Geniza Lab

Letter from Labrāṭ b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in al-Mahdiyya, to his brother Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat. Dating: July 30 (26 Av), 1057, based on Gil's assessment. (Gil dates ENA NS 18.35, written on 6 Elul, to the previous year. But both letters contain very similar congratulations on Yehuda's wedding, so perhaps they were sent two weeks apart instead of eleven months.) Labrāṭ opens with describing his great anxiety on account of his brother, because he had not received a letter from him all year. "My heart was preoccupied and I thought the worst, for he who loves is inflamed (muwallaʿ) with thinking the worst. On the eve of ʿAẓeret (Shavuʿot), Fityān and his associates arrived in a boat from Sfax to al-Mahdiyya. When I saw them, my soul almost left me and I went pale (? akhadhatnī ṣufra). I said to myself, perhaps they have news [of you]. . . . [Fityān] said, God bless him, that your letters were with him. I prostrated myself and thanked God for His favor" (r4–8). Labrāṭ then congratulates his brother on his marriage into a distinguished family (r10–19). He mentions a person of low morals whom he tries to avoid, but he recently had to go to this person's wedding in Sūsa (r19–21). When he returned to al-Mahdiyya, 'the boy' was sick (ḍaʿīf), and worsened, and almost died. Every day letters arrive from people in Sūsa, perhaps specifically from the man of low morals, blaming Labrāṭ regarding either this boy or that person's affairs (aḥwālihi). The next phrase is quite difficult, perhaps: "I considered that he was heedless (sahā), and I decided to completely despair of him (i.e., end the relationship). I am left with no eye to see light with, [and nothing] to take pride in, except for you, may God protect you (r21–24). (Gil reads it differently.) The remainder of the letter deals with business matters. The writer is much older than his brother. He asks him to fulfill his family’s duty by helping him with his business. He also mentions events in the Maghreb. Apparently there is a naval fleet besieging Sūsa. (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #615.) See also Goitein, Med Soc III, viii, B, 1 no. 36. VMR. ASE.

Letter from a factotum to his boss. Reporting that everyone at home is well and giving the prices of different goods. Wheat: 1 dinar per 9 waybas. Honey: 5 dinars per 1 qinṭār. Wax sells well. Flax is exported to the Syro-Palestinian coast. Mufarrij and Shūʿa the Bāniyāsī escaped from the enemy attacking Caesarea (although Goitein read this as Mufarrij and Shūʿa escaping to Bāniyās). Shūʿa returned to Malīj. Mufarrij will come in Elul. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) The letter ends on verso with three lines of Arabic script (يخصو حضرته بافضل السلام وكتابه لا يقطعه عني...), not yet transcribed. ASE

Letter from Salāma b. Mūsā of Sfax, in Mazar, Sicily, to his partner Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The longest letter in the Geniza. Dating: Early 1060s according to Ben-Sasson, based on the military disruptions mentioned. 7 September 1064 according to Gil, based on his identification of the battle discussed as that between the Qā'id of Sfax and the Zīrid ruler Tamīm b. Muʿizz on that date. Many details about a wide variety of commodities are mentioned, as well as financial transactions. "In essence, this long letter had a single purpose: to convince Yehuda b. Sughmār, Salāma's partner, not to dissolve the relationship between them." Salāma in fact agrees to the dissolution of the formal partnership (ṣuḥba), "I got your letters this year, and you swore that you wanted to dissolve. I want this to happen even more than you do. If the partnership continues there will be discord. . . . Now we no longer feel as we used to, when we relied on each other" (v4–5, 30). Despite this, Salāma suggests other ways of continuing their relationship, including Yehuda's mentoring of Nissim, a new junior associate Salāma is sending to him, and Yehuda's sending Salāma some goods in agency. Jessica Goldberg, Trade and Institutions, pp. 296–99 ("Salāma b. Mūsā's Disastrous Year"). Salāma opens with his shock and dismay at the letters full of blame that he had received from Yehuda. "I had expected you to congratulate me on my survival in al-Mahdiyya, my deliverance from destruction, and the terrible ordeal (al-mawqif al-ʿaẓīm, also mentioned in r23) that I would not wish on anyone. I was bound (kutiftu) and almost killed (or executed, ʿuriḍtu ʿalā l-sayf) four times (or five—the ink is flaked here). Even if there were no partnership (sharika), love, (mawadda), or association (ṣuḥba) between us, this would have been incumbent on you. Now, more than one year later, the terror has not subsided, rather the fright remains in my heart. My greatest trial in al-Mahdiyya was my concern for your business. . . ." Interestingly, when Salāma mentions Yehuda's illnesses of last year (mā laḥaqak tilk al-sana min al-ḍuʿf wa-l-tawajjuʿ, r75), there is not a word of the usual sympathy or congratulations on his recovery. Gil understands Halper 414 to be a follow-up from this letter; Goldberg believes that Halper 414, a small sheet, was inserted into Halper 389, which seems to agree with Goitein, who calls it a "continuation" of Halper 389 (see Goitein notes linked to PGPID 35364). Information from Goldberg, Ben-Sasson, and Gil. ASE; MR

