Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef. Ending only. The sender mentions not behaving appropriately with something or with a woman (or being accused of this). He sends greetings to Nissim, probably the addressee's son.

Court record, probably a bill of release between a woman named Turfa and a man named Sayyid al-Kull. Signed by [...] b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen and Natan b. Ulla. Probably written by Mevorakh b. Natan. On verso, pen trials with biblical verses.

Letter in Hebrew. May be addressed to Yosef b. David (per the address on verso) or to the Damascene cantor Seʿadya b. Mevorakh (per what is written above the letter on recto). What remains of the letter consists entirely of poetical phrases. There is another text block on verso which seems to deal with halakhic issues.

Letter from an unknown sender, in Jerusalem, to Samḥūn b. Yaḥyā al-Maghribī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Damascus, a scary situation, Nāblus, Shelomo Ibn Ḥabīb, and various business matters. Also mentions Shelomo b. Efrayim ha-Kohen. Uncited in the literature and needs examination.

Letter addressed to a certain Seʿadya or the son of Seʿadya. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 1425 CE, based on the mention of the ashrafī coin. Conveys interesting details about misfortunes and financial transactions, faded but mostly legible. Mentions Dāwūd [b.] Nissim twice.

Letter from Saʿīd b. Marḥab, in Aden, to Abū Zikrī b. ʿAṭiyya. Dating: mid-12th century. Apart from the introduction and address, only about a dozen lines are preserved from the margin of recto. In these lines, the sender mentions Zabīd, the righteousness and merit of Sayyidnā, a safe arrival of a group of merchants in Aden, their departure for India, and the news that their ship was stranded in Mirbāṭ on the south Arabian coast.

Fol. 1: Letter from Seʿadya b. Mordekhay ha-Maghribi Ibn Zorihan (? זוריהן), in Jerusalem, to a certain Yosef, in Egypt. In Hebrew. Dating: 16th or 17th century. The addressee had promised to come to Jerusalem for Passover this year. The sender says that "I no longer have the time to study (or teach? אדרוש) in the Batei Midrashot." On verso there are accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, including a mention of a ḥummusī (Information from A. David via FGP.)

Fol. 2: Letter in the hand of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (active ca. 1181–1209) addressed to [...] b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen, a member of the same distinguished family of kohanim and merchants as in T-S AS 148.5 (same titles: תפארת הכהנים חמדת השרים נאמן הסוחרים עין העדה). Only the formulaic opening is preserved.

Letter of condolence. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Seʿadya b. Ṣadaqa ha-Ḥazzan, probably in Manṣūra.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: Probably 1082 CE. The approximate time period is established by the mention of Yaʾir ha-Nadiv Peʾer ha-Qahal, who also appears in T-S 28.6 (1070s). This document is dated in the opening lines Thursday, 21 Elul, year not preserved. The last three lines indicate that the document was signed (although this copy doesn't appear to be signed) and given to the parties Saʿd and Yaʿaqov on Thursday, 4 Ḥeshvan [..]94. The full date at the top of the document is probably 21 Elul 1393 Seleucid, and the full date at the bottom of the document is probably 4 Ḥeshvan 1394 Seleucid. The case concerns Sahl b. Faraj al-Ghazzī and a sizeable sum of investment capital (over 45 dinars). He reports on his travels and misfortunes. Apparently someone named ʿImrān had him imprisoned by the government. When he got out, he used the rest of the money to purchase goods and travel to Tyre, but "the land was plundered, together with all of my goods, and I was wounded, and I returned to Fustat a 'drowned man.'" The local community helped him, especially Yaʾir ha-Nadiv. The rest of the document seems to detail his efforts to settle his accounts. On verso there is a Hebrew/Judaeo-Arabic glossary of Halakhot Gedolot. ASE

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic (FGP). Most of a family letter conveying concern for the recipient and many other people and requesting news. ASE.

