Geniza Lab

Business letter from the North African merchant Benāya b. Mūsā (Alexandria) to Shelomo b. Mevorakh (Fustat), containing inter alia information about the movement of ships and referring to several India traders. Benāya b. Mūsā asks his correspondent to intercede on his behalf with head of the Jews Mevorakh b. Saʿadya, seeking the latter’s assistance in arbitrating a dispute to which the merchant’s son was a party. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, pp. 238n96 and 250-251.)

Recto: Partnership record. Dating: 1096. Written in the hand of Hillel ben Eli. Describes a settlement between Yaḥyā and Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh. Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh loans 210 dinars to and places some agricultural commodities with Yaḥyā. Yaḥyā agrees to take upon himself the maintenance of the poor of Fusṭāṭ for a year in the event of nonrepayment. The repayments do not appear here because this would have been recorded only on the debtor’s copy of the loan agreement. Yaḥyā’s testimony that he paid his debt wouldn't be accepted without these records, but testimony by Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh (the creditor) is to be accepted without such condition. Verso: Court record. Dating: 1116. Part of a court record detailing a different partnership. Abū al-Surūr Simḥa ha-Kohen brings a power of attorney to pursue the claims of the brothers Abū al-Ma‘ālī and Abū al-Wafā Tamīm b. Yeshu‘a regarding a partnership held by their dead brother Mevorakh, with Yaḥyā (the same Yaḥyā from the recto) and Abū al-Ḥusayn the money-changer. The structure of the partnership is unclear, but it seems likely that Mevorakh was an investor and Abū al-Barakāt had always been the active partner. Upon Mevorakh’s death, Yaḥyā and Abū Ḥusayn claim 2/3 of the partnership assets, leaving Simḥa to collect the remaining 1/3 for Mevorakh’s heirs. The verso is written in a different hand from the recto, likely that of Nissim b. Naḥray. Signed by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief judge of Aleppo. The connection between the two documents is Abū al-Barakāt and Yaḥyā. Per Goitein, this Abū al-Barakāt is not the Mevorakh mentioned on the recto but rather Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh b. Shelomo al-Ḥalabī, and Yaḥyā is Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 56-60)

Two fragments of a letter written by Madmun, and belong to the addenda to India Book II. AA

A mirror imprint of T-S AS 219.129 - but much easier to read. A business letter, much damaged and faded, but certainly belong to India Book. Madmun, Abu Zikri and [Isha]q Nafusi are mentioned. A public auction of silk is mentioned (see also CAJS 344, IB H89), and a shipment to Alexandria. AA

Letter from an unidentified merchant to Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAfṣī. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender reports on a shipment that he has sent with Jaʿfar: 62 wax moulds (qālib) weighing 51 1/2 raṭls in addition to 2 1/4 manns of violets (zahr banafsaj). With the proceeds from the sale of the wax, the addressee should purchase brazilwood (baqqam). If the violets sell for 1/2 dinar a mann or more, the addressee should use the proceeds to purchase costus (qusṭ) or high-quality brazilwood (this reading is not certain, as the first letter is missing). If the violets fetch less than that, then the addressee should hold on to the money. The Jaʿfar mentioned here is likely identical with the ship owner mentioned in Bodl. MS heb. a 3/19 (India Book II32). He was evidently Muslim; nothing else is known of him. The addressee, Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAfṣī, is known from numerous documents, including several in India Book II. AA. ASE.

Commercial accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals (with the name of the month מרחשון written in Hebrew script three times). Written on cloth. The other few documents written on cloth in the Geniza are from India, which is suggestive but not proof that this is also from India. Information from recto: The 'thānī' at the top of the page indicates that this is the second folio of the account. It was written in a year when 4 Ḥeshvan fell on a Thursday. Seems to be a detailed list of expenses for construction work on a house over the course of ~5 days. Red brick and the bricklayers are mentioned several times. The sums seem low, in the tens of dirhams. There is one entry apparently for "four game boards" (alwāḥ alʿāb). Another is an expense for "the Jews" for 5 days of water flow (sayl al-māʾ). Information from verso: The unit of measure farāsila is mentioned twice (typical for India trade documents). "The elder Ibrāhīm" is named in four different places, including the header ([...] ḥawāʾij Ibrāhīm); it seems very likely that this is Avraham Ben Yiju, and the account is being prepared on his behalf. At the bottom, there is a list of debts owed to Ibrāhīm including one from "his father-in-law al-Shaykh Kardār." See India Book, III, documents 18–21 for other commercial accounts coming from the same milieu (in Judaeo-Arabic). (Information from Amir Ashur, who identified the document as related to the India trade, and Alan Elbaum.)