Geniza Lab

Letter written by a Byzantine scribe in Egypt on behalf of an unnamed blind man, addressed to a charitable administrator called ‘Eli ha-Kohen b. Hayyim and his son Efrayim. Dating: ca. 1090 CE. The letter details that the poor man’s wife and children are due to come up from Alexandria but they have written to say they cannot afford the cost of a boat ride, and so the writer requests that Eli ha-Parnas hold a collection and “do not let the oppressed return in shame.” The foreign scribe spells Alexandria with a qof instead of the expected kaf. (Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, Julia Krivoruchko, and Cameron Boyd-Taylor, 183, 197-201) EMS