Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Dating: ca. 1224 CE (this date is mentioned in the text of the letter). Contains a fascinating and long-winded tale about contradictory testimonies regarding whether a woman's husband (ʿAbd al-Khāliq) gave her a conditional divorce before he traveled to Egypt; on the strength of this, certain people drew up a get for her and now she's engaged to someone else; the writer is upset about this and wants the addressee to weigh in, partly because the witnesses are contradicting their own past statements/behaviors, and in part because of how it will look to the Rabbanites ('the Qaraites have already become a חרפה וקלסה'). Merits further examination. ASE.

Letter from the Qaraite community of Damascus to the Qaraite community of Fustat/Cairo. Numerous senders are named. Date unknown. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Deals with a legal or financial matter; needs examination.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Jerusalem, to Shelomo ha-Kohen and ʿOvadya Kohen, presumably in Fustat/Cairo. Dated: Thursday 24 Heshvan 5514 (עמדת), which is 1753 CE. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, and the address is written in Hebrew and Arabic script. Deals with a legal matter. The writers have close links to Damascus. Needs further examination.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Names of writer and addressee are not immediately apparent. Their locations are also not explicit but it should be possible to deduce them; Jerusalem and Damascus are mentioned several times; Homs and Baalbek are mentioned as well. Dating: Probably 15th century or later, based on comparison with the other letters from this stratum. The writer's son Avraham recently died. On verso he describes a controversy over when the new moon of Tishrei appeared, spurred by the moon failing to appear at night but then appearing during the daytime before the next sunset. Needs further examination.

Karaite bill of debt. Monday. Shevat 5th, 5409 Era of creation (1649)

Letter draft from the Qaraite community of Cairo to the Qaraite community of Damascus. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown. Regarding a marriage-related legal case that reached the Muslim courts and resulted in someone spending two months in prison. Needs examination.

Letter from ʿAbdallāh b. Fayrūz to his brother-in-law, a certain Fakhr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 15th century; mentions the currency ashrafī. Deals mainly with business matters. Goods mentioned include: rice, chickpeas, peas, taro, safflower, cinnamon, and wax. Also mentions the addressee's daughter several times. Needs examination.

Letter from Dāʾūd [...], possibly in Jerusalem, to his 'brother' Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov the physician (Samawʾal b. Yaʿqūb al-Mutaṭabbib), in New Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic, with an introduction in Hebrew and the address in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 16th or 17th century. The sender excuses himself for failing to write by citing a problem he had in the brain (al-dimāgh) which descended to his chest, and which required 7 or 8 months of purging. He is tired of the dressings and ointments, and is is scared of the barbers (muzayyinīn) of Jerusalem, because he has no experience with them. One barber diagnosed him with a fistula (nāsūr) and treated both him and the husband of his daughter Raḥel. The sender went somewhere else (Tyre?) for one month to convalesce. Greetings to and from numerous people in the family. Mentions ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, the beadle ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḥakīm, al-shaykh al-sadīd, al-shaykh al-saniyy Farajallāh Ibn al-Nushuww, the sender's maternal aunt Raḥel, Mūsā Ibn Khaṭīr, ʿAbdallāh al-Qayyim, Ibn Juwayhira, and many others. Resembles Yevr.-Arab. II 1457 and its associated letters in terms of the vivid medical details found in it.

Letter from Sulaymān al-Kohen, unknown location, to his mother and brothers Faraj Allāh, Yaʿaqov, and Yiṣḥaq, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. Consists mainly of greetings. Many people are named.

Letter from the Qaraite community of Damascus to the Qaraite community of Cairo. Dated: Wednesday, 10 Tammuz 5512 AM (ואתה על), which is 1752 CE. But it is catalogued as 1776 CE. Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. This very large document needs further examination. Apparently this also has the shelfmark Yevr.-Arab. II 1477.

