Geniza Lab

Draft of a letter from Nahray b. Nissim to a person in the Maghreb. Around 1046. Seems like the letter is addressed to the Tahirti Family. Mentions several of his relatives and a few ships. Also mentions a visit of Nahray to Alexandria, the status of selling silk, and the arrival of Ibn Basak (Masliah b. Eliya, the Sicily’s judge). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, pp. 722-723) VMR On the recto of the join is a different business letter.

Letter fragment from Yisrael b. Natan, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1060, the 17th of Tamuz. Mentions Ramla. (Information from Ed. Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 158-159, #478) VMR

Incomplete letter from Abun b. Sadaqah, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. October 1065 according to Gil. Deals with the sale of quarter dinars. Two dinars went to Nahray's uncle Surur b. Sahlan. Describes a flood: "All the people living above and below it were scared. The reservoir (?) overflowed into the cellars (?), and the residents cried out, and I went to the house and witnessed terrible things...." ASE.

Legal declaration. Dating: refers to the year 4826 AM, which is 1065/66 CE. (The document itself may be later.) Concerning Nahray b. Nissim's occupancy of larger of his wife's family's house. Nahray sends two witnesses (the narrator and ʿAmmār b. Farrāḥ al-Iṭrābulsī) to his in-law Abū ʿAlī al-Kohen, promising to pay him 1 dinar per month for the part of the house which may exceed one sixth. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Yosef b. Eli Kohen Fasi, from Busir to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. The writer deals with purchasing flax. He approves that he received coins but he cannot weigh them because he does not have a scale. Writes several instructions for payments. Expresses his opinion that the flax market in Busir is not in a good condition. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #401) VMR

Letter from Ezra b. Hillel to Nahray b. Nissim instructing him to exchange the 50 dinars sent to him by the writer, which are “out of use here in Alexandria, but are excellent and first class in Fustat. Please exchange them for Damascus [or: Syria] dinars whose legends are arranged in lines, good ones, as I know you are accustomed to procure.” The commission for Nahray, per an agreement his brother-in-law made with writer, will be “one dinar for a hundred [changed],” and the writer further instructs him to execute the order immediately. Alexandria, ca. 1060-1080 C.E. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:238, 378, 459) EMS

Letter to Nahray b. Nissim in which the writer mentions a letter received from Nahray from his brother, and that Nahray had visited Caesarea. He discusses various business matters and writes that Abu Sa‘d al-Halabi is supposed to carry a mula’a to Nissim, and that Abu al-Surur sends his greeting and is now in Tripoli (Libya). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Letter from Zekharya b. Ya’aqov b. al-Shama, from Tripoli (Libya), to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The letter deals with shipments of goods and coins. The writer asks Nahray to take care of two Muslims that are delivering this letter. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #667) VMR

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat.

Letter from Marduk b. Musa from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. In the handwriting of Avraham b. Farah, August 10, 1046. Information about ships that arrive from Mahdiyya. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 764-766, #529). VMR

Letter from Farah b. Isma’il from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1057. The letter contains details about shipments of coins, including coins that Nahray ordered from Alexandria and needs to pay for their exchange. The writer asks for the prices in the linen market (al-Kalus) in Fustat and the spices’ prices as well. There is a mention of the situation in Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #506) VMR

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim, Egypt, to Abu al-Farah b. Isma'il b. Farah, Busir

Short letter written and sent from Alexandria by Musa b. Abu al-Hayy to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat, dealing with a shipment of robes and with collecting a debt of 106 dinars. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. III, p. 525)

Letter written and sent probably from Alexandria by Yaʿaqov b. Salman al-Hariri perhaps to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Ca. 1052 (Gil). Discusses business matters, announces that merchandise transported in Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ's ship arrived safely in al-Mahdiyya, and describes an attack by warships on the commercial ships in port.

Business letter from Rahamim b. 'Imran in Tinnis to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dated ca. 1055.