Letter from a Jewish woman, in or near Tripoli (Lebanon), to her brother-in-law, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. She is a refugee from Jerusalem who has suffered at the hands of the invading Seljuk Turks in the 1070s CE. She had to flee from Jerusalem to Tripoli, where she reports on the carnage she witnessed: ‘I was with him on the day I saw them killed in terrible fashion... I am an ill woman on the brink of insanity, on top of the hunger of my family and the little girl who are all with me, and the horrid news I heard about my son.’ She suggests it would be better to be captured since those in captivity ‘find someone who gives them food and drink’, whereas uncaptured, she and her children are starving. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter by the Jewish community of the village of Qalha, Egypt, apparently to Eli ha-Kohen b. Yahya in Fustat, 2nd half of the 11th century. The Jews of Qalḥa report to the Parnas in Fustat that Abū ʿImrān Mūsa b. Yequtiel arrived in their village on 17 Tammuz, injured and/or sick from the violence he experienced during the nahb (plunder) of Fayyūm. In addition he was robbed of everything by robbers near the village. He died a few weeks later, in Av. One of his two wives and the daughter of the other died also. The remaining wife was brought to Fustat at the expense of the community, because she had a cousin (ibn ʿamm) there. The little boy could not live in the village because of the Kushim (Sudanese soldiers?). Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter by Avraham b. Natan ('ata) concerning the disorder in Tunis and concerning the burial of his father in Jerusalem, 1st quarter of the 11th century.

Second leaf of a letter from an unidentified merchant, probably in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 1052 by Gil and 1066/67 by Goitein (in Mediterranean Society, II, p. 534). Addressed to the sender's brother, saying that the sender is trying to put an end to a dispute between the Muslim indigo merchants with the aid of a respected Muslim man and a law expert. Mentions the invasion of the Banū Qurra and "the slaves" into Giza. Community members tried to collect money with the Qaraites, but they did not show up to the meeting. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #816.) VMR. Almost certainly the same sender (but probably not the same letter) as CUL Or.1080 J268. ASE

Letter sent from a village to the capital asking for news and discussing shipments as well as what appear to be seasonal laborers. The writer complains he had to buy one young man clothes at a price far higher than the usual half dinar and states that he would hire him again were he to accept the same terms of employment as other young men of his type. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 98.) The writer sends regards and well wishes to Abū Saʿīd, who has an eye disease (r22 and margin). ASE

Letter draft from Efrayim b. Shemarya to Shelomo b. Yehuda. Fragment: the upper part only. Dating: probably 1028 CE (Gil's estimate). The letter praises the army's victory. Written on the front and back of a chancery decree fragment (see PGPID 35179).

Letter from Mevasser b. David, in Tinnīs, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 22 Elul (25 August [1068 — Gil's inference]), with plentiful blessings for the Jewish new year. Mevasser inquires about previous letters and asks Nahray to pass on any news from Ifrīqiyya. It is rumored that ʿAbdallāh Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ, who became the (last) Muslim ruler of Sicily the following year, arrived in Alexandria in a ghurāb (river boat) and may have escaped. Probably this refers to his flight from the ruler of Ifrīqiyya, Tamīm b. Muʿizz. In the margin of recto, Mevasser offers an apology having to do with his correspondence, because he has an illness (tawajjuʿ), and his son and wife are sick as well, and his entire household, "may God deliver them. What will become of a small baby and his mother—may God exempt you—who do not have anyone to go in for them (from context, perhaps this should be read yadkhul rather than Gil's yattakil) or go out? Every person is occupied with himself (mashghūl bi-rūḥihi)." Gil understands Mevasser's sick family members to be not in Tinnīs with him but in al-Mahdiyya, which is currently under siege, with no ships coming and going (connecting recto, right margin, lines 4–5, with verso, lines 10–11). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, # 695 and Goitein notes linked below.) ASE.

