Geniza Lab

Business letter from Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Ṭulayṭulī to Abū al-Najm Hilāl b. Yosef ha-Qara. In Arabic script. For other Qaraites from Toledo, see T-S 13J9.4 (PGPID 1236, discussed in Rustow, "Karaites Real and Imagined," Past & Present 2007). In line 7, instead of Aodeh's "وقد يخصك السلام," read, "وقد دخل الحمام," yielding, "Your son is in good health; he has entered the bathhouse (i.e., he has recovered from his illness)." ASE

Business letter from Yehuda b. Yaʿaqov (fattore) to a certain Shelomo (employer). In Hebrew with occasional Ladino words (docenas, magazin, partidos).

Letter of recommendation from Avraham Maimonides addressed to the congregation of 'Goshen' and surrounding villages, at their head the judge Shemuel. In Judaeo-Arabic. The recommendee is R. Shelomo ha-Levi from Iraq. Due to his debts in his own country, he had to leave his family behind and go wandering about, despite his weakness and age.

Court register fragment containing the remnants of 14 documents, most of which are fully intact. Dated Tevet-Kislev 5460 AM which is1699-1700CE. On the recto two partnerships were recorded, the first an isqa and the second perhaps a general commercial partnership in the coral trade for the duration of one year: במלאכת אלמרגאן לזמן י׳ב חדשים (l.18). The other court entries on the recto recount engagements that include pledges of marital gifts from grooms to brides. The verso includes two other fully legible entries related to marital arrangements, one an engagement the other an abridged ketubbah that was entered into the court register. The other entries recount payments, debts owed, partnerships, and an apprenticeship perhaps in the production of gold lace: להתלמד מלאכת הסירמקגי (l.7). Based on the suffix, the term in use here is certainly Turkish but the scribe's intended meaning with סירמקגי is somewhat unclear. It could transliterate as sırmakçı– although this term does not appear as an alternative to sırmakeş in the Redhouse dictionary (p. 1014). MCD.

Court record of divorce (or is this the bill of divorce itself?). In Hebrew. Dated: Tammuz and Av 5279 AM, which is 1519 CE. Husband: Elʿazar b. Aharon ha-Kohen. Wife: Esther bt. Seʿadya Kohen.

Recto: State document in Arabic script. Dating: No later than 1078/79 CE. Large chancery hand, wide space between the lines. 4 lines preserved here. Opens with fulsome praises for how the caliph has spread justice and comparing him to the sun and the morning star. Confirms the receipt of a decree (wa-inna l-sijilla l-muʿaẓẓama waṣala ḥawāya ʿani l-khidmati l-ṣādira) and that the writer kissed the ground (fa-qabbaltu l-arḍa ijlālan wa-iʿẓāman). Needs further examination.

Recto and verso: Court record(s) in Judaeo-Arabic. One side (record #1) consists of a lengthy list of valuable commodities and luxury items, including books and account ledgers, but it is not a dowry list. Perhaps the inventory of an estate of a wealthy merchant. There are interspersed comments about people who have taken specific items, e.g., the wife of Sulaymān, Ṣemaḥ b. Yosef (although he denied this in court), and Abū l-Ṭāhir. On the other side, there is the end of what is probably a second record (#2), two more complete records (#3 and #4), and the beginning of a fifth (#5). Records #3–#5 are all dated Iyyar 1390 Seleucid , which is 1079 CE. Record #3 involves Abū l-Fakhr(?) the former partner of Abū l-Faraj, and Avraham ha-Kohen, and a quantity of cloves. Record #4 is a declaration by Daniel b. Aharon ha-Kohen made prior to traveling to the Maghrib, in which he makes arrangements for his assets should he die on the journey. Some of the assets are in al-Mahdiyya. Mentions the names Moshe b. Aharon ha-Kohen and al-Talmid. Witnessed by Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid. Record #5 involves someone named Seʿadya b. [...].

Letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Ṣafar 613 AH = Sivan 1528 Seleucid, which is 1217 CE. Most of the remaining content is formulaic.