Letter regarding business from Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī, probably in Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim (c. 1045 CE). On verso is the continuation of the letter and a (draft of a) letter in a different hand and ink, mentioning Abū Zechariah b. Menashshe and expressing the hope that [...] b. Abū Ibrahim al-Iskandarānī, who travelled from Barqa, is fine.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim (Misr) to Abi Ibrahim 'Iyash b. Sedaqa Baruch al-Maghribi (al-Quds) concerning family affairs. Verso: Address in Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥasan and jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Musa b. Abi al-Hayy in Alexandria to Abu Yahya Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1057 (Gil). This is one of two letters describing a catastrophic set of shipwrecks; the other is CUL Or. 1080 J167 (PGPID 2259). Musa b. Abi al-Hayy is upset by the news of shipwrecks that had befallen some of the ships in which some of the traders from their circle (aṣḥābunā) had sailed with their merchandise. The first group of ships included: (1) the qunbār of the amīr, on which R. Maṣliaḥ, his brother, and Maymūn were sailing; (2) the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ, on which Isḥaq b. Khalaf, Tamām, and Musa's brother were sailing; (3) the qārib of the amīr headed to Tripoli, on which Khalfon, Ibn Nissim, Ḥajjāj, Shaʾul the son of Ibn Benayya's sister, Janūn, the son of the brother of Ibn al-Iskandarānī; (4) the qārib of the vizier, on which none of their aṣḥāb were traveling; (5) the qārib of al-Tarājima, which likewise contained none of their aṣḥāb; (6) the khīṭī captained by al-Dawwāma, also containing none of their aṣḥāb; (7) the khayṭī of al-Labāʾa, which was headed for Sfax and likewise contained none of the aṣḥāb; (8) the qārib of Ibn Zanbāj. In the second group of ships, the ships included (1) the qārib of Ibn al-Iskandar, on which Mardūk was traveling; (2) the qārib of Ibn Dayṣūr, on which the Kohen Ibn Hārūn and his boy were traveling; (3) the government ship (markab al-sulṭān) on which the son of Abū Yūsuf and Ibn Naḥum were traveling; (4) the qārib of al-Fāriqī, on which Abū Yūsuf, Ibn Raynāʾ, and an ailing man from Gabès (Qābis) were traveling; (5) the Ishfīlī, on which the son of the sister of Abū Ibrāhīm, Ṣemaḥ, Ḥānnān (!) and Ibn Asad were traveling; (6) the qārib of al-Jannānī, which wasn't carrying any of their aṣḥāb. This is not an exhaustive accounting of what's in the letter; also mentioned are the ship of al-Muʿizz, which was carrying the son of Abū Yūsuf, who perished, may God have mercy on him. There were other deaths, and still other people about whom the writer doesn't know whether or not they were saved. Goitein on this pair of letters (Med. Soc., 1:331) "What could happen to such a convoy is vividly described in two complementary letters, written in Alexandria around the middle of the eleventh century. Altogether, twenty-two ships are mentioned by name and the fate of each is recorded. In addition, the names of the business friends of the addressee, a total of twenty-five, traveling in them and what happened to each are reported. The convoy set sail in three successive groups, called 'sailings' (iqlāʿāt), the first two consisting of eight bottoms each. The first group consisted of a qunbār and a barge of the amir, or governor, of Alexandria; three other barges, one belonging to a vizier, two khīṭīs, one entitled "al-Ra'isa," "the Chief," owned by a lady [Gil reads this differently above, and Rustow concurs with him], and a craft called markab, the general word for ship. The second group consisted of the ship of the sultan Muʿizz of Tunisia, a ship and a barge belonging to a man from Seville, Spain, and several other craft among them one qunbar (as in the first group). These ships sailed on Monday before Pentecost (month of May), but two days later were overcome by a storm, in which the ship of the sultan and another boat perished; the writer of our letters and the addressee both had goods and friends in those ships. The convoy took refuge in two anchoring places on the North African coast, one of which, (Ra's) al-Kanāʾis, is frequently mentioned in our records and is still operating today as a local harbor. (The late King Faruk had a summer palace there, and since Ra's al-Kanaʾis means 'Cape of the Churches,' he renamed it Ra's al-Ḥikma, 'Cape of Wisdom.') Only five ships belonging to the first group succeeded in passing out into the high seas, for in addition to the storm just mentioned, there was another calamity. The enemy, certainly the Byzantine navy, 'which had complete mastery over the sea,' captured one boat and only because of its being busy with it did the rest of the convoy escape. The remaining ships had to return to Alexandria, however, where the governor ordered them to be unloaded, obviously because he did not see any possibility of sending out a second convoy."

Fragment of a letter from Nahray b. Nissim to an unidentified addressee mentioning accounts and the amount of linen that the addressee has to provide. A load of soap on the sultan's ship is also mentioned. Dated to the second half of the 11th century.

Business letter from Natan b. Nahray, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dated: ca. 1063 CE. Natan's son, and his son's eldest daughter, came down with an illness (ʿāriḍ). He despaired of them and went out of his mind, until God sent some improvement. But they are still weak. He interjects, "By God, watch out for the smallpox (iyyāka al-juddarī)!" The son and granddaughter have erupted in "jarab" and "ḥabba" (skin conditions). Hopefully with this suffering something worse has been averted from them. Please pray for them (r13–19).