Geniza Lab

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Opens with commiseration for the addressee; mentions the government (al-sulṭān); mentions ʿImrān; and conveys the sad news that the boy Yeshʿya died. Regards to Abū l-Barakāt and Yūsuf. Needs further examination.

Note from Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan, written by one of his clerks, to Avraham Ibn Yiju during the first half of the twelfth century. The letter describes the highhanded tactics of Bilāl b. Jarīr, the governor of Aden and Maḍmūn's occasional business partner. Madmun complains about Bilal’s habit of demanding the first pick of the goods in the port, specifically of ‘drky,’ a commodity exported to Aden from India that was not always available. (S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India Book, 357) EMS

Account by Avraham Ibn Yiju of Indian products sold for another merchant, Aden, ca. 1141-44.

Business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably the same handwriting as ENA NS 48.13 (per the note photographed with the image), which Frenkel has been identified as the hand of Abū Naṣr b. Avraham. Mentions a Christian; 200 dinars; pepper; ʿAmīd al-Dawla.

Note concerning the wages of the teacher Abū Isḥāq for four weeks (Teruma through Vayaqhel). Each week he taught 3 boys and earned 1.5 dirhams.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. "1200 royal dinars. . . I was distressed by (the state of) those poor children. . . "

Recipe in Judaeo-Arabic involving iron, sal ammoniac, cotton, silver, and other items. Alchemical?

Document filled with Arabic script. Needs examination.

Medical prescription in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letters in Judaeo-Arabic. On a narrow sliver of paper. Recto: Letter addressed to Elʿazar, complaining about the addressee's delay in copying the quires (karārīs). The writer had sent him an ounce of ink as well as Abu l-Faraj with a riding beast, and Elʿazar should send the quires and the parchment with them. The writer has paid Sulaymān's capitation tax for him. As for the quires that were sent with al-Bilbaysī, and likewise the two quires that wre sent with Abū ʿAlī, the writer did not receive them. If the bearers of the goods find a boat to take, they should take it. Verso: The response from Elʿazar. He reports that the ink never arrived, and therefore he has been sitting unemployed, so the addressee should send more ink, two ounces in fact. Someone was sick (perhaps סית is to be read סתי?). It is also possible that Elʿazar's letter came first and the other one is the response.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Describing the horrific tortures inflicted on the writer and his colleagues in the citadel at the hands of four jailers and the jandārs and the slaves of the Great Amir. The purpose of the torture seems to have been the extortion of money (māl). The victims were tortured 17 times until, it seems, a higher authority (the ṣāḥib al-dīwān?) ordered them to be released. Apart from shackling and physical contortions and forcing substances in the noses and mouths, there is an extended description of being "pressed" in the "press" (al-miʿṣara). When they were released, they were dropped off at the synagogue. "Everyone is healthy, but very distressed." This letter was written on Monday night 27 Heshvan, which might make it possible to date. Regards are sent to Bū l-Rabīʿ and Bū l-Alā' and Milāḥ and Rāma(?) and Zahr. The writer's name may be Bū l-Faraj, but there seem to be two additional letters, and it is not completely certain that this word is even his name. Needs examination. Same scribe as T-S 10J7.4 (likewise an account of torture). ASE

Legal record. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Heshvan '29. Concerning a partnership between Munajjā and Hiba al-Zakiyy in glass goods.

Lines of Coptic numerals, some rows crossed out.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Long and full of interesting details. Tells a long story on recto concerning a eunuch, the amir Murhaf al-Dawla, the king, and someone named al-Numayrī, and someone and "his slave who is his wife." At the end mentions a woman who fasts and prays for an absent young man (presumably her son). Needs further examination.

Letter addressed to Sitt Shaʿl, in Dār al-Nāqa, Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The handwriting is distinctive, with stylized loops at the end of all the descenders. Dating: Perhaps 12th century; more precise dating may be possible based on the people named in the letter (e.g., Abū l-Murajjā Sālim and Rabbenu Zakkay). "The holiday has attacked (i.e, is upon us). You cannot stay by yourselves, and neither can I stay by myself. I know that the community will not let me leave the town, and also there will be a pesiqa on the holiday. Give to Abū l-Murajjā Sālim your relative the goods that you cannot carry, and send your sister's jar (zīr) with the bearer of this letter so that he can treat himself with it{s contents} (? yataṭabbabu fīhi). If my father asks for any wheat, give it to him." The writer expresses commiseration with a certain woman (his mother?) and then perhaps describes his own illness, but this section is damaged: ". . . on Friday, but only with a dirty body, and I was bled. And [my?] illness. . . ."

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Abu Zikri ha-Kohen, reperesentative of the merchants in Fustat, ca. 1135

Letter from Yūsuf b. Ibrahīm to Abū ʿImrān Ibn Nufayʿ. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Long and well-preserved. Concerning numerous business matters, including the goods left by Tamīm upon his death and goods to be sold in ʿAydhāb. Needs further examination.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. For pepper, lac, etc., bought and sold in Fustat. There is a note from Goitein: "quoted, but not included in India Book."

Letter of a woman, who was seriously ill, requesting her sister to provide her younger daughter with a proper education. Concerning the illness: "This is to inform you that I have become seriously ill with little hope for recovery. I have dreams indicating that my end is near. . . . Let Abū l-Barakāt come and treat me, for I am in a serious condition. . . . God knows how I wrote these lines." Concerning her daughter's education: "My most urgent request to you, if God decrees my death, is to take care of my little daughter and make efforts to give her an education." She repeats several times not to separate the Sudanese female slave from the little girl and to give nothing but the younger female slave to the elder daughter Sitt al-Sirr. "Cursed be he who acts against my dying wish." ASE

Deed of compensation (שטר פיצוי). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Second half of the 11th century. In which Abū ʿAlī Yefet Tif'eret ha-Qahal b. Avraham confirms that Abū Yaʿqūb Yequṭiel b. Moshe (the Peqid ha-Soḥarim) has paid all the money that he owed to Abū ʿAlī's brother, Ya'ir the Judge. Information in part from M. A. Friedman, Jewish Polygyny, 280 n. 1.