Letter from Abū l-Majd to two distinguished addressees. 17 lines of Hebrew blessings are preserved. The lower part, containing the body of the letter, is missing.

Letter in Ladino. The sender has an unskilled hand and sometimes makes numerous attempts to spell a word correctly (e.g., אין[[בייידו]] [[בייאדו]] ביאדו). Mentions R. Yosef Ganso/Gansho among the "amigos," perhaps the well-known Italian Jewish poet of the same name (1560s–ca. 1640) who lived and worked in Bursa—see Kinneret Shutzman, Josef Ganso: a Hebrew Poet in Turkey (16-17th centuries), PhD Diss. (Tel Aviv University, 2015). Needs further examination. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 5575 AM, which is 1814/15 CE. There are various designs with circles on verso. Needs examination.

Petition for help addressed to a Jewish notable. Written in Hebrew, for the introduction, and Judaeo-Arabic, for the body. The sender is a goldsmith in the central exchange (Dār al-Ṣarf). A certain Daylamī named ʿAzīz al-Dawla has been persecuting him (יעמל מעי פי שפיכות דמים... ממא יעמל מעי מן אלסנאות). The addressee is asked to intervene and stop that man from harming the sender. "I have begun a task and I am unable to obtain my wage on his account." He uses the stock phrase, "The knife has reached the bone." There are also a few words in Arabic script upside down at the bottom of the page (possibly from an earlier document reused for the petition).

Letter from Yiṣḥaq to Abū l-Makārim. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions what happened upon leaving the synagogue; al-Shaykh al-Thiqa; and Maḍmūn.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. Verso: An Abū Zikrī Kohen cheque.

Business letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Despite its physical state, the letter contains much information on commercial activities in the port of Alexandria: movement of ships, merchandise prices and commercial disputes. The letter also contains a unique piece of information regarding a direct shipping route from Alexandria to Bijaya. The identification of the writer and recipient of the letter is based on the handwriting and style of the letter.

Business accounts written by Arus b. Yosef. Recto: account (table form) in a fiscal hand, transverse to Arabic text. Mentions Damietta and 4 shrouds/shirts (ṭayalisa). Verso: list or table in Hebrew script. Note on JTS volume in pencil: "many lists in this script are in Cambridge."

See PGP 20645

Addendum/postscript of a letter from Yisrael b. Natan, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. He reports that there is demand in Jerusalem for black, sky-colored, and all colors of silk (shēsh) except for crimson. Crimson silk might sell in Ramla or ʿAsqalān. As for coral (marjān), demand is low in Jerusalem. But Nahray can bring some if he wishes, and maybe he will find some Persians to buy it. (NB: this shelfmark was previously known as JTS Geniza Misc. 15.) Gil translates marjān as "small pearls," but see Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, p. 170 note 18 for the argument that it must refer to coral.

Query and response in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya, who was the leader of the Jerusalem congregation in Fustat between 1007 and 1050. Bareket notes that there are fragments of his legal writings in the Geniza and suggests that these were collections of responsa (Bareket, Jewish Leadership, 120). The many amendments in the manuscript suggests that this is an answer he has composed himself, thus providing further confirmation to Bareket's suggestion that he used to compose responsa literature. It is hard to understand the nature of the responsum at hand due to its state, but it seems like it deals with a woman who appointed her sister's husband as a representative for the marriage. It appears that she sought to re-marry her previous husband while her brother-in-law agreed to a marriage with another man. The woman claimed that she did not intend to appoint him as her representative and that there were no witnesses to such an appointment. The Rabbi decided that the marriage to the other man were invalid and the woman may marry her previous husband. If the marriage to the other man had been conducted she would have been forbidden by Jewish Law to her previous husband This manuscript should be added to the corpus of manuscripts of Efrayim b. Shemarya published by Bareket, Jews of Egypt 1007-1055.

Legal note, or less likely a letter. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. There is no formal introduction. The document has to do with an upcoming marriage, a sum of 10 dinars, and a gift to the girl. The name Sitt al-Sirr bt. Netanʾel appears on verso.