his brother-in-law that he wasn't actually enjoying himself. On Happy Eyes, Goitein writes that this man had settled in Alexandria, Egypt, where he possessed a valuable house. He also possessed a house in Barqa, eastern Libya. Cf. T-S NS J241. (Goitein, Med. Soc., x, B, 2, 136) On verso, line 1, there is a phrase from Isaiah (25:1), "emuna omen," “steadfast faith,” which seems to be the equivalent of "burn after reading". It appears on 13 other geniza letters, usually at the end of the address, but it's only in this letter that its meaning becomes totally clear: it seems to have served as a code-word indicating a confidential letter, absolutely not to be shared with others. Its other appearances: Bodl. MS Heb. a 2/16, Bodl. MS Heb. b 11/22, Bodl. MS Heb. c 28/56, CUL Or.1080 J38, T-S 10J10.15, T-S 10J16.7, T-S 10J17.9, T-S 10J25.3, T-S 13J27.11, T-S 8J13.13, T-S 8J17.3, T-S 8J20.14 and T-S 8J23.12.

Letter in Hebrew by a bibliophile from Byzantium, whose family name is Pinhasi, to a scribe in a provincial town in Egypt, named Perahya (probably the same Perahya, who lived in the middle of the 12th century), asking him to send him the diwan (collection of poems) of the Spanish Hebrew poet, Ibn Gabirol. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 238, 574)

Document(s) in Hebrew. Possibly a letter of appeal for charity. Prefaced with biblical verses and ornate praises. On the side that also has Arabic script, it mentions Khallūf and Yeshaʿya and someone's "going out to the villages."

Document in Arabic script. Headed "thabat...." It is a list of names accompanied by sums of money, e.g., "al-Rūmī: 4 dirhams." Perhaps an alms list. See separate record for Hebrew document(s) on the same fragment.

Circular letter, fragment, by the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananyah. The format closely matches that of 12.238 and BL OR 5533.1 (circular letters by Maimonides). Only one line on recto is preserved. On verso is the address to the community of Alexandria (No Amon). ASE.

Legal query with the autograph responsum of Yehuda ha-Kohen Rosh ha-Seder b. Yosef (aka "the Rav"). Yehuda b. Yosef was a student of Rabbenu Nissim b. Yaʿaqov of Qayrawān. He appears in the letters of the Maghribī merchants of the second half of the 11th century simply with the name "the Rav." This query concerns an orphan girl whose mother married her off while she was still a minor. Some time after the wedding, she stated that she had committed adultery. The man initially denied this claim but confessed upon examination by the court. The querier wishes to know if the wife is permitted to her husband. The responsum begins: "There are two sides to this ruling." The Rav ultimately rules that she is permitted to her husband. On verso, in Arabic script, "hādhihi ʿindī bi-khaṭṭihi raḥimahu Allāh" ("I have this in his handwriting, may God have mercy on him"). Information from Amir Ashur via FGP and from Friedman, "A Responsum by 'The Rav.'"

Letter fragment in Ladino from an old man who has arrived in Jerusalem and is having a hard time there. "La paz y salud. . . . Ya sabes mi venida aqui a Jerusalem y be-avonotay cayó poco bien. . . non hay ganancia. Ninguna aqui se puede ganar un solo darham nin. . . . [tie]nen oficios y caudal y son mansevos non se pueden mantener nin sostener. . . . tal hombre como yo viejo y sin oficio y sin dinero que hizo poco que. . . . y aun quedé adeudado de esta manera que un Siciliano. . . . que me trajeron (?) por seis ducados que me pusiesen. . . ." In essence, there is no work or money to be had in Jerusalem, even for young and healthy man, let alone for an old man like him. He is in debt. Needs further examination. Numerous names are listed on verso, perhaps everyone who is still back home and is to be greeted. Toledo is named. ASE.

Letter fragment (upper part of recto, address on verso). From Yefet b. ʿAmram ha-Ḥazzan to Shelomo b. Shela ha-Sar" On recto, the only part of the body of the letter that remains is the end of the right margin and the entirety of the upper margin, in which Yefet excuses himself for not having accompanied Shelomo somwhere. ASE.

Letter fragment from a group of people to an important person ("his majesty"). In Judaeo-Arabic. Formal, with wide space between the lines. Mentions a public letter from the addressee (kitāb al-jamāʿa) and the reading of it aloud in the synagogue.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Abū l-Munā al-Rayyis; something that happened with the Rayyis and the Amir [...] al-Ẓāhiriyya(?) at the gate of Alexandria, and everyone rejoiced greatly; and Shemuel ha-Sofer. On verso there is a halakhic discussion of Yom Kippur, possibly in the hand of Nathan b. Samuel, followed by a piyyuṭ. Information in part from CUDL. ASE

Letter from Mūsā b. Labrāṭ, in al-Mahdiyya, to his nephew Efrayim b. Dā'ūd, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th century. Comforting the addressee (upon a death?) and reporting that he received the capital invested. Information from Goitein's note card.