Letter sent by a man from Sicily who had immigrated to Tyre, describing a civil war in Sicily and the bad economic conditions under which his family lived. Dated to the mid-11th century. (Information from Gil and Ben-Sasson.) The writer and addressee are both unknown. He mentions Abū Yūsuf b. Ismāʿīl [al-Andalusi], known from several other letters of the mid-11th-century. He writes, "I witnessed things I never wanted to see: the bloodshed was such that I walked on corpses like walking on the ground; a great epidemic (wabā')"; and a great inflation. His own warehouse and that of his brother Saʿīd were pillaged. Years after these events, two months before the death of his father, his father purchased a house with gardens for 100 dinars from a Christian. The civil wars (fitan) then resumed, the house became worthless, and his father died. He and his Saʿīd then set about collecting all the debts owed to their late father and the goods their father had deposited with others, chiefly with one flax dealer. Saʿid told him they would split everything 50/50. The entirety of verso deals with how the writer was initially cheated out of his share of the inheritance—it seems by Saʿīd who was in cahoots with their brother-in-law Yaḥyā b. al-Munajjim—and the aftermath. ASE.

Letter from the physician Abū Zikrī, in Jerusalem, to his father Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Abū Zikrī reports that his masters, the princes al-Malik al-ʿAzīz and al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam, were laying siege to Damascus and that he was unable to get through to them to request a leave. Although ill himself, the writer states that he visited the sultan’s palace every other day. The letter also makes a note of “our colleagues at Qūṣ.” (Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS 18 (1967), 18; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:347, 603.) "Do not send me the biqyār (a goat-hair garment?), because I am not well, and I am thinking of how you will fare after my death. How terrible would it be to receive your garment in the tailor's packaging, unopened! Ever since you left, I have not even had a single week of health. Regarding the collyria and equipment that you requested, I have not been able to get to it, because I am ill. I am wintering in Jerusalem, because the army is at Damascus, and I am stranded here, and cannot leave without an order from the sultan." EMS. ASE.

Letter from Spain to Egypt about a war in the Mediterranean (spring, 1137). Naval battle between Muslims and Christians. Written on late Nisan 1448 sel., which is mid-April 1137.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya. End of 1025 / 1026. Concerning the Fatimids' army that is coming from Egypt against the bedouins.The letter's main issue is the serious disagreement in Fustat concerning Efrayim b. Shemarya, which some people want to remove from his position, for Shemuel b. Avtalyon. Shelomo suggests Efrayim to restrain his emotions so he will not help his opponents with his actions. (information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 116-119). VMR

Letter from Labrāṭ b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in al-Mahdiyya, to his brother Yehuda, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: January 9 (12 Shevat), 1058 CE (Gil) or 1061 CE (Ben-Sasson). Labrāṭ congratulates Yehuda on the birth of his firstborn son. There may be a prayer for God to protect the infant from the evil eye (r11–12; the first letter of the word is smudged; Gil reads al-ḍaw' rather than al-sū'; neither one is strictly grammatical). Labrāṭ heard from Zakkār that the infant was a girl and was only reassured when Yehuda's letter arrived with the news that it was a boy. Labrāṭ keeps the blessed letter with him and kisses it and puts it before his eyes; he gave it to his sister this week but made her promise to return it (r4–18). Labrāṭ continues with business affairs. There is an elaborate response to what Yehuda said about the pain Labrāṭ caused him by rebuking him about a business decision taken by Yehuda. Labrāṭ only wrote anything because it concerned somebody else's merchandise. As for what is owed to him by Yehuda, what are 20 dinars next to their relationship, which is worth the whole world? If Yehuda was agitated by Labrāṭ's rebuke, Labrāṭ is now agitated by Yehuda's response. Furthermore, this sum is nothing compared to what they already lost in Qayrawān. As the proverb goes, "If nothing is left of your provisions except a single cake, you might as well throw it into the sea" (r18–32). The letter continues with matters of trade between Ifrīqiyya, Sicily, and Egypt. Numerous people are mentioned: the Nagid, Nissim, Abū Hārūn, Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār, the boy of Ḥassūn, Ḥassūn b. Mūsā, Yehuda b. Mūsā, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the notables of Qayrawān and al-Mahdiyya, Isḥāq b. Bar[hūn?], and Yosef b. Eli al-Kohen. People who came from Palermo said that Zakkār was sick but then recovered (r33–57). Labrāṭ is delighted to hear that Yehuda has been studying Torah, Mishna, and Talmud with 'the Rav' (r58 and margin). Verso consists mainly of greetings. Labrāṭ is surprised at Yehuda's rebuke for Nissim's failure to send him letters. (Gil identifies this man with Nissim b. Moshe ha-Shelishi.) Nissim hasn't even written to Labrāṭ, who is two hours away from him. "He is dying, and he should write you a letter?" (v11–13). Nissim redeemed a Bible codex which belongs to Labrāṭ and Yehuda, and which had been plundered in one of the wars of Ifrīqiyya. Labrāṭ now wishes to make arrangements to reimburse Nissim and get it back (v13–17, 23–24). Labrāṭ concludes with the bad news of Ifrīqiyya, Sicily, and al-Andalus (v35–40). The price of wheat has skyrocketed this summer; Qayrawān is a ruin; the Bedouins are waging war on each other; people are worried about Sicily this year, for the Franks have attacked with a great army; they ('Franks') have also invaded al-Andalus this year and destroyed many of its villages, killed many people, and imposed taxes on all the areas they conquered. (Information in part from Gil, vol. 4, p. 36; Ben-Sasson, p. 36.) ASE.

