Geniza Lab

Letter from Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq al-Andalusi, Jerusalem, to his partner Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef b. ʿEli ha-Kohen Fāsī, Fustat, ca. 1052. This was Avraham's first sojourn in Jerusalem. He was anxious not to have received word from Yosef for a long time, but just now encountered a Maghribi who came from the West on the same boat as Yosef, and showed Avraham some letters he brought from Yosef. Avraham was saddened to hear of Yosef's financial loss with Barhūn [b. Mūsā al-Taherti]. He thanks Yosef for concening himself with the sale of the garments. "But here we cannot wear more than patched, flax garments, for the land is 'exhausted from the events' and neither stores nor houses are open." (Gil glosses 'li-l-aḥdāth kalāl' as due to armed bands roving the country and notes that Chapira translated it as 'the farmers are wretched.') "As for what you asked regarding my situation here and whether I am making a living, the land is dead; its people are poor and dead, especially in Jerusalem; no one slaughters an animal either on a weekday or on the sabbath, and there is no fowl to be had. It is very cold, and God willing I will depart after the small fast." He asks Yosef to use part of the 10 dinars to purchase for Avraham's orphan cousin (bint khālatī) two scarfs (miʿjarayn), one blue and one green, and a mantle (mandīl) for a Torah scroll, and to send them with Barhūn—or with anybody else—to Qayrawān. He asks Yosef, for the sake of the ʿaṣabiyya between them, to look after the dukkān and take Avraham's place there. He sends regards to Isḥāq, Mūsā, Avraham al-Kohen, and Nahray. He especially sends his congratulations to Nahray on recovering from the illness that he contracted in Barqa. Here, at the end of the letter (v15–19), Avraham recounts that he was desperately ill, bedbound for one month in Ramla and for even longer in Jerusalem, but he recovered, barukh gomel le-ḥayavim ṭovot. No one had any hope for his recovery, neither he nor those around him. (This is also how Chapira understood "mā ṭamaʿa binā aḥad lā anā wa-lā man ʿindī" and "mā ṭamaʿa lanā aḥad bi-l-ḥayā." Gil seems mistaken in reading this as an idiom for "let no one be envious of us," because it is a common trope in Geniza narratives of critical illness to emphasize how everyone had despaired.) Yosef would not even credit it if Avraham told him how much money he had lost from the time he left the dukkān to the present moment. He concludes again with greetings to the same friends as before, and to their families, and to Abū Zikrī Yehuda. The address is in Arabic script: to Fusṭāṭ, to al-Maʿārij (?), at the gate of Dār al-Birka. There follow at least four (Muslim) names of the deliverers. ASE.

Recto: Letter from Simḥa Kohen in Alexandria to Abū l-Faraj in Fusṭāṭ, early 12th century. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter deals largely with business transactions, including in ṭurūḥ (veils?). The writer mentions a certain Levantine person (al-shakhṣ al-shāmī maʿrifat [...]); says that he seldom "goes in or out [of Fusṭāṭ?]" and only relies on one person to do his purchases for him. In the margin, he gives a bleak account of economic conditions in "al-balad" (probably Alexandria): it is not possible to purchase a certain garment or type of flax ("ḥattā l-maqāṭiʿ al-quṭn. . . inqaṭaʿat min al-balad"); "no one enters from the Rīf with anything [to sell]"; conditions here "are as you have heard, they do not require commentary, may God improve them"; "few people have flour"; "may God nullify the evil decree in His mercy for the sake of His name." He then returns to business matters. "If you desire the rest of the amount, it will reach you. However, Abū Ṭāhir said that these ṭurūh are available in Fusṭāṭ even more than here in the balad, and that they . . . Cairo." He mentions making a profit of 15 dirhams, and he mentions someone named Manṣūr (another 'slave' of the addressee). Ibrahīm and Yūsuf also send greetings. Verso: An account (donation list?) in Judaeo-Arabic headed "Shabbat of Vayehi Miketz" and including names such as Avraham al-Maghribi, Yūsuf Kamān (?), Manṣūr al-Zayyāt, and Makārim. ASE.