Geniza Lab

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dated: 27 Tammuz 1472 Seleucid, which is 1161 CE. The widow of Bunyān(?) b. Durra(?) testifies that she received 10 dinars collected on her behalf by by a well-known tājir, or big merchant, Abū l-Maʿālī b. Bū l-Ḥasan b. Asad. The contributions: 2 dinars from the Nagid Netanel ha-Levi; 2 dinars from Abū l-Maʿālī of al-Maḥalla; 1 dinar from Abū Naṣr; 1 dinar from Bū l-Faraj al-Ṣūrī; 2 dinars from Sālim al-Parnas Ibn al-Jubaylī; and 2 dinars from Ṣāf(ī) the ghulām/slave/business agent of the tājir on the very day on which the document was written. "The participation of the slave seems to indicate that the dead merchant had been connected with his master by partnership or otherwise. In any case, such a collection also represents some form of mutual help" (Information from Goitein, Med Soc I, 204 and 451 n. 65, where he erroneously cites the document as MS heb. d.66/76). Although the scribe is different, this shelfmark may belong together with the preceding 2 shelfmarks.

Letter from Abū al-Riḍa, in Qūṣ, to Abū Zikrī, in Fustat, c/o the sugar factory (maṭbakh) of Abū al-Maʿānī. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. (Goitein's index card identifies the addressee as Eliyyahu the Judge, who did have a son named (Abū) Zikrī.) Dating: Probably early 13th century. The addressee is asked to give a responsum (fatwā) with regard to a certain Maḥāsin who wanted to marry his wife's sister. Maḥāsin had denied a charge in connection with this engagement before a Muslim court and confessed it in a Jewish court. The issue involves the wife (bayt) of Ibn Qasāsa and Abū Saʿd al-ʿAṭṭār, who calls himself Shaykh al-Yahūd. The sender complains several times about his illness and poverty (and therefore his inability to resolve the issue). He tells the addressee not to send letters to the shop of Abū Saʿd, because Abū Saʿd always reads them before passing them on to the addressee. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter fragment: bottom right corner only. Mentions health, items to be sent, and regards to various people including Najīb al-Dīn (?). There is a note in the margin mentioning "your ghulām."

Letter of appeal for help. In Judaeo-Arabic. Written on behalf of a woman, probably in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. "A divorced woman complains that her former husband constantly asks her to return to him. She has left for Alexandria and all the time he keeps asking her to return to him in Fustat which she is afraid to do. Even the Rabbi's servant continues to pressure her to comply (ghulām al-rav baqiya yulzi(mu)nī ʿalā al-safar) saying that “it might be good for you.” Information from Zinger's dissertation, p. 47.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower left corner). Mentions a woman who found the sender in Fustat and said something to him; something about sleeping in the evening(?); Abū Sahl the cantor; someone who died and wandering in the desert (a proverb?); a report on the addressee's son Abū l-Khayr; someone who said something about Ibn Bābā; giving the addressee money to redeem a plege; and the ghulām of Abū ʿImrān. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal document detailing how Ṣāfī, the slave (ghulām) and agent of the Jewish Academy in Fustat, insulted a notable in ʿAydhāb, Ibn Jamāhīr, in the presence of Jewish merchants. Ṣāfī accused the man of having a child with a female slave and then disposing of her, in Berbera, on the African coast. Ibn Jamāhīr filed a complaint of slander against the ghulām, although the governor tried to convince him otherwise because of Ṣāfī's special status. Ṣāfī was ordered to be flogged and jailed, although after intervention by a Jewish merchant from the Maghreb, he was set free, although “not without loss of money.” Goitein dates the document to 1141 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:133, 432) EMS

Business letter in Hebrew and Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥasan Binyamin requesting the dispatch of merchandise to Qalyub, including medical supplies, via a ghulām, and mentioning the broker Banin.

