Geniza Lab

Legal deed: release or quittance in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, from Mikhaʾel b. Avraham to Yosef b. Abbā Mārī. Dated 1426 Sel. (1114). Signed by Avraham b. Shemaʿya, Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuʾel ha-Sefaradi, Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, and Shemaʿya Gaʾon. Not in Weiss's dissertation on Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Marina Rustow) Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library on his death.

Legal document. Deed of sale for a house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ that Levi b. Namer sells to Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣayrafī Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Menashshe ha-Kohen for 20 dinars, first 10 days of Sivan 1438, in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Witnesses: Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuʾel ha-Safaradi, Netanʿel b. ʿAmram. Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library after his death. (Marina Rustow)

Marriage contract (ketubba) between Yaḥyā ha-Kohen the blind b. Shela ha-Kohen and (?), dated 23 Adar I 1475 Sel. The images on FGP and the University of Heidelberg Library website are difficult to read and might seem like photostats, but I'm told they are digital images of the originals. Cod.Heid.Or.78–80 were purchased from a dealer in Cairo by Adalbert Merx, who published them in 1894 and donated them to the University of Heidelberg Library after his death. (Marina Rustow)

Business letter in Arabic script from Mūsā b. Dāwūd al-Levi al-Miṣrī to Mubārak/Mevorakh bar Avraham b. Sabrā about the shipment of various commodities, including gold.

Business letter in Arabic and Hebrew script from Avraham b. Ṣadaqa to Abū Saʿīd Netanʾel b. Ṣadaqa in Fustat.

Account and/or receipt in Arabic and Hebrew script of Mevorakh b. Avraham and Jaʿfar b. Rajā al-Jūdarī, dated 478 AH, which is 1086 CE. Mentioning quantities in qirats and dinars, written on the back of a business letter (see separate entry).

Letter draft from Barakāt b. Abū l-Faraj al-Dayyān (=Shelomo b. Eliyyahu) to al-Shaykh al-Rashīd Abū l-Ḥasan. In Arabic script. The writer asks for a loan of forty dirhams against a turban as collateral. He also conveys condolences on the death of the addressee's brother. Information in part from Werner Diem's edition via the Arabic Papyrology Database. The identification is based on the exact match of the name Barakāt b. Abū l-Faraj al-Dayyān. The word Dayyān is an uncommon Arabic word and a very common Judaeo-Arabic word for 'judge'. Moreover, the opening formula (yuqabbilu l-arḍa ṭā'iʿan lillāhi. . .) appears in exactly one document in the APD database and in two documents in the PGP database, one of which is T-S 10J8.2, a letter by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. The identification is all but clinched by ENA 3927.1, which is a letter from Barakāt/Shelomo addressed to Abū l-Ḥasan (presumably the same as in P. Heid. Arab. III 42, but written at a different point in time), asking for a loan of 20 dirhams against his turban as collateral in order to pay the capitation tax for himself and his father. Note that P.Heid.Arab. III 43 (a request for 20 dirhams from Abū l-Najā) and P.Heid.Arab. III 44 (sympathy for a sick woman, addressed to Abū l-Maḥāsin) are also by Barakāt/Shelomo. ASE.

Letter from ? Rosh Ha-Gola b. David to Yehuda Rosh Ha-Seder b. Avraham, February 1021. There is also a lot of writing in Arabic script.

Memorandum from Khalaf b. Isḥāq al-Yamanī. In Arabic script, with additional notes in Judaeo-Arabic. Ordering pharmaceuticals from Egypt. There is an entire short book devoted to this document (Albert Dietrich, Zum Drogenhandel im islamischen Ägypten, 1954). This document is summarized in Goitein and Friedman, India Book 2, ב50, but Goitein and Friedman did not edit it. NB: The images of this document may be accessed on FGP under the shelfmark p. Heid. Hebr. 12. However, it is more often cited as p. Heid. Arab. 912.

Draft of bills in the handwriting of Nahray b. Nissim.

Accounts in the hand of Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1053, listing flax purchases. Nahray organized the list by his partners who ordered flax and noted down for each partner how much he paid individual flax growers out of that partner’s money. Among flax growers are the judge and the preacher of a village and some Christians (Copts). The list testifies to a cooperation between Muslims and Copts in an Egyptian village. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 912.)

Letter in calligraphic Arabic script, with some Hebrew mixed in. Writer and addressee are unknown. The writer chastises the addressee at length, quoting Quran 12:51 along the way. He is pained by what happened with Abū Saʿīd. Mentions ha-Rav (هراب) Moshe in the margin. On verso, somebody has copied out love poetry by Yehuda ha-Levi. There is an edition and detailed discussion by Werner Diem.

A few words in Hebrew script. On papyrus.

The recto is a letter in Hebrew characters from Barakāt b. Abu al-Faraj al-Zayyāt to "the Friend [of the Academy al-rāsūy]" (probably the parnas, Ulla ha-Levi), asking for a loan of thirty dirhams using a turban as collateral. The verso is a letter from the same Barakāt, written in Arabic characters, to Abu al-Hassan asking for a loan of forty dirhams using a turban as collateral. The writer references that the addressee's deceased brother (the addressee from the recto) used to grant him this deal. He writes that the brother had returned the turban, although he had yet to repay the loan in full. (Information from Goitein’s index card.) NB: Goitein's description above is outdated. This document is now known as P. Heid. Arab. III 42, and it has been edited by Diem. See PGPID 31584.

A letter about a shipment of four maṭars of salted fish. The writer asks not to be charged 2-3 dirhams per maṭar. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from the beginning of the 12th century to Abū Saʿīd Netanel b. Sedāqā, the perfumer, from a scholar and muqaddam. The scholars writes to inform him that he is resigning from his position, as he didn't find it profitable. He asks to be put up in Fustat for two months, until he finds a permanent domicile. The writer switches frequently between Arabic and Hebrew script. (Information from Goitein’s index card) This document has been edited by Diem, and a transcription is available on the Arabic Papyrology Database under “P.Heid.Arab. III 49.”

Letter from around 1100 written by Mūsā b. Daʾūd Levi to Mevorakh b. Avraham b. Sabra about consignments of silver bars and silver ornaments. The letter is written in Arabic characters and the address in Hebrew characters. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Two statements in Arabic characters about small sums owed by Jaʿfar b. Rajāʾ al-Jawdarī to Mubārak b. Avraham (also the addressee of the letter at p. Heid. Hebr. 915). The statements are dated February and April 1086 CE, respectively. They are followed by eight entries in Hebrew characters about other sums owed by Jaʿfar, mostly for clothes he purchased, and some sums due to him.

A letter from a merchant to a group of Jewish merchants which outlines his own services. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

A list of accounts with many names, mostly Muslim, including the qādī and the jahbadh (money-changer, tax-cashier, or, in older scholarship following Fischel, government banker) and some Jewish, such as Yeshu'a and Barhūm. The lists also mention Busīrī linen and money to be exchanged in the Fayyūm. It appears to be from the office of Nahray b. Nissim in his handwriting or one of his circle. (Information from Goitein’s index card)