Geniza Lab

Letter of appeal for charity. Addressed to Yehoshuaʿ Nagid (d. 1355). Begins in Hebrew, then switches to Judaeo-Arabic. The sender had to mortgage part of his house and is in dire straits ("...at my wits' end... the knife has reached the bone..."). He asks the Nagid to talk to Ṣadaqa the beadle and a certain ḥaver.

Letter/petition from a certain Yiṣḥaq to the Nagid David I Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 10 Sivan [4]999 AM, which is 1239 CE. (Someone, perhaps Elkan Nathan Adler, incorrectly wrote "1339" on the manuscript.) The letter reports on a man who came from Alexandria and said that he had litigation against his wife and that he sued his wife using responsa of rabbi Yosef (?) so that she would be divorced without ketubba compensation. The ruling contained the idea that because she does not have menstrual periods, she is forbidden to her husband and should be divorced without a ketubba. However. Yiṣḥaq, who must have been the local judge, ruled according to the ruling of Maimonides (in Ishut 25:13) that this ruling pertains to a woman who is in this state from the beginning of the marriage, but if it happens after the marriage he must give a ketubba (נסתחפה שדהו) . When the husband heard this ruling he wanted to return to be married to her. However, he was prevented from doing so because of a condition in his ketubba that he will not marry [probably: another woman without] providing her her meʾuḥar even if it is she who wanted to divorce. In the remaining text it seems that an argument is made that there was erroneous qinyan (קניין בטעות).

Bill of sale for part of a house. Seller: Ṣadaqa b. Abū l-Khayr. Buyer: Dhakhīra bt. ʿEli. Location: Cairo (although it seems that the property is located in Fustat). Dated: Tammuz 1452 Seleucid, which is 1141 CE. A sum of 10 dinars is mentioned—perhaps the price. Signed: the cantor Moshe b. Yehuda; [Maḥās]in(?) b. Seʿadya (this part is torn away and partially concealed by the black tab from the folder where it was photographed).

Letter from an unidentified sender, in India, to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 12th century. This fragment begins cryptically: "...and he prays to God day and night to deliver him from you (pl.). His character is not unknown to you—that he does not like anybody to rely on him—for you brought him up and know him best, and he is fair in his dealings. He commutes (yatarakkaḍ) from Malabar to Ceylon and his goods are in Aden every year. His aim is to exchange(?), hopefully, and leave, but there is no escaping failures (ijāḥāt). This is not unknown to you. If you can be patient until such time that he leaves, then good, and if you want your goods (sooner), simply send him a letter in your hand, and he will give them to whomever you tell him. The slave (= I) asks from your beneficence to send the account...." When the letter resumes in the margin, it refers to a quantity of several thousand buhārs (likely the total number of bales carried in the Kārim fleet at the time of the writing of the letter); something which is not readily found in India; and mace (basbās). The letter continues on verso with a "ḥasbī Allāh"; a report on the price of clove; the sender says he didn't go out to Aden this year, but rather sent a bit of lac with Yūsuf b. Abū l-Munā. (This could also mean that he *only* went out to Aden this year with a bit of lac with Yūsuf but that makes less sense.) If Yūsuf is now in Fustat, the addressee should help him send the sender's goods, "for I know that you are good to foreigners." Regards to various people, including Ibrāhīm. Information in part from Goitein's description in his notes to India Book VI, 50 (unpublished). OZ, AA, ASE

Letter probably addressed to Avraham Maimonides—[the son] of our Lord and Rabbi Moshe the Great Rabbi (ZL). In Judaeo-Arabic. It is written on a reused state document in Arabic script, of which the beginnings of three lines are preserved. The portion of the letter preserved here suggests that it is a letter of condolence on the occasion of the death of al-Ṣadiq al-Ḥasid al-Shaykh [...] (perhaps a man connected to the pietist side of Maimonides's family. On verso, there are pen trials and jottings (or messy accounts?) in Arabic script.

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning a group of people who share an underground(?) storage room of wheat in a single courtyard; some have stored less, some have stored more. One of them lives in the same house. Then, a government representative "attacked" the majority of the houses in the city, demanding the harvest stores "for the strengthening of the lands." (There is a tricky phrase at the beginning of this section: this representative appears to be called בליל, which could be Bulayl and a diminutive of Bilāl; it is faintly possible that בליל חמס refers to "the one sodden with discord/oppression"; it is also possible that there is a pun or code for בעל המס, tax collector, and the querier did not wish to put that phrase in the document.) It seems that the one who lived in the house handed over some of the wheat, and now there is a legal question about how the losses should be distributed.

Legal document. Fragment (upper right corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: 14 Sivan 156[.] Seleucid, which is 1561–69 Seleucid, which is 1250–58 CE, under the authority of the Nagid David I Maimonides. One of the parties appears to be Yefet ha-Yaqir. Nothing else is preserved.

Letter from Yehuda b. [...] to Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. The name of the city Tripoli appears after the sender's name. He reports on a legal dispute with R. Shem[...] and asks for instructions from Avraham and/or whether they must report to him in person.

Panygeric prasing the leaders (negidim) of the Jewish community. Mentioned are Elʿazar, Yefet, and ʿUziel and later also ʿOvadya. There is also a single line of poetry in Arabic script (about tears).

