Geniza Lab

Letter from Saʿīd b. Marḥab on behalf of the court, in Aden, to the druggist Hillel b. Naḥman (aka Sayyid al-Kull), in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Adar I [1]467 Seleucid, which is January 25–February 23, 1156 CE. The letter gives a uniquely detailed report on a shipwreck, as the addressee's son-in-law Hiba b. Abū Saʿd was on board, and the addressee had requested verification of his death and details about the retrieval of his possessions. The sender devotes the entire letter to the former and adds only one brief sentence in the margin of verso, about the possessions, which were confiscated by the sultan. The ship belonged to the Nagid Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan. Most of the cargo on the ship belonged to him, though every Jewish trader in Aden had some cargo on it. There were only four Jews on board. It was called the Kūlamī ship as it set out for Kūlam aka Kollam aka Quilon on the Malabar Coast. The court of Aden here presents all of the available evidence for the shipwreck: eyewitness accounts, secondhand reports, and legal pronouncements. The main source of the information that the ship sank came from the Barībatanī ship which sailed together with it, i.e., the ship for Valapattanam aka Valarapattanam aka Balyapattanam, a port five miles from Cannanore aka Kannur, which is north of Kollam. During the rest of that year and the following year, travelers arrived in Aden coming from all over India, from East Africa ("the land of the Zanj"), from Somalia ("the inland region of Berbera"), from Abyssinia and its provinces, and from the south Arabian regions of Ashḥār and Qamar, and the accounts of all travelers were consistent with the Kūlamī ship having been wrecked. The court in Aden had ruled that the evidence was sufficient to free Sitt al-Ahl, the daughter of Hillel b. Naḥman, from being an ʿaguna, but they defer to the authorities in Egypt, as this was a lenient and tenuous ruling. The sender of this letter, Saʿīd b. Marḥab, is incidentally the earliest known Yemeni Jewish poet. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Traders; see analysis and translation there for further details.)

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1120-1150 CE, based on the mention of Yakhin b. Netan'el Rosh ha-Qehillot. This range may be narrowed to 1120–38 if Ḥalfon b. Menashshe is the scribe. The document is a release for a certain India merchant [...] b. Rajā ha-Zaqen from any potential claim against him from the orphans of his deceased traveling companion, and from having to give any further testimony or make any vow. The document explains that the merchant acted with great valor hiding his companion's merchandise from the rulers of Dahlak who would have confiscated it—and would have killed the merchant himself if they had found out what he had done. This merchant also made haste to go to the court and declare all the goods belonging to his companion (and therefore his orphans) as soon as he returned to Fustat (l. 10), and even mentioned "several things that were not in the account ledger (daftar al-ḥisāb)." Information in part from Goitein's attached discussion, transcription, and translation. ASE.

Letter from Shelomo Kohen b. Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Sijilmasi, in Fustat, to his father, most likely in Aden while on his return journey from India. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: January 1148 CE. Shelomo gives a detailed account of the Almohad invasions and persecutions in the West from 1145 to the present-day (on the day he wrote the letter, a messenger arrived with the news that Bejaia had fallen to the Almohads). He also gives a detailed description of his illness. "As for me, after having opened a shop, a great general depression (kasār) occurred. I was ill for nine months with tertiary fever (al-muthallatha) and fever of the liver (ḥummā l-kabd). Neither I, nor anyone else believed that I would recover from this. In the wake of the illness, difficulties in breathing (ḍīq nafas) befell me, which lasted two months. Had I not made up my mind to leave the business, I would have perished. At present, I do nothing, sitting partly in the qāʿa [workshop or Bible school] of Joseph and partly in the store of the Son of the Scholar. I study a good part of the night with him every night" (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 337). Shelomo concludes with a profuse expression of filial dedication: “Please, with the help of the Almighty, may the reply to this my letter be the sight of you, if God wills. Be not enticed by business so that you forget us. For—by my faith in Heaven—every additional day of your absence takes a year from our lives. Consider that the life of the son of man is nothing but light. You are our light. If you are not with us, how can we live?” (Goitein, Med. Soc., viii, C, 2, n. 125; translation slightly altered for clarity). Partial English translation by Goitein, Med Soc V, 59-61 and 107. Discussed in Miriam Frenkel, “Genizah Documents as Literary Products.” ASE.

