Geniza Lab

Letter from Shemarya b. Maṣliaḥ, in Fustat, to the Nagid Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram, in Qayrawān. Dating: probably spring or summer of 1039 CE, and in any case 1038–42 CE, the period of conflict between Natan b. Avraham and Shelomo b. Yehuda over the gaʾonate in Palestine. The letter drafts on both recto and verso are about that conflict and the question of the loyalties of the community of Qayrawān. Signed by Shemarya but from a group of people; Shemarya's signature is in a different hand from the letter itself, and according to Gil, the scribe is Ghālib b. Moshe ha-Kohen, the son-in-law of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Both Gil and Cohen assume that additional leaders of the Fustat community were planning to sign the letter. This letter covers some of the same ground as the letter on verso; we additionally learn that the support that Natan b. Avraham claimed to have secured in the Maghreb came from the elders of Qayrawān. Jacob Mann published T-S 18J4.16, and Mark Cohen discovered the join with ENA 3765.10 and the significance of this pair of letters. (Information from Goitein, Cohen, Gil, and CUDL.)

Letter from Avraham b. David Ibn Sughmār (according to Gil), in Fustat, to the Nagid Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram, in Qayrawān. Dating: Probably spring or summer of 1039 CE, and in any case 1038–42 CE, during the period of conflict between Natan b. Avraham and Shelomo b. Yehuda over the gaʾonate in Palestine. The letter drafts on both recto and verso are about the conflict and the loyalties of the community of Qayrawān. The sender asks the Nagid, who had previously petitioned the Muslim official Abū l-Qāsim Ibn al-Ukhuwwa on Natan’s behalf, to show his renewed support for the legitimate gaʾon, Shelomo b. Yehuda. This letter also mentions the arrival in Fusṭāṭ of the Nasi Daniel b. ʿAzarya and presents him as a great reformer, banning the ownership of female slaves, excommunicating miscreants, and cracking down on music. As an afterthought, the sender alludes to terrible wrongs being inflicted by Natan b. Avraham's relatives. One remarkable thing about this letter is that it was written at least a decade before Daniel b. ʿAzarya served as gaʾon (beginning in 1051 CE after the death of Shelomo b. Yehuda). It's also one of the key sources for Daniel b. ʿAzarya's lineage: it says that his father was the exilarch ʿAzarya b. Shelomo b. Zakkay, whose elder son Zakkay (Daniel's brother) established the dynasty of Nasis in Mosul whose descendants crop up throughout the Geniza documents of the next two centuries. Jacob Mann published T-S 18J4.16, and Mark Cohen discovered the join with ENA 3765.10 and the significance of this pair of letters. (Information from Goitein, Cohen, Gil, and CUDL.)