Geniza Lab

Accounts of Arus b. Yosef. (Information from Goitein's index cards). See PGP 20645

Informal note to a certain Abū l-Ḥasan. The writer was forced to go up to Cairo, so he informs the addressee that he is sending him the quarter-dinar (rubāʿī) that he had obtained (?) while in Fustat. He asks that the addressee send him 'the note' (al-ruqʿa) in return.

Letter, extensive and profuse, by a cantor in a provincial town to his widowed mother named Umm Farjun, inviting her to Cairo(?) to visit him and her grandson who yearn for her. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 242, 338, 479, 503). The letter is sent to the 'house of my master al-Hemdat b. Pinhas' in New Cairo. Connected to T-S 8J22.19.

Letter addressed to Abu Zikri Yehuda b. Musa. Verso contains a draft of greetings regarding the grandsons and great-grandsons of the recipient, written in a different handwriting.

Letter from Yusuf b. Eli Kohen Fasi, Alexandria, to Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sugmar, Fustat. Around 1057. The writer thanks Yehuda for buying wheat for him. The writer deals with his family’s rental matters. He expresses his intention to travel to Palestine with the remains of an unknown person who passed away. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #399) VMR

Business letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by a Maghrebi merchant named Nissim who, coming from al-Mahdiyya, had arrived in Alexandria at time of a civil unrest.

Important business letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by a Maghribi merchant named Nissim who, coming from al-Mahdiyya, had arrived in Alexandria at time of a civil unrest. The writer describes the difficult situation in Alexandria and al-Mahdiyya, attaches valuable price lists and assures the addressee that his wife and baby daughter are perfectly comfortable. Dated 1060-1070. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 168; V, pp. 50, 51, 519.) A letter from Alexandria, in the hand of Salāma b. Mūsā b. Iṣḥaq Safāquṣī, to an unknown recipient. Summer of 1062. Lists prices in Alexandria. Mentions trade links with Byzantium, Genoa, Crete, Sicily, and Spain. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 445-446.)

List of the expenses of Abu Yosef Yaaqov ha-Parnas. The hand is familar from 1040's. On verso a letter in Arabic

Business letter regarding shipment of cotton. Moshe b. Yehuda the cantor and Abu Sa'd maymun are mentioned. On verso faded list written in a differnt hand

Letter sent by Abu l-Barakat Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Binyamin the Jewish physician (al-ḥakīm al-isrāʾīlī). The writer sends the recipient good wishes on Hanukka, congratulates him on his wife's deliverance (meaning that she did not die nor was she harmed in childbirth) and wishes him that God may give him a male descendant. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 226, 227: V, p.603)

Letter from Abū Yūsuf, unknown location, to Rabbi Elʿazar (body of the letter) who is likely identical with Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallima (address), presumably in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Goitein makes much of the addressee's matronymic and also reads the address as kanīsat al-muʿallima, "literally, "the synagogue of the woman teacher" (since school often was held in the synagogue compound, the school itself came to be called synagogue)." But it is also possible that the letter is addressed to the neighborhood of the Hanging Church (Kanīsat al-Muʿallaqa) and that the addressee is Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallim, that is, the son of the male teacher. Goitein identifies the addressee with Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallima who (according to another document that Goitein summarizes but does not cite) volunteered to send money to Ashqelon that was collected to ransom the Jewish prisoners who been taken and the books that had been looted when Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in July 1099. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 356, 506.) As for the content of this letter: The writer is unemployed and asks for help "in this difficult year." Otherwise, the letter is almost entirely taken up with expressions of preoccupation and urgings to write. Regards to a woman named Qaḍīb, who is sick, as well as several other people. ASE

Letter addressed to a 'Sar ha-Leviim,' asking him to help his son, who is imprisoned in Cairo for a debt. Fifteen dirhams had been pledged, but his son owes 25 more. (Information from Goitein's index cards). The letter is written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who served as the muqqadam of Bilbays from 1180's-1220 (identified by Amir Ashur)

Letter from Ibrāhīm, Yosef b. Hillel, and Moshe to Yehuda ha-Rav. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 13th century. Asking to have some produce sent to them, some of which should be given to ʿIwaḍ, the addressee's cousin.

Accounts of cotton shipments for Barhun and Yosef

A Letter containing a legal query dated from the middle of the 12th century, addressed to 'our honorable elders' describing a squabble between a person claimed to be Qaraite and a local Rabbanite. The so-called Qaraite answered in 'kalam Rumi' that is Greek or other European language, and the man thought he is cursing the elders of the community. The writer is asking to meet with the Head of the Jews himself, and is asking how to testify in court. (AA)

Letter of request for money addressed to the Qaraite community on occasion of a circumcision. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Goitein may have identified it as Qaraite becuase of the blessings to the Nesi'im

Letter, in a large Maghrebi hand. Some commodites, such as silk, are mentioned. also Mentioned Alexandria. The address is beraly legible. On verso a letter in Arabic script

Letter in which the sender relates about some letters that reached him, discussing financial matters, among others some account books of different people and a registration document to be taken by the recipient to a Muslim judge, and also mentioning some letters that should be brought to Cairo. In the hand of Yosef b. ʿEli Kohen Fāsī (Gil). The sender is in Būṣīr. He asks the recipient to obtain an order from the vizier to a head judge to investigate the expropriation of goods that belonged to a deceased so-and-so b. Salāma. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 365.) Verso is blank.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (thin strip from the right side of recto). Mentions: a Maghribī; Abū Saʿd b. [...]; "a bit of Armenian bole (ḥajar armanī)"; [...] b. Ayyūb.

Marriage document. See ENA NS I.13