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Tag: cantors
6 records found
Contract. Location: Fustat. Dated: 2[.] Ḥeshvan 1352 Seleucid, which is 1040 CE. In which Yiṣḥaq b. Seʿadya al-Manbijī agrees to teach Fahd ha-Levi the liturgy in evening courses to be continued over a period of 3 years. Witnesses: Shabbat b. Elʿazar; Natan b. Yeshuʿa; Maṣliaḥ b. Shemuel; Efrayim b. Shemarya. Also concerns figures from a town in the Nile delta. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)
A cantor orders a religious poem in which each stanza concludes with a biblical quotation which has as its last word "God," such as Numbers 23:27 or Exodus 1:17. He asks to get it well in time, as he was not any more as good in memorizing as he had been previously. At the head, the first two words of a poem by Judah ha-Levi. Possibly he needed the poem for a circumcision, given the biblical verse specifically alluding to midwives. Information from Goitein's note card. NB: The shelfmark has since changed, and it will take some investigation to find the current shelfmark. Goitein's transcription linked below is actually of DK 238.5 (Alt: XVI) = PGPID 9285.
Document, either a legal fragment or a letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Regarding the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat and the cantors David b. Shekhanya and Meir, who perhaps have a dispute about who gets to take the Torah scroll out. Needs examination.
Recto: Letter from Yehuda b. Aharon b. al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to Abū l-Majd Meir b. Yakhin, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 23 Shevat, 1208 CE. Yehuda copied for Meir dirges (qinnot) and liturgical poetry (piyyutim). The whole letter deals with the exchange of professional news and information between the two cantors. In particular, R. ʿOvadya the cantor from Damascus was meant to deliver certain piyyutim, but he departed suddenly without warning, which is why Yehuda is sending them with the present letter (r6-12). Yehuda rebukes Meir for sending him vague requests without specifying the opening lines of the piyyutim, which cools Yehuda's ardor for fulfilling his requests (r12-17). He also asks Meir to send back the note about the reading of Deut. 1:44, which Yehuda had seen in the Tāj (the Aleppo Codex) (r17-19). He also wants Meir to send him the fatwa that relates to Yehuda's court case against a judge (r20-22). He asks if ʿOvadya is planning to travel again (r23-24) and concludes with greetings. See Goitein, Med. Soc. II, 548 n. 59, for an explanation of the date in this letter and in T-S 16.287. Yehuda writes 168, with 4800 implied, so the year is 4968. On verso is a draft of a legal query in a different hand. Information in part from Frenkel and from Goitein's note card. ASE.
Legal agreement. Location: Fustat. Dated: 4754 AM, which is 993/94 CE. Two cantors, Naḥum b. Yosef al-Baradānī and Palṭiel b. Efrayim, divide up liturgical and communal responsibilities (and wages) between them. Among other things, they are appointed to draw up marriage contracts and bills of divorce. The former, Naḥum b. Yosef al-Baradānī, is otherwise known from the writings of R. Hayya Gaon. (Information from Friedman, "Palestinian Ketubbot from the Geonic Period," Teʿuda 1 (1980), p. 68). On verso there are liturgical instructions in Judaeo-Arabic.
Recto: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender says that the addressee sent the wrong copy (nuskha) of a liturgical text, but it's for the better, because he never even knew that the addressee had the one that was sent, and he's needed it all year. It seems that the sender will pass the one that he received on to the Kohen. As for the one that was originally requested, it is the maʿamad for the daytime prayers of Yom Kippur. He concludes, "And this is for the price(?) of the nighttime." Maybe the addressee had mistakenly sent him the nighttime prayer and he is enclosing payment? Verso: The response. The sender says that he doesn't have the requested text, but it should be in his grandfather's house, so he will go and look for it. He then refers to some earlier correspondence or communication: "As for what the lord said about Abū l-Riḍā that he does not know אליגאדה(?), I didn't say anything to him more than intimidating him to make him scared."
