Geniza Lab

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic (and one line of Arabic).

Letter of request, in which a silk-weaver who owed money to his employer, but wanted to quit his job, asks the Nagid to instruct his judges to permit him to pay in installments. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 35, 36)

Betrothal (erusin) contract. In the hand of Natan b. Shemuel he-Ḥaver. Location; Fustat. Dated: Sunday, 5 Elul 1449 Seleucid, which is 1138 CE, under the reshut of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. Fiancé: Hillel b. Elʿazar. Fiancee: Sitt al-Karam [bt. Abū l-Alāʾ] ha-Levi. b. Iyov, virgin and divorcee. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter in which a physician traveling from Cairo to Damascus describes how he was honored by the Jewish judge of Bilbays. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 227, 228)

Private account written by Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1060. A draft that was copied later. Mentions goods as textile and cloths. Seems like mentions debts for goods that were already paid back. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #290) VMR

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic

Letter to a certain David ha-Sar in which the writer asks him to intercede on his behalf with al-Sadīd.

Verso: Formulary for a bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: Fustat. Dated: Wednesday 13 Ṭevet 1526 Seleucid = 4975 AM, which is 1214/15 CE. The names are generic (fulān b. fulān) except that the wife is fulāna bt. fulāna ha-maʿaravi ("from the West, the Maghribī").

Recto: Letter consisting of ten lines of honorific titles given to R. Yeḥiel and his student, R. Ḥananel. (Information from Goitein's index card.). Verso: A draft of a get

Marriage contract (ketubba) from Damascus, late tenth century. The dowry list includes a short garment of linen decorated with silver and golden threads, two shirts, two velvet covers, and two dyeing vessels. (Information from CUDL)

Will. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. "No wailing women; and of garments in which I shall be buried, no more than these: two cloaks, three robes, a washed turban of fine linen—it is already wound up—new underpants (sarāwīl) of mine, and a new waist­band (zunnār) of mine." He wishes to be buried next to his paternal uncle or his wife. He has released his wife from the requirement of taking an oath before collecting her ketubba. (Information and translation from Goitein, Med Soc IV, 160.)

An addendum to a letter, informing a man that his son was arrested in Bijaya (Bougie in present-day Algeria) and his belongings were confiscated because he did not have any certificate attesting to his relationship with a woman with whom he was found. (Information from Goitein, typed texts) See also ENA 3901.5.

Petition from Cairo to Gaon Sar Shalom (ca. 1177-1195) in which the wife of Abu al-Ḥasan, the miller, requests that the latter not be permitted to tell his wife to go and do embroidery in other people's houses and bring him her earned money, instead she should be permitted to retain her wages if she chose to work. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 133)

Left upper corner, of list of persons receiving emoluments from the community, headed by judges and including 2 scholars, 3 parnasim, the beadles of the 2 synagogues, a woman teacher, and 5 unspecified others. The Rayyis Abu al-Mufaddal was judge in the capital of Egypt but also a merchant who traveled as far as Qus. He appears also in contributor lists App. C 18, 19, 119. Written by the clerk Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ibn al-Qata'if, dated documents 1100-1138. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 442, App. B 16)

Letter in which the writer reports that he stayed for the Sabbath in Qalyub and continued his travel on Sunday. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 299.) Likely same handwriting as T-S 10J18.8.

Letter from the physician Abū Zikrī, in Alexandria, to his father Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Dating: Shortly before 1227 CE. Abū Zikrī tries to convince Eliyyahu to accept the post of judge in Alexandria. He promises that he will procure Eliyyahu's pension from the Ayyubid sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil (r. 1218–38 CE). He reports about the downfall of the Muslim governor and the Jewish Nasi of Alexandria and suggests that his father could get a position in that town if he wanted to. He also rebukes his father in strong terms for failing to include an update on the health of his mother in the previous letter, causing tremendous agitation and fear that she might be sick (r18–21). In a section that is almost completely effaced (v16–17), he mentions "appetite for food," perhaps in the context of one of his own chronic illnesses. (Information in part from Frenkel and from Goitein, Med. Soc. Vol. 1, p. 64 and Vol. 2, pp. 353, 380, 596.) See also T-S Ar.39.64. ASE

Fragment of a letter in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides including the following bitter statement: "What is the reason of this? Don't you know the value of what I do for you? Know that if you do not close the yearly account that you owe to me, on the morning of the holiday I will send you the messengers of the house of the Ṣāḥib [al-Dīwān, the official in charge of the capitation tax]."

Beginning and end of an important business letter written after the arrival of the sender from Mahdiyya to Alexandria, containing a list of prices. Dated to the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 221, and from Goitein's index cards)

Verso: Account of the qodesh. Dating: Ca. 1119–20 CE. Accounting written on the verso of a letter addressed to Judge Avraham b. Natan. The accounting is obviously a draft, since revenue from rent and expenditures, mainly payments to officials, are mingled indiscriminately. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 240 #42). A previous PGP description listed this fragment as containing a "Responsum of the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda," but this appears to be erroneous.

Letter to the judge Avraham ha-Ḥaver, perhaps Avraham b. Natan Av. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is a complaint and an appeal for help against Ibn Ṭarīf and his brother-in-law who had brought a complaint against the writer. (Information from Goitein's note card.)