Letter describing the claims of the writer's brother-in-law on the half of a house that was sold by the mother to her daughter, the writer's wife. Join by Oded Zinger. For a detailed edition and analysis, see Zinger (2018), "'One Hour He Is a Christian and the Next He Is a Muslim!' A Family Dispute from the Cairo Geniza." Note that Goitein in at least one place mistakenly cites T-S 8J20.26 as T-S 8J20.16 (Med Soc 2:393, 612). He may also discuss this document (Med Soc 3:179, 464; EMS).

Letter from Alexandria to Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment: Bottom half only. Dating: There are reports of men seized for forced labor to dig a ditch around the city. Goitein and Frenkel both suggest that this reference can date the document to 1219 CE, during the fifth crusade. The crusaders besieged Damietta from May 1218 until November 2019 when they finally took it. Evidently, people feared that Alexandria would be next. (See also T-S 16.286, a letter from Alexandria dated 21 October 1219.) This letter reports on the state of the city: "The city is in a dire state because of the digging of the ditch. The city is locked up, and forced labor is imposed upon the population." The writer then gives a detailed report about the medical condition and treatment of a woman who had been injured in an unrelated accident, then discusses some small errands, then an important family affair, and concludes with greetings to at least fifteen persons. Two postscripts are added. "As to Abū l-ʿAlā'—when I arrived, I found the city locked up; no male person could appear in the streets, because he would be taken to the [digging of the] ditch. That's why I was unable to meet him. As to the malḥafa [a blanket serving also as outer garment], the bazaars are locked and no one sells and buys. I am telling you this that you should not think that I am neglectful of your affairs." Regarding the injury of Yumn: "When coming home, I found Yumn—on whom the door fell—in a serious condition. She has been ill for forty days. At the time she was impure and remained in that state; thus all the other members of the household became impure together with her. Only God knows how the situation is; she cries so much that I forget my own tribulations. However, if God wills, she has good prospect for recovery. Her leg is in a case (tābūt) especially made for her. A Christian doctor (ʿarel) treats her and I was told that he did not take any money for her treatment. He at that time was treating the wounded (al-majārīḥ). I did not find any bandage (or plaster/dressing) of palm fibers (marham al-nakhlī) in the house and could not move her; for she cannot get up or sit; she bends forward only a little (qad ittajaha qalīl). Her foot and leg are swollen (manfūkh)." Information and translations from Goitein, Med Soc, V, 56, and note cards #27138–39. This date-palm plaster is recommended for treating wounds and abscesses in the medieval medical literature—a Google search of مرهم نخلي will lead to citations in works by the Andalusians Aḥmad b. ʿIsā al-Hāshimī (d. 1077) and Ibn Zuhr (d. 1162). For Ibn Zuhr, its consistency is like that of honey, and threads are dipped in it before being used to wick fluid out of a wound. Thus, perhaps it is a substance deriving from the date itself, rather than from the palm-fibers. The solution might also be found in Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.22, recto, text block c (PGPID 2724), which may be a recipe for מרהם נכלי. Note also that "ittajaha" in the context of injury or illness most often means "improved" (rather than "bend"), and sick people are often described as "having improved a little" even if they are still in critical condition. The hand of the letter resembles that of T-S 16.272, written by an Alexandrian judge. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In a lovely hand; the same scribe seems to have reused numerous Arabic-script documents for literary/liturgical text (see Joins Suggestions). This letter was intended to be sent from Fustat to an addressee who had recently set sail from Alexandria (presumably this is a draft or it was never sent). The letter opens with a quotation from Jeremiah 17:7. A few days after the addressee(s) set out to sea from Alexandria, Abū l-Faḍl (or Ibn al-Faḍl?) Ibn Sabra arrived "drowning" (ghāriq), which caused distress to everybody (did he survive a shipwreck?). The sender reports that the Nile completed its flood (al-māʾ qad awfā) at "5 from 17," which probably means 5 fingers short of 17 cubits. ("A cubit until the height of twelve cubits was divided into twenty-eight fingers, and equaled 0,539m≈54cm. A cubit above the height of twelve cubits consisted of twenty-four fingers, and equaled 0,462m≈46cm," per Kristine Chalyan-Daffner, "Socio-Cultural Attitudes to the Flooding of the Nile (13th–16th Centuries)" (2015).) The sender reports that everything in Egypt is perfect under the ruler (al-Mustanṣir or a vizier?), that new territory is conquered by him every day, that coins have been minted for him, ואלדעוה פי מכות (this phrase is difficult to understand—does it refer to the Fatimid Daʿwa?), and his forces have reached as far as Minyat al-Rudaynī (in the Sharqiyya district in the Nile Delta). ASE.

