Geniza Lab

Letter/petition from an official to the Nagid Mevorakh. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 1099 CE, per Cohen, and no later than 1111 CE, based on Mevorakh's dates. Same sender, same addressee, and same subject as T-S 18J4.12. It is about the "desolation" (kharāb) of the Babylonian/Iraqi synagogue. There are two chief complaints. (1) "Members of the (larger) Palestinian synagogue had enticed many of those belonging to the Iraqi one to join their house of worship They held out lures, such as a promise that children would be able to participate more often by being called up to the Torah, since the Scriptural readings in the Palestinian rite were short (and, hence, required less preparation)." (2) "The second reason for the desolate state of the synagogue was the despotic behavior of the beadle (khādim), named al-rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ghazāl. This Abū l-Ḥasan had been lording it over the congregation, acting more like a rayyis than a beadle, giving orders, taking charge of litigations, and even forcing Mevorakh's own muqaddam (he is called muqaddam in one letter and nāʾib in the other) to cower in his presence. When requested to discharge his synagogue duties, he would brazenly retort: "even if the rayyis (Mevorakh) so commanded me, I would respond, Ί neither listen nor obey'" (lā samʿ wa-lā ṭāʿa). Living with the beadle on the synagogue premises were about fifteen of his relatives, who regarded him as the local boss (shaykh al-mawḍiʿ wa-ṣāḥib amr wa-nahy)." In the AIU letter, the sender describes what may be a further deterioration: "Only a few people... remain in the Babylonian congregation, and they are mainly indigents," as this sender witnessed for himself when he attended services on the previous Shabbat together with Ḥalfon b. Menashshe (called here Abū Saʿīd b. Abū Sahl Ibn al-Qaṭāʾif). Several additional communal officials from this period are mentioned in the letter. (Information mainly from Cohen, Self-Government, pp.254–56, and in part from Goitein’s index card.) Ed. Β. Chapira, Mélanges Hartwig Derenbourg (Paris, 1909), pp.121–30. Transcription awaiting digitization on PGP. Written on a "long daftar"–style bifolio, which is unusual for a letter, but not for drafts.

Fragment of a draft letter in the name of the community of Fustat regarding the imposition of an excommunication, ca. 1035.

Letter of an unknown welfare official reporting to a superior. He alludes to the plight of an orphan girl (1-6). He asks the recipient to investigate the matter of the physician Makārim who has left his wife an agunah; she has been beseeching the writer to write on her behalf (6-13). The rest of the letter has to do with granular details of houses, portions of houses, rents, payments, and interest. Names mentioned include Ibn Zikri, Ibn Rabi', Abu Sharif, R. Shabbetay, and the Kohen from Rhodes. A denomination of currency (?) called אפרנתי is mentioned twice. ASE.

Calligraphic letter from Sadoq Ha-Kohen b. Eliyyahu, Jerusalem, to his brother (probably Evyatar) in Fustat, June 1056 [13th of Tamuz, year 987 since the destruction of the temple]. Opens with a Hebrew poem. Sadoq's signature is surrounded by small Hebrew letters. There is a tiny note in the lower right corner apologizing for the bad (or: Arabic?) handwriting of the (now lost) address, which was necessary for the safe arrival of the letter. Information in part from Goitein's note card attached to PGPID 6192.

Segment of a letter from Shelomo ha-Kohen Gaon b. Eliyyahu, Damascus, to Ulla ha-Levi b. Yosef, Fustat, February 1116.

Letter from Shemuel b. Hofni, June 977.

Beginning fragment of letter from Yeshu'a Gaon to communities in Fustat ca. 1010.

Letter from a man of communal standing, perhaps Daniel b. Azarya (1051-1062) bestowing the title 'Hod Ha-Zeqenim' upon the worthy elder and physician Avraham Ha-Kohen, ca. 1055. The author refers to his own decree to the Jewish community on recto, line 14: “I issued the decree (nishtevan) to my lord the Shaykh Abu l-Faraj, may God bless him, and he read it, and proclaimed it to the [congregation]."

Original use: Letter from Eliyyahu b. Shelomo Gaʾon to David b. Yeḥizqiyya Rosh Ha-Gola. Dating: ca. 1046. In Hebrew. Published by Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, doc. 416. The transcription below is from Mann, who only edited BL OR 5546.1.