Deed of sale for a male Abyssinian slave (ghulām ḥabashī) named Muqbil, a minor (dūn al-bulūgh), who was tattooed on a covered part of his body (malʿūṭ laʿṭ khafiyy). Location: Probably Alexandria (or potentially Damietta; a city on the Mediterranean). Dated: Wednesday, 9 Tammuz 4912 AM, which is 13 June 1152 CE. Seller: Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Mevasser Ibn al-ʿAnī. Buyer: Moshe b. ʿIwāḍ b. Moshe Ibn al-Riqāʿī. Price: 10.25 dinars. All additional fees and taxes (samsara, maks, wājib, juʿl) will be paid by the buyer, according to a clause inserted between lines 17 and 18. (Information from Goitein's index card; for potential identification of Yeshuʿa b. Mevasser, see Friedman, Jewish Marriage in Palestine, p. 457.) EMS

Letter from a man to his father or teacher. On a bifolium. The first half is in Hebrew and the second half in Judaeo-Arabic. The handwriting evolves significantly from the beginning to the end, but this may simply be due to writing faster and with less care; it does not necessarily mean that there are two different scribes. Dating: no earlier than 1141 CE, as Yehuda ha-Levi is dead; if 'al-Nezer' refers to Natan b. Shemuel, that would date the letter to no later than ~1153 CE. In the Hebrew portion, the sender repents of having scorned the addressee's wisdom and education, offers eloquent praises for the addressee, and mourns the absence between them. In the Judaeo-Arabic portion, he asks for copies of a number of liturgical poems, including 5 or 6 "ʿAmmānī ghurabā'(?)" raḥamim. He adds, " Ever since I have left Damascus, I intend to devote myself to the calling of a cantor. For this purpose, I have borrowed the diwans of Shelomo the Little (the famous Ibn Gabirol) and of Yehuda ha-Levi—may their memory be blessed—and made excerpts from them for my use" (Goitein, Med Soc II, p. 221 n. 10). He has also borrowed a siddur and has been studying the prayers in it. He asks the addressee to send the requested items with Sālim the ghulām of al-Thiqa. Whatever the cost of the paper and the copyist, the sender will reimburse it. He adds that on Tisha b'Av, al-Muhadhdhab and al-Nezer and his brother approached him and asked him to compose a dirge based on אשתונן ואתאונן (it seems referring to Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī's dirge with the same opening: see BL OR 10594.4). The sender then records his own version of אשתונן ואתאונן at the bottom of the letter, "based on a laḥn I learned from you." It does not appear that the dirge here is the original אשתונן ואתאונן or that this sender is Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī himself (whose handwriting is known from T-S 13J14.25). ASE

Recto: An Arabic note with instructions. "Send to Alexandria with the ghulām of Ibn al-Falā[tī?] 5 1/2 manns of aloe wood (ʿūd), to be delivered to the faqīh Ibn ʿAṭṭīya. And send with ʿAlī b. Raḥīm and Ibn al-Maṣīṣī (?) 10 manns of fine aloe wood and 10 manns of middling aloe wood. And send with Ibn Muḥayyar (?) . . ." Verso: Judaeo-Arabic accounts, completely crossed out. ASE.

Letter from Shela b. Mevasser to Mevorakh b. Saʿadya. (Information from CUDL)

List of 72 people to be solicited. Dating: Last third of the 12th century. Arranged according to their business address such as "The Great Bazaar" (a, l. 2), "The Surayya" (a, l. 13), "Bazaar of the Threads" (b, l. 8), "[Street of the] Dyers" (b, l. 11), "The Money Assayers" (c, l. 10). Four persons are noted together with their brothers, one with his brother-in-law. One firm is called "Sons of." Several groups of people belonging to the same profession appear together, such as four mustaʿmals, persons employed in a government workshop (all in the Bazaar of the Threads), three labbāns or dairymen, three sabbāks or metal casters employed in the mint, or three money-assayers. At least five names of a very specific character, such as Durrī the ghulām of the Nagid (see Med Soc I, 133) or Manṣūr of the family of the scarf makers (maqāniʿī) are identical with those in T-S K6.149, and at least eight recur in T-S K15.6. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc II, Appendix C, #31.)

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender asks for help in some tiresome situation. Mentions Khalaf the ghulām of the Rayyis.