Geniza Lab

Petition from the daughter of Hilāl 'Shaykh al-Yahūd' of Ashqelon to Yaḥyā ha-Sar. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (1100–38 CE). Gil identifies the addressee as Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel ha-Sefaradi and dates the letter to ca. 1135 CE, but does not offer any justification for this identification. The addressee is identical with the addressee of T-S 20.120 (also a Yaḥyā ha-Sar with some of the same titles: שר בית ישראל זקן התפארה הוד השררה), which may date closer to 1100 than to 1138, as it mentions a figure close to the governor (wālī) named Ṣārim al-Dawla, a relatively unusual title which was held by a Fatimid ruler in Ashqelon under Badr al-Jamālī and his son al-Afḍal ca. 1100 CE. In any case, the sender of this petition is asking for financial support for herself and her children, because she used to be supported by her two brothers in Ashqelon (one is named Saʿd and serves as 'khādim al-yahūd'), but the two brothers are facing difficulties of their own and have cut her off. (Information in part from Gil.)

Part of letter from Natan Ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh, Ashkelon, probably to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat.

Letter fragment "in the handwriting of Natan ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh (the grandson), written in his name and that of Yeshuʿa b. Yefet; his son Mevorakh is a signatory thereto as well; their ‘alāma: yeshaʿ rav (‘a great salvation’ like that of the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda). Yeshuʿa ‘the excellent (haver), the judge’ b. Yefet was also one of the scholars in Ascalon at the beginning of the twelfth century, and it seems that he was a partner of the Natan ha-Kohen family in managing the affairs of the Ascalon community (see: 588, upper margin, line 7; 589, upper margin, line 6)." Gil, History of Palestine, 199, note 73. Ṣedaqa ha-Zaqen is also mentioned here.

Letter from Yahya b. Sa'ada in Ascalon to Abu Nasr Yehuda al-Dimashqi in Tyre, informing him about payments he had made and regretting that he could not do much for Abu al-Fadl, whom Yehuda had sent to him. Yehuda's shipments were being withheld by claims of a third party. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 268, and Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the Qaraite Jews of Ashqelon to the Qaraites and Rabbanites of Fustat. Dating: Summer 1100 CE. The letter deals with the ransoming of Qaraite captives from Jerusalem following the Crusader conquest of the city. (Qaraites represented a large percentage of the small number of Jews who still lived in Jerusalem after the Seljuk conquest[s] in the 1070s.) The letter also explains that the fortified city of Ashqelon had not yet fallen, but the residents are struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and the need to make large payments to the Crusaders to ransom back Jewish captives - men, women and children - as well as books and scrolls pillaged from the synagogues of the Holy Land. Despite the terrible circumstances, they take solace in the fact that that the Crusaders appeared not to have mistreated the women. The writers report that they had received the suftaja (bill of exchange), at least the second substantial donation from the Jews of Fustat to the campaign to redeem captives and books. This letter is a request for further donations. The community in Ashqelon had spent over 500 dinars; ransomed over 40 captives; continues to bear the high expenses of caring for the 20 redeemed captives who remain in Ashqelon; and is now in debt for more than 200 dinars. The writers also mention Jews who had escaped from Jerusalem on their own, and others who had been given safe-conduct with the wālī. Of the refugees who arrived in Ashkelon, many had died of the epidemic they encountered there: "The attacks of these illnesses (amrāḍ), the falling of that plague (wabā'), that pest (fanā'), that disaster (balā')" (recto, lines 17–19); later, describing how the refugees perished, "Some of them arrived here healthy, and the climate turned against them (ikhtalafa ʿalayim al-hawā'), and they arrived at the height of that plague (wa-waṣalū fī ʿunfuwān dhālik al-wabā'), and many of them died" (recto, lines 42–44); then, twice more, the writers emphasize their great expenses caring for those who have survived but are still sick, who need not only food and clothing but medicines and syrups (recto, lines 53–55 and right margin 19–20). There are notes by the writers and forwarders of the letter in the right margin on verso, including Yehayyahu ha-Kohen b. Maṣliaḥ, David b. Shelomo and Ḥanina b. Manṣūr b. ʿUbayd. See DK 242 + T-S AS 146.3 for a letter written one year earlier from the Rabbanites of Fustat to the Rabbanites of Ashqelon, also having to do with the campaign for the ransoming of captives. (Information CUDL and from Goldman, "Arabic-Speaking Jews of Crusader Syria" (PhD diss., 2018), 49–58. See also Goitein, Med Soc 5:537; Goitein, "New Sources on the Fate of the Jews during the Crusaders' Conquest of Jerusalem" (Heb.) Zion, 17 (1952), 136; Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 241-242; and Goitein's notes attached to Bodl. MS Heb d 11/7 (page 9f). ASE/MR

Segment of a letter from Jerusalem to Ascalon, approximately 1070 (?).

Recto: Lease of a compound in Ascalon, ca. 1120(?)-1147. A compound in Ascalon is leased by the representatives of the qodesh to to Shelomo ha-Zariz b. Ḥalfon. Verso: Record of the yearly rent paid to the elders of the Heqdesh, kept by the tenant. The yearly rent was one quarter of a dinar or 8.5 wariq dirhams, which covered the rent from Tishri to Elul. The payments were generally made several months after the end of the year. Records of ten such parments are preserved, from a period extending from 1131 through 1147. The lease itself bears four signatures, whereas the yearly payments are confirmed by two members of the court. The document includes writing in three different languges: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Confirmations of the payments are listed in chronological order. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 277 #57)

Colophon to R. Saadya Gaon's commentary to one of the prayers (תפילת שמונה עשרה), written in Ashkelon in 1061. Verso: the beginning of R. Saadya Gaon's Arabic commentary to the same prayer. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, 327, Doc. #528). VMR

Letter from Ascalon to the Nagid in Egypt concerning a dispute in the community over synagogue expenditures, 1st half of the 12th century.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Small fragment, with hardly any text left. It states that the husband of a woman related to Ibn al-Fulādhī (apparently a profession having to do with steel, fulādh or fūlādh) died, and she became pregnant. It then mentions "in the fortified city of ʿA[sqalān]." AA. ASE.

First-person business accounts in Arabic script. Mentions several names and commodities. Refers to "the wax/candle sellers from ʿAsqalān" (al-ʿasāqila al-shammāʿīn).

Letter from Ashkelon to Bilbays about the ransom of a captive.

Letter from a Qaraite in Palestine. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 5415 AM (19th year of the 285th maḥzor), which is 1654/55 CE. But catalogued as 1555 CE. The writer describes being sent to examine the aviv (barley) crop and what ensued. He discusses other agricultural matters, mentions "the port" and Ashqelon, and describes the rainfall this year. Needs examination. On verso are jottings from Psalms.