Account of the qodesh, ca. September 1201. This is an accoutning written on both sides of a single leaf, detached from a notebook. The peculiar thing about this document is that it shows the existence of two separate lists, of inhabited apartments and of empty ones. The latter have their rents listed, in order to compare the actual with the budgeted revenue. There is also a third class, of people who live in their apartments without paying rent. This is extremely unusual in the accounts of the qodesh and can only be explained by the extraordinary conditions of distress at the time. Seven apartments are listed as occupied rent-free; among them, that of R. Anatoli, whose rent was in any case reduced to five dirhams, as against 52 dirhams that he still paid three months earlier. Among the people exempt from payment are "a poor woman" and some scholars, one of them styled al-khaver. The total sum counted on as revenue was 336.5 dirhams, whereas the actual income was only 171, i.e., a little more than half. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 386 #102)

Letter by Sherira Gaon and Hayye Gaon in the hand of a professional scribe. Originally written in ca. 1005. Sent to Fustat to an aluf, probably Avraham b. Sahlān. Mentions Shemarya b. Elḥanan and his son Elḥanan. Mentions “the son of the deceased ruler,” probably al-Ḥākim. Refers to distress and persecutions that the writers suffered, and hints at a controversy in Fustat. Expresses thanks for a delivery of parcels (probably containing halakhic queries and money) that had reached the yeshiva with the assistance of Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 96.)

Excerpt of letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to the Ḥaver in Fustat, probably Eli b. Amram, ca. 1060.

Account of building operations ca. 1216. Expenditures for construction materials and labor, as recorded in the course of several days. The work is done at compounds of the qodesh and the Synagogue of the Palestinians. Some other expenditures, as for captives, are also included. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 412 #113)

Legal document. Deed of dedication of a house in Damascus to the Great Synagogue, ca. 1090. A certain Meshullam, known as Ibn Shurayq al-Dimashqi, i.e. "the Damascene," dedicates his house to the Great Synagogue of Damascus, to which it is adjacent. The document is a draft written in the hand of Avraham b. Natan, one of the prominent members of the courts in Fustat and Cairo; it is unsigned, and as the name of the donor's father was not yet known, a space was left so it could be inserted later. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 214-215 #33)

Copy of a court record from Aden. Dating: Summer 1131 CE. Concerning a controversy over Jewish communal leadership in Yemen. Goitein thought that this copy was made in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, but Friedman doubts this. It is not a direct continuation of T-S 20.37, but it concerns the same controversy. Namely, a Persian Nasi who was a cousin of the Exilarch in Baghdad had come to Aden, and the Yemeni public received him with respect and handed over to him the synagogue and religious affairs. He annulled the practice of mentioning the authority of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva (at that time Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon, based in the Egyptian capital) in prayer and legal documents. The foreign merchants, such as Ḥalfon b. Netanel, opposed this. (Information from Goitein, The Yemenites, pp. 67–68 and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.) VMR

Letter to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) concerning public affairs.

Autograph letter by Avraham Maimonides to the muqaddam of Minyat Ghamr and Minyat Zifta. A cousin of the muqaddam, al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, was per earlier agreement allowed to substitute the muqaddam in leading communal prayers and ritual slaughtering. However, the muqaddam was worried that this arrangement would weaken his own position and tried to prevent al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab from acting as his substitute. Avraham Maimonides admonished the muqaddam for his jealousy and urged him to keep the agreement. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.) Possibly related to T-S 24.38, a letter from Minyat Zifta reporting on a squabble between al-Shaykh al-Sadīd and al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab over the duties of the muqaddam.

Letter from Daniel b. ʿAzarya (Damascus) to the court physician Avraham b. Iṣḥaq b. al-Furāt (Fustat). Daniel b. ʿAzarya congratulates the addressee on his transfer to Fustat from Ramla and reports that letters from the Ramla people sent together with a letter by the addressee were lost. The writer promises to act in favour of a cantor Yefet b. David from Fustat. Daniel b. ʿAzarya expresses gratitude for a robe of honour that Avraham b. Iṣḥaq obtained for him from the vizier. He mentions his troubles in the past year and his plans to travel to Jerusalem. Daniel b. ʿAzarya also asks the addressee to intervene for him with Qadi Abi Muhammad and more generally to act on his behalf in Fustat so that the authorities there exert influence on the people in Palestine. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Gil, Palestine, Vol. 2, pp. 662-663.)

Very long letter dated ca. 1100, issued by the two judges of the capital in the name of the Nagid Mevorakh, in which a circuit judge is strongly rebuked for having given judgment in a town in the absence of the local muqaddam and for having taken other actions without consulting him and the elders. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 74, 537)

Letter to the community of Jerusalem from Elhanan b. Shemarya, 1013 CE.