Geniza Lab

Letter from Abū l-Ḥayy b. Ṣāliḥ al-Ṣabbāgh, in Palermo, to Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Taherti. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1050 CE. The sender came to Palermo in order to travel on to Egypt, because conditions in the country (presumably Ifrīqiyya) were poor, and he was unable to provide for his family. He describes his wretched situation. He booked passage on a ship (qunbār) belonging to a man from Tinnīs, but he waited and waited, and all the other ships ("even the ships of Tripoli") set sail. At last, the night of sleeping on the ship (al-mabīt) arrived, but in the middle of the night, the government commandeered the ship and its goods and turned out all the passengers, including even Abū l-Ḥayy the Unlucky (al-ḍaʿīf al-najm) (is he referring to himself?). Thus the sender has been stranded in a foreign land without any money. "My arms and legs have been cut off, and I have left my son and my family (or: wife) perishing." Abū l-Ḥayy asks Barhūn for help. (Information in part from Gil and from Ben-Sasson.)

Letter. Second leaf of a long letter relating what happened to the writer's brother, Abū Naṣr, on an adventurous business voyage on the Nile. Abu Nasr had been travelling, alongside others on a ship belonging to Abū Zikrī. The writer calls himself ʿabd, which probably denotes an actual slave. The letter also conveys business requests and greetings. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL)

Letter describing a sea voyage from Tripoli to Sicily (CUDL). “Of another Jew we read in a Hebrew letter that in a large ship, in which thirty-six or -seven Jews and about three hundred Muslims traveled, he was 'the treasurer and commander' (probably fixing the fares and deciding where the goods of the merchants should be stowed). Like Makhlūf, this 'treasurer' was a scholarly person and used the time before the departure of the boat to study with the writer of that Hebrew letter, a rabbi from Christian Europe.” (Goitein, Med. Soc. x, B, 2, 139.) Bibliography: Assaf, Texts, 133.