Geniza Lab

Letter from a father to his daughter. In Judaeo-Arabic. He describes how he is a poor man, but even so he has recently sent 2 dinars to Nahray (b. Nissim?) who will use it to buy wheat for the family. Mentions an old woman (the daughter's mother) twice.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic of a man to his social superior mentioning that a Nasi asked the writer's father to travel with him to Alexandria. The writer is very sick and is afraid he wil soon die. Also his mother is sick, as is his wife, so he asks the recipent to talk to the Nasi that he will not make such a great request upon the father. On the back is what remains of the address: "your slave Shelomo be-Rabbi Eliyyah." There is also a piyyut and 5 lines of a legal document dealing with the house of Ibn Qurra and mentioning the Iraqi synagogue. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Late. There is the bottom part of one letter and then halfway down the page a new letter begins from a son to a father. The upper letter deals with poverty and dangerous times ("the Arabs (Bedouin) are at odds"). It reports that Hillel has lost all his money in Fustat. Also mentions R. Natan and Yaʿaqov Tarjumān. The lower letter/postscript is from the same Hillel mentioned in the upper letter. He signs his name Hillel Melammed. He reports that he lost the entirety of the 400 dinars that he saved in Fustat over a period of 40 years, and how he is devastated and has no choice but to "eat" his poverty. He may now want to sell his shares in a house. Mentions Sulaymān. ASE

Letter from a woman to Sitt [Qa]ḍīb. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions items like the robes (shuqāq?) and the blankets (al-mulayḥifāt). Regards to Sutayt, the elder Abū Zikrī, "my brother who is like my father, my brother Abū Zikrī, and our entire family."

Letter. It looks like this piece of paper had another piece glued to it on top. In any case, what remains is a lower part of a letter. It appears that the writer is trying to encourage and console the recipents in difficult times.

Verso: Unidentified text in Judaeo-Arabic written in an 11th-century Maghribī hand. It may be a letter, but there is no discussion of business affairs. Rather, might be a literary text about religious duties, mentioning poetry or poets: אלקול אלמתקדם... וצולה פי... אלפריצה בעד וצולה פי.... אלנקיצה פי אלשערא... והולכין בשורה ודנין בין שעורה ושעורה... בניה ואעתקאד פיגב... קד פעל דלך פי גואבר(?)... לקיום מצוה... ואלפראיץ... המשכילים. On recto there is a chancery document in Arabic script with wide line spacing.

Recto: Fragment of a state document, possibly a decree. 2 lines preserved. In Arabic script. Some phrases read as "yanālu aṣḥābuhu mimman yaḍumm... wa-akhdh...", "wa-l-muṭālaba bimā lam yajib min gh[...]." There are three interspersed lines of Arabic script between the two lines of the decree which also seem to be in a chancery hand, probably from later reuse. Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, in a Maghribī hand on verso.

Verso: Letter addressed to ha-Kohen ha-Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is a recommendation letter or a request to help the bearer, a young man from Damascus. Evidently something bad happened to the bearer with the Ghuzz. He wants to travel but doesn't have money. AA. ASE.

Fragment (bottom) of a document, possibly a legal testimony. Two lines at the bottom of the document indicate witness signatures. The first one reads "shahida ʿAbd Allah".