Letter from a woman named Harja (הרגה), somewhere in Syria, to her mother, the wife of Mūsā Ibn Fayrūz, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter is a remarkable account of Harja's months-long illness. "My heart flared up until I nearly died. I received an enema three times a day, but it did not relieve me. I remained anxious about how I would pass the fast. When the fast came, I let loose (my bowels) like one who has been loosened (in his bowels). I thought it was colic and considered that it was due to a discharge from my brain that settled in my stomach and felt like the colic. I did not sleep during the night of the fast, but I managed to last until midday, and from midday onward, it began to subside. I remained three or four days after the fast as it subsided(?) from me (or: gave me strength?). And when it subsided from me, I remained troubled on account of my eyes, for I could not see the light of the world with them. After that, the pain in my heart returned, and whenever it flared up the basin was not taken away from under my mouth, for whatever went down into my stomach came back up, and my stomach churned from all the vomit. But for now, it has abated, thanks to God for all things. I never imagined I would be carried to Syria sick and blind. I had taken the sickness into account, but not the blindness. I am afraid to have my eye treated, due to the season (i.e., season of illnesses) in Syria, and I am afraid that something else might come over me. I await a sign from God to illuminate my eyes. When you tell me that I am behaving recklessly as is my wont, I have never been more patient in all my life than I have been in these days. Someone who has not seen the light of the world for four months should not feel defeated? Whenever I awake and see the black obscurity of the morning and do not perceive the evening, my only remaining desire is to end my life. When they took me out into the sun, I didn't even see gloom, I saw only blackness." The margin and verso contain mostly greetings. See tag for more of her letters. ASE.

Letter from David Ḥazzan, in Jerusalem, to Eliyya Levi, in Fustat/Cairo. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer describes the difficult financial state of himself and of the Qaraites in Jerusalem, and how "we are in the fire from [the Rabbanites'] oppression." He mentions that he got sick and nearly died, recovered, relapsed and nearly died, and recovered again. Also mentions Gaza. Needs examination.

Letter to Aharon Rofe in Damascus. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The writer may be writing from Ṣanʿā (penultimate line of recto) where he has traveled for business. He awaits instructions from the addressee and asks him to send pears (ijjāṣ) ("unless they brought the disgusting ones") and violets and סיתרג(?) and rhubarb. Needs further examination.

Letter from an unknown woman to her 'brother' Shemuel. She also addresses her female cousin (yā bint ʿammatī). Consists largely but not entirely of greetings. Needs further examination.

Letter to Avraham Rofe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dealing mainly with business matters. Mentions raisins and pomegranate seeds.

Letter from a woman named Harja, somewhere in Syria, to her brother' Hārūn Fayrūz in Cairo. This letter contains an update on her stomach illness and blindness after she had gone to see the physicians (see the earlier Yevr.-Arab. II 1457, and see tag for other letters by her).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Writer and addressee unknown. Dating: No earlier than 15th century; mentions the currency ashrafī. The letter deals in great depth with a matter of a fatwā and and dealings with the Muslims courts, including specifically a Ḥanafī judge. Mentions Ramle. Needs further examination.

Letter from an unknown man to Umm ʿAbd al-Laṭīf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Quite long, filled with business matters and greetings. Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter from Shemuel(?) to Hārūn. The writer may be the husband of the addressee's paternal aunt. In Judaeo-Arabic. Locations unknown; the writer mentions someone who arrived from Cairo with news. Dating: 15th century or later, based on the mention of the currency ashrafī. Much of the letter consists of expressions of condolence. The writer reports that the addressee's paternal aunt is crying and screaming due to the death of the family member as well as due to her separation from the addressee. She is fasting and has not eaten fatty foods (zafar) in 12 days, and refuses to do so until news arrives of the addressee's health. Verso: Letter fragment, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. Describes scenes of horrific violence around the synagogue in Fustat inflicted by 'the youths' (al-shubbān). Umm ʿAbd al-Ghaffār was beaten. Others were rounded up and tortured. Much of it is a lament that would almost be appropriate for a Tisha b'Av service were it not for the specific details (a synagogue in Fustat/Cairo, the individuals named). Needs further examination.

Letter from Shemuel to his cousin (ibn khāl) ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, in Jerusalem. In Judaeo-Arabic. Consists almost entirely of greetings and updates on the health of various family members. Verso: Also contains five items from a list or account.