Cheque / order of payment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 10 Kislev 1530 Seleucid, which is December 1218 CE. The beadle Abū l-Ṭāhir is to pay the bearer, Abū l-Faraj al-Ziftāwī (i.e., from Minyat Zifta), from the [...] of al-Shaykh al-M[...], some money for his maintenance during his illness. There is an addendum: "He said that he paid him 3.5 (dirhams) in cash."

Autograph note from Avraham Maimonides to al-Shaykh al-Talmid al-Ajall al-Raṣuy(?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Seems to mention somebody in need (...wa-ḍururātuh...) and Rabbi Menaḥem. The third line on the other side appears to also be in Avraham's handwriting (at least the Hebrew script that refers to al-Tifʾeret, but perhaps also the preceding words in Arabic script). This note is written on a fragment that was cut from a letter sent to Avraham Maimonides. The original address of that letter (in both Arabic script and Hebrew script) is still preserved: "al-Ḥarīrī should deliver this to Sayyidnā al-Rayyis... Avraham ha-Nagid ha-Gadol...."

Deed of sale of part of a house. Location: Fustat. Precise date is not preserved. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Sitt al-Banāt bt. Shelomo (Salāma) al-ʿAṭṭār inherited 1/6 of a house in the al-Mamṣūṣa neigborhood of Fustat from her late husband Abū l-ʿAlā' b. Dā'ūd. The other parts of the house are owned by the qodesh and by a Kohen known as Ibn Abū l-Khurasān. The widow sells her share of the house to David ha-Kohen for a price of 11 dinars. The buyer receives the husband's will and all former property deeds. Witneses: Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo; Yeshuʿa ha-Levi b. Ḥalfon; Shabbat b. Avraham b. Shabbat; Ḥalfon b. Menashshe; Ḥalfon b. Ghālib; ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Menashshe. The term "mushāʿa ghayr maqsūma" (l.13), jointly owned undivided, should be more elaborated. Houses, usually, are described as being held in joint, undivided ownership. This means that the parts of a house, which normally formed the object of a contract, were units of account, not real segments of a building. A house was divided into 24 nominal shares, a division modeled on the 24 qirats, or parts of the dinar. The shares transferred by sale or gift (a sixth in our document) could be very small. (Information from Weiss's edition.)

Ketubba. Only some signatures are preserved together with the validation (qiyyum) of the ketubba. The witnesses of the main document are: ʿUlla b. Yosef ha-Levi; Moshe b. Yehuda; the teacher Yiṣḥaq b. Nissim Nafūsī (עולה הלוי ביר יוסף משה בר יהודה יצחק המלמד[ביר ניסי]ם נפוסי). The witnesses of the qiyyum are: Avraham b. Shemaʿya ha-Ḥaver; Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi; Moshe b. Ṣadoq; and at least two additional names, one including "Yoshiyyahu" and the other "ʿEli ha-Levi." (אברהם בר שמעיה החבר נין שמעיהו יצחק ביר שמואל הספרדי משה ברבי צדוק ועוד שם אחד).

Legal deed written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. On parchment. Almost nothing is left. The name of some of the other signatories may be recovered. Somebody (Goitein or Friedman?) added the year range 1105–32 to the manuscript in pencil; but it is not clear what this could be based on apart from Ḥalfon's years of activity (1100–38).

Legal proceedings. Maʿālī ha-Kohen, the agent of Yosef b. Ṣedaqa he-Ḥaver, appeared before the court and declared that—unless granted explicit permission by the court—he would not charge for the storage space nor the transfer fee for half of the wood which he brings up for the wife of Abū Yaʿaqov known as Ibn Naḥum. This wood is in the house (dār) which is the share of her sister, the wife of Abū l-Faḍāʾil, which she inherited from her father. The name Avraham b. Shemaʿya he-Ḥaver appears at the bottom in the same hand as the document; he may have been the scribe. But this is not a complete document, as it is not dated and there are no other witness signatures.

Legal deed in Judaeo-Arabic of appointing a legal agent.

Letter of Shelomo ha-melammed b. Elijah to his "brother" Abu l-Barakat al-Hariri b. Abu Mansur al-Hariri the brother of Abu l-Surur the goldsmith. Consists mostly of updates about the family members of the recipient. This letter is mentioned only in Frenkel's PhD dissertation and remains unpublished.

Letter from the office of Yehoshuaʿ Nagid (d. 1355) seeking to bring peace to the community and also urging them to be charitable and especially urging them not to resort to Muslim courts without permission of bet din shel mutahaddithin. (Information from Cohen)

Court case from Fustat, 15 March 1285. The document involves the arrangements for paying the capitation tax (jaliya) in Alexandria and Fustat.

Testimony that a female slave named Akramiyya who grew up in the house of As'ad the physician (probably As'ad the physician from al-Mahalla who appears in Ibn Abi Usaybi'a's biographical dictionary of physicians) is not of Jewish progeny, but neither she is a mamzeret, foundling etc. Fustat 1217, one of two copies; the other is T-S 13J3.26, PGPID 1110. This one edited by Moshe Yagur, On the back there are other Judaeo-Arabic legal entries, at least one involving debt payments.