Letter written to "my brother," apparently from Qus, dealing primarily with family members' medical issues. There are many eccentric spellings. Recto 4-12: The writer has sent several letters before this one asking the recipient for help. Recto 12-15: Yusuf (apparently the writer's son) has been sick for 6 months with tertian fever; his mother (apparently the writer's wife) has been sick for 8 months with ophthalmia, "like a piece of flesh" (the same phrase is used for women in wretched states in CUL Or.1080 J24 and T-S 12.575). The little boy's eyes are even worse than hers: his ophthalmia has progressed to trachoma (reading ואגראבו as a creative spelling of وأجربوا). For the relationship between these terms, see Ali b. Isa's Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn, translated into English by Casey Wood as Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist (1936). Trachoma (jarab), pp. 85-89. Ophthalmia (ramad), pp. 126-135. Progression from ophthalmia to trachoma, p. 133. Recto 16 - Verso 5: The writer tells the recipient to pawn a table for 5 dirhams and to bring the money for a consultation with Abu l-Ma'ruf b. al-Taffal; the writer has also written Abu l-Ma'ruf a letter describing the wife's ophthalmia. The recipient is to obtain the ophthalmic medicines and send them urgently to Qus with a trustworthy messenger, to Abu l-Mansur b. al-Meshorer. Abu l-Ma'ruf should label each ophthalmic with its name, and he should also send dry kohl (antimony) for the wife and for the son. Verso 5-13: The recipient is to go to Abu l-Makarim from the well known Ibn Nufay' family (a man of the same name in Alexandria is mentioned in T-S 13J21.36) and have him expose the leaves of the codices (? מצאחף) to the air and turn them, so that they do not decay. The recipient is to go to Abu l-Surur (b. Al-Kaf?) and give him the same instruction, both for the codices that are with him and the garments, because they contain high-quality silk and must not be allowed to rot even a little bit. Verso 17-19: The writer gives instruction regarding the ground floor or courtyard of his home. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Asking for a favor of some kind in a roundabout way. Needs further examination.

Letter. From a woman (see lines 13–15), possibly in Bilbays, to the Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay. Dating: ca. 1240 CE. This letter was likely dictated. The hand and format is the same as that of T-S 13J21.24 and perhaps ENA 2592.3. The writer excuses herself for not coming to the addressee's location in person. Her "temperament is scattered" (mushattā al-mizāj) due to a hidden illness (maraḍ bāṭin), which has made it impossible for her to ride. Instead, she insists that the addressee come to spend the holiday with her. At the end of the letter, the excuse is repeated. "Sharaf al-Nasab (a man, perhaps the bearer) will inform the master her excuse, that she was unable to ride and that otherwise she would have come to serve him." ASE.

Medical recipes: Judaeo-Arabic on one side, Arabic on the other.

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣadaqa, in Jerusalem, probably to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1065 CE. Fragment (right side only). Discusses: the rain and the snow in Jerusalem; a man from Seville ("al-Andalusī al-Ishbīlī); the addressee passing on the sender's news to Ṣāḥib al-Mulk; Avraham b. al-Rayyis Abū Sahl (=Avraham b. Natan?); "[you should] inform the owner (of the house) the trials I suffered this year in/concerning this house, and the demands/lawsuits of "the fortress" (אלחצן) every day, from the government (al-sulṭān), and the people of the city...." (Information in part from Gil's edition.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Abu al-Rida b. Abu al-Faraj from Ibn Yosef dealing with commercial matters

Letter - starting in Judaeo Arabic and later full of Hebrew quotations. The writer is asking for financial help and adorns his letter with many nice Hebrew expressions. On the back is an interesting note: לא יטלע עלי אלרקעה אחד - whose meaning is not entirely clear.

Letter from Yiṣḥaq Ibn ʿEzra to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Spain. Dating: Perhaps the end of summer, 1138 CE. Dealing with the return of a defective mithqāl. Together with his business partner Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya (who is incidentally sick), the writer has sent Ḥalfon a large shipment of 500 sheets of paper. Ḥalfon had business relationships with both parties, and the price of the paper will be credited toward Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya's account with Ḥalfon. Ibn ʿEzra writes that he plans to visit Ḥalfon the following week, and he passes on regards from two Muslim viziers: Abū Muḥammad b. Abū Rajā and Abū Isḥāq b. Wāziʿ. Description based on India Book. [NB volume number in shelfmark is roman numeral I, not Arabic numeral 1.] ASE

Letter from Yehuda ha-Levi (but see PGPID 9079) to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, 12th century.

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Gush-Halab, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. [NB volume number in shelfmark is roman numeral I, not Arabic numeral 1]

Letter. Business letter from Yisrael b. Nathan, addressed to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fusṭāṭ, sent from al-Jush (Gush Halab). Arabic script on verso. (Information from Goitein’s index card) Alternate shelfmark: ENA 76.1 He writes that while in Damascus, he plans to copy the Order Qodashim from the Iraqi Talmud, and also mentions a notebook (daftar) belonging to the head of the yeshiva - possibly a collection of responsa. (Information from Gil, Palestine, Vol 1: 233)