Responsum draft about Reuben who gave Shimon checks to deiver to Baghdad and also lend him money. Shimon pawned jewelry as a guarantee for Reuben and wrote a document about it. Later on the monetary exchange rate was reduced. The query ends there. On verso a draft of the beginning of a ketubbah, and few scribblings in Arabic

Letter from Wafāʾ b. Abū l-Faraj to a dignitary. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Consists entirely of poetic expressions of longing and honor. On verso: "The reason for this haste in this correspondence is that I have hired (passage) and am coming down tomorrow God willing." Also on verso, at 90 degrees, in a different hand: names in Judaeo-Arabic along with mention of various animals and agricultural goods. A list of tax farmers? Needs further examination.

Legal note, unsigned, beginning "Yaqūlu...": "ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn says that Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Ḥalabī has a note (ruqʿa) of [...] under the name of Abū ʿImrān worth 2 dinars. I lost it (wa-qad waqaʿat minnī) and I collected the substitute/equivalent (al-ʿiwaḍ) and released him from it. Whenever it surfaces, it is false and invalid." The dates are then specified. ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn was an India trader in the early 12th century (and the subject of Goitein's "Portrait of a Medieval India Trader"); Abū l-Ḥusayn (Yaḥyā) al-Ḥalabī was a banker (ṣayrafī), also known from several other documents from the same period.

Acknowledgment of a debt. Between Sedaqa b. Yosef and Yeshuʿa b. Hannaya. Signed by Elʿazar b. Yosef and the parnas ʿOvadya b. Shabbetay. Dated: Last decade of Ḥeshvan (year missing). There is Arabic script in the margins and a few words above the signature, and verso is filled with Arabic script (basmalas and various drafts—needs further examination). The lines in the margin of recto contain a basmala and the name of the writer: min hadhayān ('from the raving of??') Abū Manṣūr b. Yehuda, who calls himself al-Mutaṭabbib on verso), and at 180 degrees and upside down there is a blessing (for the caliph?), ṣalawāt allāh wa-barakātuhu wa-nawāmī zakawātihi wa-afḍal al-salām. Cf. the same language in T-S 20.32r (petition draft from Hibatallāh b. Abū Manṣūr to al-Ḥākim), cited in Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 468 note 15.

Letter from Shemuel Gaon b. Hofni to an unknown Aluf (אלוף). October 1008. Information about copies of two of the Gaon’s books. The person who delivers the letter is one of the Maghreb merchants and he's supposed to send the letter after his visit in Jerusalem. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #50) VMR. The letter is written by Israel the son of the Gaon.

Legal query addressed to Yehosef Rosh ha-Seder. Concerning a muqaddam who demanded that his name be included in the kaddish as had been done for his predecessors (man taqaddamahu min al-muqaddamīn). "Some of the congregation opposed him, for their own reasons" (M. A. Friedman has suggested that these were also opponents of Avraham Maimonides, see "A Bitter Protest about Elimination of Piyyutim from the Service — A Request to Appeal to the Sultan [Hebrew]," Peʿamim 1999). One of the groups excommunicated the other group. The name Elʿazar ha-Kohen b. Aharon ha-Ḥaver appears at the upper left (and perhaps at the bottom of another document that was originally above this document). (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc III, p. 480, n. 154). ASE

Bill of release written in Tyre 11th century. Malīḥa bt. Shemarya (?) the widow of [...[ yedid ha-yeshiva b. Peraḥya declares that she had sent what was in the possesion of Abu al-Faḍā'il Ṣadaqa b. Yosef and releases him from any claims regarding any loss due to the dangers of travel.

Legal deed. The body is in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: classical Geniza period. Mentions Peraḥya and al-Shaykh al-Ṣafiyy Abū l-ʿAlā. Otherwise, too faded to discern the content.

Marriage agreement of Perahya b. Natan and Sitt al-Ghiyār, daughter of Mevorakh. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 405, and IV, p. 342, and from Marina Rustow [reading the second half of the bride's name])