Geniza Lab

An exceptionally angry letter, complaining that the artisan, instead of returning the finished product, began to haggle about the price. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 86)

Account written by a person admonishing another in Hebrew script but in colloquial Egyptian "the people are saying that he worked four months and that he is right but he is a smartmouth about his health and very generous in [saying] 'he worked well'") undated – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 272). (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 63). MCD.

Letter from Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Yehuda ha-Kohen to Abu al-Farah Arus b. Yosef about the troubles he underwent after leaving for a business trip. On the way by boat his wares were drenched and spoiled. He also reports about a business dispute with a third person which was solved by way of a settlement out of court. (Information and translation from Goitein, Letters)

Legal document. Partnership settlement. Dated: October 1143. Location: Fustat. Written in the hand of Nathan b. Solomon ha-Kohen. The recto records the settlement of a partnership and the verso records subsequent payments. The partners, Khalaf b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Damsīsī and Joseph b. Ḥassān al-Mahdawī, took purple dye materials to Upper Egypt and sold it there. Conflict ensued, perhaps when the partners divided up profits or losses from the sale of the dye (since the division isn't specified in the document). The mutual release was complete, except for a payment of two dinars to be made from Joseph to Khalaf according to a payment schedule described in the document. If Joseph fails to make full payment, he must make a donation to the poor in the same amount as he owes. Khalaf is to be trusted (presumably, without an oath) concerning Joseph's payments. Despite the aforementioned penalty clause, Joseph apparently took longer than expected to repay the two dinars, since the final release which appears on the verso is dated six months after the end of the loan repayment period, in 1144. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 219)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Reused for business accounts on verso, which are in the hand of ʿArūs b. Yosef (according to Goitein's notes). The letter is written in a very difficult hand. The addressee is asked to meet with Abū [...], Abū l-Barakāt, and the latter's mother and to convey the sender's greetings and the message that he only cut off his correspondence with them because they cut it off first. It seems that the sender's father (al-marḥūm abī), who was intimately associated with the addressees, has died. (Goitein read "abī" as "ṣabiyy" and a previous PGP transcription interpreted this as his son—but presumably that would have been written "al-ṣabiyy." Another possibility is "akhī"/brother, since the scribe does not carefully distinguish between כ and ב.) The death has led to various financial/business complications. The addressees are to send him all the things they are supposed to send, "just as you would to your father." The sender did not want to write a power of attorney as he has done with others. Apparently he wants to try resolving the dispute without resorting to legal instruments. He closes by asking them to do what is right, then a threat to escalate the situation if they don't. (All of this is tentative, because the letter has still not been adequately transcribed.) EMS. ASE.