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Madmun to Ezekiel b. Natan acknowledging condolences on Madmun's death. Aden, 1152.

Letter from Avraham Ibn Yiju to his brothers and sisters after his safe return from India to Aden, 11 September, 1149. Alternate description: Letter written by the India trader Avraham Ibn Yiju after his arrival in Aden, to his brothers and sisters in al-Mahdiyya or anywhere else in Ifriqiya. This letter, from September 11, 1149, is primarily addressed to Avraham’s elder brother Yosef, although he also speaks to another brother Mevasser. Covered topics include the future marriage of Avraham’s daughter, consolation for the reported death of an individual, and encouragement for the recipient to pay a visit to his brother Avraham. (S. D. Goitein, Medieval Jewish Traders, 201–06) EMS

Letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel ha-Levi, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 12 Elul 1451 Seleucid = August 27, 1140. In the letter there are various items of news. The first and certainly the one for which he wrote the letter is the arrival of a Genoese ship that was in the same convoy of ships as the ship of the Sultan, which had not yet arrived. This caused anxiety among the people, because they probably already knew that Yehuda ha-Levi had to arrive on that ship. The letter also contains information about silk prices and the priority of the government authorities in buying the goods that arrived. Abū Naṣr hopes that Ḥalfon’s mood has improved and that he has no further reason to complain about him (Abū Naṣr). At the end, greetings from family members and those close to Ḥalfon (such as Abū l-Najm and Abū Mūsā Hārūn), to Ḥalfon, his family, and to people in Fustat. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, IB IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Mūsā b. al-Lukhtūsh, Granada, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, 1120s (?). Mentions among other things that he has sent him a copy of a poem (muwashshaḥa) by Yehuda ha-Levi. Probably from Granada; Maybe from the 20s of the 12th century

In the long Hebrew preface to his letter, in which he also included quotations in Aramaic from the Jerusalem Talmud, the writer, Avraham Ṣiqillī (a man from Sicily) b. Moshe, praised Ḥalfon for his wisdom and virtues. The style is not smooth and the decoding and translation (of the Arabic) is not certain in many places. The writer has already sent a letter to Ḥalfon from Syria/Palestine (al-Sham). He tells Ḥalfon to send him pepper instead of the pepper that was delayed in Tilimsān. It turns out that Ṣiqillī wrote the letter from somewhere in Spain. Ḥalfon must have stayed in Almeria, and the writer requests that he speak with Ibn Baruch about the delay in raising funds for the redemption of a captive, which Ṣiqillī was supposed to send to him, and also find out from him if he heard anything about ordering the book 'Aruch', the Talmudic dictionary of Rabbi Natan b. Yeḥiʾel, a Roman, that you ordered also discussed in certificate ח34. The letter was written on 'Yom Isru Chag', which may allude to one of the days of the Sukkot festival of 1138. At the end of the letter, the writer sent a holiday greeting to Ḥalfon and b. Barukh and his children. Greetings were also sent to Yiṣḥaq ha-Kohen al-Ishbīlī (אלאִשְׁבִּילִי).

Letter from Yeshua b. Yaʿaqov to Avraham Ibn Yiju regarding the death of Madmun b. Yefet, Dhu Jibla, 1151.

Letter from Moshe b. Yosef Yiju, in Alexandria, to his brother Perahya in Fustat. Sent to the shop of Abū l-Faḵr the perfumer b. Abraham. Written probably around June 29, 1155.

Letter from Yeshua ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov, in Dhu Jibla, Yemen, to Avraham Ibn Yiju regarding the renting of a house. Around 1150-51.