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. From an unidentified man possibly named Karīm, apparently in Zarnīkh (in Upper Egypt, see recto l. 44 and recto right margin l. 3), to his brother ʿĀzir and his mother (or at least an older female relative) Suʿūd the wife of Nissim al-Kohen, in Fustat/Cairo. He alternates between addressing ʿĀzir directly and addressing Suʿūd directly throughout the letter. In Judaeo-Arabic, with many quite modern dialectal features. The handwriting is reminiscent of some of the late Judaeo-Persian documents. The sender frequently mixes up emphatic and non-emphatic consonants (e.g., ק and כ, or ט and ת) and has unusual orthography throughout (e.g., זכות is spelled סכות); it requires further study to determine if this is the norm for Judaeo-Arabic letters of this period or if it reflects some specific linguistic background of the sender. Dating: Certainly 15th–19th century, but this range can likely be narrowed. There are greetings to several other family members and acquaintances (especially in recto, ll.1–8). The sender describes a great number of harrowing violent events and general destruction from which he narrowly escaped. He was being pursued by 'the rajjāla' (policemen of some sort?) who intended to kill him. He was initially traveling with Turks or "Turkmen" (תרקמאן) by land. He had a document (marsūm) with him concerning a certain Ḥasan the son of the kāshif (district administrator). He parted ways with the Turks, and that very night Ḥasan and every one of the Turks was slaughtered and thrown into the sea (or Nile), which the sender discovered when he arrived in Wādī אלעראקת(?). The sender himself continued to be pursued (including by rajjāla coming down from the mountain from ʿAqaba?) until he reached a place called ריואן or דיואן. (At another point in the letter he mentions a place called Wādī al-ʿUlayqāt and a traveling companion named Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUlayqī.) The same group had come in the night and killed the kāshif, and 15 Turks had fled, "and they plundered all of the documents." The next part of the letter deals with 3 gold coins that the addressees are supposed to collect in Fustat/Cairo, and also various commodities, some of which the sender sent with Muḥammad al-Babarī. He asks for either an account (ḥisāb) or a calendar spanning two years. He mentions someone named al-rayyis/al-amir Samāʿīn. He wants Suʿūd and ʿAbd al-Karīm to come see visit him in Zarnīkh, quickly. He emphasizes his bond with Suʿūd with a medical metaphor: "I am your tested theriac, and you are an old woman, and no one (but me) will come to your side and go before you." He asks her to pray for him. He orders ink, paper, and pens, plus some halloumi cheese and olive oil. He gives the strange instruction not to come to him "naked" but to come dressed (well) for the sake of onlookers. He asks Suʿūd to distribute money to the poor for his sake, and to tell his sister Ghāliya to pray for him in the synagogues. In a first postscript, he asks for news of his niece Siwār who was due to give birth. He gives further news about someone else (a rabbi? הראב) who was going to be killed, but then a group called al-jawābir(?) came and killed over a hundred people, and the sender was forced to flee. In a second postscript, he lists various items that he has sent with Muḥammad al-Babarī, instructing the addressees to sell them for a good price. He asks them to take good care of this Muḥammad, including bringing him to the Qaraite physician in order to have a good medicine prepared for him. On verso, in a different hand, there are jottings of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, along with two lines containing greetings to 'the mother Ghāliya.' Join by Oded Zinger. ASE.