Geniza Lab

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Shemuel Ha-Kohen b. Avtalyon concerning a trial that took place in Ramla ca. 1030.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda and nine other Jerusalemites confirming the receipt of ten dinars from Fustat, approximately 1030.

Letter from Shelomo ha-Kohen Gaon to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat, 1025.

Letter fragment on behalf of the lepers of Tiberias to Efrayim b. Shemarya in Fustat.

Verso: Letter from Efrayim b. Shemarya to Natan b. Avraham. Dating: ca. 1034. Relates to the early stages of a conflict between Natan b. Avraham and Shelomo b. Yehuda. Efrayim b. Shemarya gives his support to Natan b. Avraham. Mentions regular correspondence between the writer and the addressee. Mentions a person who arrived from Babylonia, possibly Daniel b. ʿAzarya, who was elected to the Palestinian gaonate after Shelomo b. Yehuda. (Information from Bareket, The Jews of Egypt, p. 99.) On recto there is a document in Arabic script (see separate record).

Recto: Official letter in Arabic script in a chancery hand, with wide line spacing. The beginnings of 4 lines are preserved.

Letter of Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, 1030

Letter from Eliyyahu ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, Jerusalem, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat, ca. 1055.

Letter from Shelomo ha-Kohen Gaon b. Yehosef to Efrayim b. Shemarya, in Fustat, spring 1025.

Letter from Alexandria to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat, requesting donation for the ransom of prisoners of the Byzantines, 11th century. On verso Hebrew rhymed poems.

Letter from the Yeshiva to a Jewish community outside Jerusalem.

Letter from Marduk b. [Musa ?] to Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1045-1096.

Letter from Isḥāq b. ʿAlī al-Majjānī, probably in al-Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: Aound 1040. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter deals with disagreements about money and discussions on how to solve them. The writer orders a dirham of bitumen (qifār), "for the need is pressing" (lines 12–13). He is most likely alluding to an eye disease. In the margin, he sends greetings to Abū Zikrī Elḥanan the physician and writes, "tell the friend of Tammām, the physician, 'My hope is in you.'" Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #636. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Hillel b. Ḥasan, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1065. Hillel opens his letter lamenting the death of an important person who is unidentified. Despite this, the main point of Hillel’s letter was to complain against Nahray for having requested the services of R. ‘Awas and not his own.

Note from the clerk of Daniel b. Azarya to Nahray b. Nissim regarding a collection for an indigent correligionist, ca. 1045-1060. | Alt: Letter from Hillel b. Ḥasan, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1065 (Gil).

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1060 CE. A complaint about Avraham b. Ya’aqov who causes losses to the partners. Mentions bible books, trading silk and trading cloths. Also tells about a great preacher, R. Shemuel, who arrived in Alexandria and who is about to arrive in Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #308) VMR. Alternate description: Letter from the Ifrīqiyan merchant Yeshu‘a b. Isma‘il-Shemuel, who settled in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. He writes that a Spanish man whom Daniel b. Azarya (head of the Jerusalem yeshiva, 1051-1063) had given the title “member of the [Jerusalem] yeshiva” had arrived from Tripoli and was staying at the writer’s house. Shemuel further reports two disasters, and their causes, that have befallen him. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:32, 326, 327, 513, 595) EMS.

Letter from Yosef b. Shemarya ha-Dayyan al-Barqī (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat). Yosef was worried because he had not received a response from Nahray, but was appeased after hearing from intermediaries that Nahray continued to speak well of him. He has learned that Nahray plans to go to Jerusalem and asks him to send his best wishes to his friends there and specifically the gaon, Daniel b. ‘Azarya, and head of the court, Eliyyahu ha-Cohen b. Shelomo, and his son Ẓadoq. He discusses the bead trade and will return to Barqa soon accompanied by a caravan of Muslims.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim in Alexandria to his uncle Abū l-Khayr Mūsā b. Barhūn al-Tāhartī in Fustat. Dating (Gil): 11 or 12 of April 1051. Nahray reports among other things that he had forgotten to bring his capitation tax receipt "for the year 441" on a business trip. "I asked you to look for it in a linen bag among my belongings in your storeroom, and to send it with Abū Zakariyā al-Ḥannān. If my letters have already reached you, may God protect you, then you have undoubtedly sent it. If my letters have not yet reached you, then I request your attention to this matter, may God preserve your glory, so that (the receipt) will, God willing, reach me quickly." (Information from Marina Rustow)

Fragment of a letter to Nahray b. Nissim mentioning Yusuf and Abu al-Ḥasan. The city of Tarablus (Tripoli) is referred to twice. EMS On verso another text, possibly part of a commercial letter.