Toledo; Probably August-September 1138 In this short letter of Yehuda ha-Levi to Ḥalfon, there are three issues. The first, and it is the main one, is the completion of the balance of the money needed to redeem the 'prisoner'. The reference is probably to the same 'captivity' that the poet Ḥalfon wrote about in document ח35. Here Yehuda ha-Levi turned to Ḥalfon and asked him to write 'persuasions and requests' to two, one called צהרי נעמתך׳׳” (my in-laws/relatives who depend on your grace) and one called ‘צאחב אלשרטה ' ('Chief of the Police') Abū Ibrāhīm b. Barūn, so that they would hasten b. al-Jiyani to pay off the money he promised to redeem the captive. The second matter is a request from Ḥalfon to help the subject of the letter, a Jew who lost his property, lost his health, and his eyesight, and distanced himself from his family and country. The third matter was added casually in the paper, but it is of great interest. Yehuda Halevi asked for Halfon's help in obtaining for him from Rabbi b. Migash the answer to the question asked by the Jews of Toledo, where the poet probably lived. Hence, at that time Ḥalfon was living in Lucena, the rabbi's seat. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from a member of the Ibn Muhājir family, probably in Seville, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1128 CE. There are many expressions of longing. The substance of the letter deals with business matters. Ḥalfon had sent a letter with Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya and asked the addressee to hand over the money which Avraham al-Qalʿī (apparently also of Seville) owed to Ḥalfon. Ibn Muhājir reports that he fulfilled the request and handed over 10 'ṭari' mithqāls. The sender excuses his delay by explaining that he had to go to Labla (=Niebla) and apparently obtain some of the money owed from there. (Information from India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: Shortly after 511 AH, which is 1117/18 CE. (This is in line 3.) Mentions three burniyyas of civet perfume (written as zabad and zabada; cf. India Book III, doc. 29, ll. 8,10 and III, doc. 2, verso, l. 2). People include: Mūsā al-Nafūsī, al-Faqīh al-Siqillī, and Abū Saʿīd Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq (Rosh ha-Qehillot). Sums of money listed are in the tens of dinars.

Letter from Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Netanʾel to Ibn Barukh, Almeria. Asks him to handle a shipment that the judge Elʿazar al-Qaṣabī has sent from Fustat to his brother in al-Yusāna. Similar to a letter on the same matter to another dignitary (see India Book 4 doc. 62). (Information from Goitein and Friedman) Maybe Alexandria; End of 1139 - Middle of 1140

Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in Sindābūr (India), to his uncle and father-in-law ʿArūs b. Yosef, in Fusṭāṭ,. In Judaeo-Arabic. He found a slow market when he arrived in Aden, so he decided to travel onward to Sindābūr ("after seeking God's guidance") with the corals and storax (mayʿa, an aromatic resin obtained from trees in Asia Minor). He complains about his cousin Yosef (another nephew of ʿArūs), who "stays in Lakhba (near Aden) with the whores (Heb.), 'the company,' and a beardless youth, who ser[ves them drinks]." He also reports on previous sales in ports on the west coast of the Red Sea: Dahlak, Bāḍiʿ, and Suwākin. In the address on verso, ʿAllān calls himself ʿAllāl (as some other ʿAllāns did occasionally), a form of endearment, imitating the speech of small children. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's edition and translation.)

Letter. Memorandum from Abu Zikri Kohen to Mahruz. Alexandria, ca. 1136-1149.

Letter from Amram b. Yosef, probably from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1075. Regarding a shipment of palm leaves that arrived from outside of Egypt. In addition, mentions purchase of wheat and a disagreement about packaging cloth that belongs to the writer but another person named Muslim (probably his Jewish name is Meshulam) denies that is his. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #679) VMR

Letter from Yosef b. ʿIwāḍ to Hananel b. Shemuel. Alexandria, probably 1214-1215.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dated: 1452 of the Seleucid era (= 1140 CE). (Information from CUDL) Aden; Marcheshvan 1452; October 14 - November 11, 1140