Geniza Lab

Letter from Abun b. Sedaqa in Jerusalem to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dating: November 1064 CE. The main subject is the tension between the writer and Nahray's cousin, Yisrael b.Natan. Other subjects include details about the burning of ships in Sicily. Opens with a vivid description of the general grief following the death of Sittāt, the wife of R. Natan, who left a boy of 2 years. "How terrible is our grief! It has destroyed us (haddatnā) and sickened us (amraḍatnā).” A government edict threatened to make a dignified funeral impossible, so the mourners considered simply burying her within the walls. “We contracted from this a terrible convulsion (rajf ʿaẓīm),” Abūn writes, “and we gave a bribe and brought her out at night.” ASE

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣadaqa, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: 31 March 1059 CE, according to Gil. Deals with various business matters. He thanks Nahray for burning his last letter. He asks for news of 'al-kabīra' Sitt Murruwa, who had been sick.

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣadaqa al-Maghribī, in Jerusalem, to Abū Zakariyyā Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār b. Madīnī ("Palermitan"), in Fustat. Dating: ca. March 1055 CE, according to Gil. Abūn first consoles Ḥayyim on the death of a son, and he then vehemently refutes allegations against his integrity (charges of debts to the government and the office of the inheritance up to 1000 dinars). He curses his enemies with ṣaraʿat, the biblical disease akin to leprosy, citing a rabbinic dictum: "Anyone who suspects an innocent man is afflicted in his body." Abūn wrote this letter in "bitterness of spirit." He excuses Ḥayyim's bad behavior, as he knows he Ḥayyim is not himself due to his grief; "The afflictions of Fate change one's akhlāq, especially such a disaster as that which afflicted your heart." Abūn complains that Nahray b. Nissim has received his letters but does not respond. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣedaqa, in Jerusalem, probably to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fusṭāṭ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1064 CE. Concerned with rent payments for a house belonging to Abū l-Aʿlā ʿAmram b. Levi Ibn al-Buhūrī. The sender describes his relations with someone who helped him in successful dealings with the government in Jerusalem. Mentions names such as Abū ʿImrān Mūsā b. Yaʿaqov Ibn al-Jāsūs, Abū l-Khayr the goldsmith (al-ṣāʿiḡ), and the cantor Harūn. (Information from Gil's edition and CUDL.)