Geniza Lab

Informal note addressed to al-mawlā R. Moshe asking him to help procure half a wayba of wheat as charity, perhaps for the bearer.

List of names, headed 'Yisraelim.' Charity list?

Letter of appeal for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. Well-written. Refers to "three breads (akhbāz) a week." (Information from Goitein's index card.)

List. Collection, jibaya, made on the first day of the holiday for the Maghribi, the Kohen. About 1115 contributions, mostly in Coptic numerals. Some of the names are encircled (represented here by $ $, perhaps indicating persons solicited). Other names are crossed through (= having paid?). A few are left untouched. The list is headed by the haver ʿOvadya, presumably the great grandson of Avraham Maimonides bearing that name (b. 1297, d. before 1355). The other names also fit the 14th century, e.g Nasir ("helper," three times), Shams ("sun," 11. 4, 27), Faraj Allah ("God has helped," 11. 8, 14). Three dashes (---) represent a diagonal slash downward toward the left, which stands for 1/2 elsewhere but here must mean something else, since 1/2 in this list is representeed by the left arrow, as elsewhere. (S/D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:496, App. C. 68) EMS

Booklet of four pages, listing contributions in dinars or fractions of a dinar. About seventy-two numbers preserved. The list is headed by the Nagid, who pledges 3 dinars, while the others give 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/24 dinars, respectively. A number of the persons listed are known as having lived around 1100; consequently, the Nagid referred to was Mevorakh b. Saadya (d. 1111). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 502, App. C 115, first supplement. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

List, extensive and valuable but damaged, of donors of wheat to the poor. Most give only 1 wayba (about 4 gallons, weighing about 25 pounds), or fractions thereof, some others give 2 or 4. One person whose name has not been preserved, but who follows immediately after the first three mentioned above, donates 4 irdabbs = 24 waybas. Those who had not yet made up their minds are listed at the end of the page merely by name. The tillis is a sack, weighing approx. 150 pounds verso, list of persons contributing dirhams, for example, 2 weavers each 3 d, one giving with his workman. The doctor, the representative of the merchants Yequtiʾel, donates 1/8 dinar (for which one could buy at that time approx. a wayba of wheat). The symbol to the right of most names on verso resembling an Arabic final mim, with a tail, might mean (pai)d, (salla)m. It is represented here by a $ (Cohen) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp 478-479, App. C 21 ca. 1100)

Letter from a woman, in Qayrawān, to a benefactor, unknown location. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. The beginning is missing. Her children have nothing to eat or wear, and they have 'exposed themselves' (inkashafnā), that is, become dependent on public charity. "But do not suppose that [in] Qayrawān that they have compassion and give. By no means do they do this! They give to those whom they know." The wife of ʿAṭā' gave them only a couple measly garments, and when they put them on their bodies, they felt chills. She and her children all have an ear illness. The addressee evidently left 5 dinars for her with Farḥūn, although she has not yet been able to get her hands on it. When she does, she will have the community (or just her children?) bless his name every Shabbat. ASE

List, incomplete and partly defective, of about 33 contributions in gold. Late 11th or early 12th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 476-477, App. C 15)

Collection made at a circumcision feast. The ba'al ha-mila, or father of the boy, gave 1 (presumably: dirham), a few others did the same, most of the rest contented themselves with 1/2 or even 1/4. Only the lower part of the list, with about thirty-four contributors, is preserved. Some names are overlined (having paid their pledges?) Early twelfth century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 498, App. C 80)

Letter of appeal for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer needs help paying the capitation tax (jāliya). The addressee had previously said something about talking to Peraḥya b. Nissim and raising funds from the community.

List of contributors. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of appeal for charity. The writer lost his wealth "in an instant" and had to wander in search of help. He received it from people who knew his family and honor (hod) and saw the books and letters (iggerot) he was carrying, which were confirmed,with signatures from various communities in the east (Ṣova, Ashur, Adina). He is in great need, in spite of his "fathers," and seeks help. It is near a holiday and he has expenses and sick people to take care of (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of appeal from a cantor to a certain Moshe ha-Sar who is in government service. The letter also addresses Ṣedaqa ha-Sar. He asks for assistance in the payment of his capitation tax, of five months of rent, and of three months of payment incumbent on him from a promissory note. The writer had led prayers for Moshe's health during the public services in the syngaogue, and the prayer was evidently heard. He now conveys wishes for full recuperation and that the addressee will retain the favor of the sultan and his entourage (Goitein suggests that this refers to a new sultan, possibly Saladin). ASE.

Letter of appeal in the name of an old woman, whose mantle was stolen while she was about to wash it in the Nile, asking the community in a well-styled address to help her to buy at least a large shawl. She emphasizes her age and frailty and eye disease as the reason why she cannot help herself. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 170, 500.) ASE.

Three columns of contributors, giving fidda, 'silver' (a late equivalent for 'dirham'). Characteristic names: Somekh (assistant cantor, Heb.) Furaykh ('Little Chick,' twice), Frjlh (also twice, an abbreviation of Faraj Allah, 'God had helped'). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 501, App. C 100)

Late list of wealthy contributors, about 30 per week (Information from Goitein index cards.) Verso: There are also several lines of Arabic script.

An almost entirely 'egalitarian' list of contributors from the first half of the eleventh century' (Goitein) Forty-four persons pledge 1/2 (dirham), nine parties, of whom six consist of two or more numbers, 1, and only one pledges 2 (dirhams). Almost all the names appear in abbreviated form: Abu Kathir is Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian congregation of Fustat (1007-1055), Sahlan (b. Avraham), the head of the Babylonians. Hillel hpns, that is, ha-parnas.. Others are referred to simply by nickname: 'Son of the Mule,'The Philosopher.' Dated to ca. 1035 recto has a letter from the orphans (girls) of Dosa, seeking help claiming their inheritance Ed. Gil, Eres yisrael, II, pp. 402-403; trans Mediterranean Society, II, p. 324. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 121).

Fragment of a list of recipients of bread (twelve out of 22 receive 2 loaves each). Ca. 1107 (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 465, App. B 101) | Four fragments in this shelfmark. Upper right: a literary text in square hand involving inheritance. Upper left: faded text, perhaps a part of a piyyut. Lower right: a list of names and sums - probably dispribution of bread for charity. Lower left: faded text , hard to read.

Collection for the capitation tax - jibayat al-jawali (verso) (for the 6th week of the liturgical year, usually falling in November). As the very small sums show, these were not payments to the government, but contributions toward the capitation tax of the poor. The collection was made on a Thursday (21 persons) and the subsequent Friday (15). Sums: 1 gave 11/2 dirham wariq, 13 gave 1 dirham, 3 gave 3/4 dirham, 12 gave 1/2 dirham, 2 gave 1/4 dirham, and 5 unclear or not preserved. All these sums together would not make the total of the yearly capitation tax required from one man. Because of the extreme poverty of the population, the tax was collected in installments. The fraction rendered 1/3 is represented by a 'v' on its side with a dot in the middle and another on top ( like an abbreviation mark); a 'v' on its side without a dot in the middle I think is 1/2 [half an 'alef]. The common Coptic slash is also used for 1/2. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 505 App. C 128)

List in monumental cursive, contemporary with ENA 2591.1, several names being identical. Six contributing two (dinars it seems); five contributing one; twelve contributing one-half; Total, indicated in the list: 23 dinars. The sum was probably needed for a special and urgent purpose, such as the travel expenses of a foreigner who was about to leave. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 125)