Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to a Nagid (Avraham Maimuni or his son David), reporting about payments.

Legal document describing a gathering to assess the bride's dowry. Fragment, only the right half is preserved.(Provably written by Moshe b. Perahya, the muqaddam of Mahala an-Kubra. Seems to be written under the authority of David Maimuni. AA) Verso: List in Arabic script, perhaps an account.

Recto: Fragment (right side) of a legal document invoking the reshut of David b. Avraham b. Moshe Maimonides, so mid-13th-century. Without the join, the names are only partially present: [...] b. Berakhot ha-Sar (?); [...] ha-Zaqen ha-Yaqar ha-Rofe known as [...] ha-Levi ha-Rofe. A sum of 150 dirhams is mentioned. There are at least a few other documents in the hand of the same scribe, including T-S 16.355, dated 1261. Recto and verso: Piyyutim. ASE.

Opening of a letter to David Hanagid - needs examination. Image not available

Verso: Letter of appeal from a poor man [...] ha-Levi addressed to the Nagid David I Maimonides (r. 1237–1300) or David II Maimonides (r. 1355–1410). In Judaeo-Arabic. Opens with standard praises as well as a prayer for David's speedy recovery from his illness. There follows a detailed story about money that may be owed to the writer.

Letter from ten elders of the community concerning appointment of David b. Avraham b. Maimonides as Nagid.

Beginning of a legal document dated 9 Tammuz 1602 Seleucid = 1291 CE, under the reshut of the Nagid David Maimonides and including a blessing for David's son Avraham.

Letter from Maimonides to his brother (presumably David, who died at sea not long after the brothers' 1167 arrival in Egypt). Not in the handwriting of Maimonides, but possibly bearing his autograph signature ("The signature does not quite correspond to any of the known specimens, but we must remember that we have here an early signature, from the early thirties of Maimonides' life, whereas the others date from later periods."). "God, may He be exalted, knows the sorrow and the loneliness which are in my heart because of the separation from my brother by my father and mother and tender friend, may God spare me the evils which may befall him, and join us again in Old Cairo, if God wills. I write to let you know that I am very well. Moses, the son of Rabbi Maymun, the memory of the righteous for blessing." The text of the letter is surrounded by apparently unrelated jottings in Hebrew, Arabic, and Judaeo-Arabic. ASE. (Information from Stern)

Letter from the Nagid David I Maimonides (d. 1300) to the community of Ashmūm. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning someone named Yosef who was in a dispute with Abū [...].

Deed of compensation in the handwriting of Emanuel b. Yehiel concerning Sulayman ha-Kohen b. Efrayim, who engaged in dyeing silk with turquoise blue. Also mentions the Nagid David; Fustat, 1564 Sel. (1253/1252 C.E.). (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:107, 420; Joseph Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine, 2:329; E. Struss-Ashtor, History of the Jews in Egypt and Syria under the rule of the Mamluks, 3:8-10) VMR and EMS

Letter from David b. Avraham Maimonides to R. Isaac regarding some community issues in Ashmum. Connected with T-S 13J27.1. Information from CUDL and Goitein's note card.

Letter from a man to his father. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 1238–52 CE, as it has to do with the removal of David I Maimonides from the post of Rayyis al-Yahūd (his tenure began in 1238, and he was reappointed in 1252 according to T-S 16.63). The sender reports on a circumcision that he performed on the 9th of Av for (the newborn son of) Mufaḍḍal al-ʿAnbarī, the paternal uncle of Muhadhdhab and Abū Saʿd al-ʿAnbarī. He then reports that the majlis of the Head of the Jews (=David I Maimonides) has been closed (the sender is on the side of David's opponents). R. Ḥananel has disappeared; some say that he went to Qūṣ, some say Alexandria, and some say he is hiding in Fustat. His son now gives public lectures on Shabbat and Monday and Thursday eves. "The ban of excommunication, the shofar, and the name of the Rayyis in the ketubba have all vanished from Fustat/Egypt." On Shabbat Devarim, the new Nasi, the brother of Shelomo, delivered the sermon. The same day, a decree was proclaimed, requiring Christians and Jews to wear a distinctive mark (ʿalāma and zunnār) under threat of life and forfeit of property. The sick son of Mardūk is improving; "the wife" is in her 7th month of pregnancy; the pressing (of grapes) has been much delayed this year. Information in part from CUDL and Goitein, "A Letter to Maimonides and New Sources regarding the Negidim of this Family" (Heb.), Tarbiz 34 (1965). ASE

Letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237) or his son David asking a cantor to arrange a collection in the synagogue on a Thursday morning for two chickens and bread for a poor, old, sick man. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 463, and from Amir Ashur; cf. T-S Misc.8.18, written in a similar hand and layout.) Dating: 13th century

Letter from the wife of Baṣīr the bell-maker (al-jalājilī) to the Nagid David, asking him to help return her husband, who was living in a Sufi community, to his family and to the Jewish faith. She also asks for medicine for her child. "Our Lord has promised the little one a medicine for the ear, for he suffers from it. There is no harm in trying it out, seeing that even the barber is playing with it without experience. May God have mercy!." "[This very night.]" (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Beginning of a court record. Location: Cairo. Dated: First decade of Ṭevet 1593 Seleucid, which is 1281/82 CE, under the reshut of David I Maimonides. Nothing is preserved from the body of the document except for the name of one of the parties: Abū Naṣr al-Levi. On verso there are two poems in Hebrew, one attributed to Solomon the younger (הקטן) and one to Yehuda ha-Levi. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter by David Maimonides to the Nasi. Only the first few lines are preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Small fragment. Recto: Few words from opening of a vocalized letter to ‘our Nagid David’. Verso: letter, informing sayyidna about an halakhic issue. AA

Draft of a letter written either by Avraham Maimuni or his son David b. Avraham Maimuni (their hands are almost identical). Addressed to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa Hibat[allāh b. Abū] l-Faraj.The draft is repeated on verso. AA

A letter explaining what happened in the synagogue
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the writer and Munaja b. Tahir and Barakat b. al-'Attar. He also sending regards to David ha-Nagid. Other names mentions: b. Bashash and Bunayn. AA

Legal fragment (upper right corner). Dated: Ṭevet 157[.] Seleucid, which corresponds to 1259–68 CE, under the authority of David I Maimonides.