Geniza Lab

State document, Fatimid period. Dated: 4 Rajab 523H, which is 23 June 1129 CE. Reporting that two trustworthy witnesses from Alexandria had given testimony, and that a document had come in answer to their testimony. One of their names has been preserved: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b Ḥātim b. Ṣadaqa b. ʿUmar. Contains a registration mark (al-ḥamdu li-llāh ʿalā niʿamih). Another scribe has reused the document to copy the Fihrist of Shemu’el b. Hofni gaʾon. Details: An official document belonging to X (unnamed person: the هـ of kitab) was presented somewhere, but it needed to be verified, so two witnesses ratified it, presumably in Alexandria. The ratified document was then sent to a chancery where our writer recorded its contents, and equally importantly, registered the names of the two witnesses who had vouched for its authenticity. This is a bifolio register destined for the central Fatimid archives. Without more information on person X, and on the nature of this كتاب (was it a receipt, a legal deed, a rescript?), the document remains tantalizing and opaque, but useful as evidence of registration and archiving. Reused for the fihrist (index to the writings) of Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni (one fragment) and for Bava Metzia 49b (the other fragment: someone buying wine learned that Parzak the vizier was going to confiscate it, so he tried to renege before taking possession of the wine. R. Hisda approved: "just as they instituted 'pulling' with regard to sellers, so did they institute 'pulling' with regard to buyers"). (MR)

Copy of a letter from Shemuel Gaon b. Hofni to the community in Fez. The beginning of the 11th century, handwriting of Sahlan b. Avraham. Mentions tragic events that took place in Fez, including killing of community members and destroying of the synagogue. The writer sends his deep condolences. The letter was probably sent from Baghdad through Fustat and Sahlan copied parts of it. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #51) VMR

Letter to a friend of the late Shemuel b. Ḥofni Gaon complaining that the latter’s son did not keeps the agreements between the writer and Shemuel b. Ḥofni. Verso is blank. Goitein identified the writer as Hayye Gaon (see Goitein notes linked below). Gill and Mann considered the writer to be Dosa Gaon b. Saʿadya (Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 163 and Mann, Texts and Studies, Vol. 1, p. 153.)

Letter from Naḥum b. Yosef al-Baradānī (Qayrawan) to his master Shemuel b. Ḥofni gaon; 7 August 999. The sender, whose family is in Iraq, has been travelling for a long time for an unnamed unpleasant reason. Qayrawan and al-Mahdiyya are among the places that he visited. The writer asks for forgiveness for writing the letter in Arabic (rather than in Hebrew) which was easier for him since he was writing in a hurry. Mentions Shemuel b. Ḥofni’s earlier letter about a difficult situation in Baghdad. Mentions a number of deaths in his family. Asks Shemuel b. Ḥofni to make sure that a certain Abū Manṣūr studies Mishna and Talmud even though he is already burdened with earning a living. The original fragment is lost; shelfmark as in Gil. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol.2, p. 158 and Goldziher, Mélanges Judéo-Arabes, REJ 50 (1905), pp. 182-183. See also Goitein notes, p. 1.) One clue that might help resolve the mystery some day: PGP at one time had a partial transcription listed under T-S 12.822v.

Fragment of a letter from Shemuel Gaon b. Hofni to the community in Qayrawan. Around 1008. The writer assumes that the donations to the Babylon Yeshivas ended up in the Yeshiva of Pumbedita. The writer chooses Yosef b. Berekhya to be in charge of sending the money, after the passing of Ta’akov b. Nissim. He details Yosef’s virtues in his knowledge of the Torah, and his commentaries to the Torah, Mishna, and Talmud. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #54) VMR

Letter from Shemuel b. Ḥofni to Shemarya b. Maṣliaḥ, probably the father of Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian Jewish community in Fustat in the first half of the 11th century. Only part of the introduction on recto and the address on verso have been preserved. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 156.)