Geniza Lab

Letter of condolence on the death of the Nasi and Rayyis Sar Shalom (ll. 7, 38). Addressed to another Nasi (al-Rayyis al-Dā'ūdī), with blessings for his son Abū l-Ḥasan. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. It seems that the sender is asking the addressee to convey condolences on his behalf to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa, to Abū Isḥāq and his sons, to the dear brother Abū l-Barakāt al-Ṭabīb and his mother Sitt ʿArīb(?), and to the entire family of the late Rayyis (or of his widow?).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Draft. Addressed to Yishay the Nasi, probably one of the Mosul Nasis active in first half of the 13th century. Mentions the sender's gladness when he heard that the addressee had arrived in Damascus ("maḥrūsa Dimashq"). (Information from CUDL)

Polemic against the house of the exilarch. Dating: 1040–41 CE. After a disagreement between Kafnai, Bustanay's father, and his father in law, the head of the Yeshiva, the entire family of the exilarch dies (and King David appears to the head of the Yeshiva in a dream). Bustanay is only surviving descendant of King David. The head of the Yeshiva raises him and occupies his place among the elders of Baghdad, but refuses to cede the position when Bustanay turns 16. The case comes before the caliph ʿUmar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who is impressed that Bustanay does not flinch when a mosquito bites him. The caliph appoints Bustanay as exilarch and marries him to a daughter of the King of Persia, who had been captured in battle. She bears children to Bustanay but is never manumitted and never converts to Judaism. The point of the polemic: all the descendants of Bustanay are compromised, and the true house of King David will be revealed only in messianic times. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4) Join: Moshe Gil. In the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham (per Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4), copied in the following circumstance: Daniʾel b. ʿAzarya, who was a nasi (from the house of the exilarch), had arrived from Iraq in Palestine and supported the gaonate of Shelomo b. Yehuda. Followers of the rival gaʾon, Natan b. Avraham, including members of the Iraqi congregation in Fustat, among them Sahlān b. Avraham, cast aspersions on Danʾiel b. ʿAzarya presumably also against Shelomo b. Yehuda. (Rustow, Heresy, 314) For a parallel text, see PGPID 35180.