Geniza Lab

Letter from Mevasser b. David from Busir, to Yaaqov b. Avraham b. Alan, Fustat. Around 1052. The writer makes merchandise in Busir to ship to Fustat through the Nile but the ships are not enough and the letter describes the struggle to get a ship. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 295-299, #693). VMR

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria, to Thābit b. Avraham al-Ṣabbāgh. Dating: ca. 1062. The writer mentions a shipment of goods and he is interested to know the prices for several items. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 551-553, #466). VMR

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

Letter from Natan b. Avraham, probably in Damietta, to Natanel b. Ravah, in Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: Probably Spring 1038 CE. Natan is on his way to Palestine; his next stop will be Tinnīs. He refers to economic and family crises. He underwent bloodletting on Friday and received visitors in the home of his host Ḥusayn b. ʿAllān instead of going to synagogue on Shabbat. On verso there is an unrelated liturgical text (added at a later date). (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter from the Karaite Natan b. Yiṣḥaq, Jerusalem, to his teacher Shelomo b. David b. al-'Arishi, Fustat, approximately 1050.

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 Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, Alexandria, to Yosef b. Eli, Fez. 6 November 1056. Discusses goods arriving from al-Andalus, Italy and the Maghrib; mentions cotton, fruit, textiles, oil and honey.

Letter fragment of supplication to a Gaon, probably from Jerusalem or Ramla, the eleventh century.

Letter from Yehuda b. Salāma, in an unknown location, to Yosef b. ʿEli ha-Kohen Fāsī, in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1054 CE. Concerning money shipments. The writer has been unable to obtain anything from Ibn Khafāja, who is sick (r8–9). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 377-379, #725). VMR

Letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat, ca. 1060

Letter to Efrayim b. Shemariah from his friend Yiṣḥaq, who asks for money to pay the tax-collector and so prevent his being imprisoned. Dating from the first half of the 11th century.

Letter from Ḥasan b. Muʾammal, Ramla, to Abu Nasr the cockeyed, Fustat, September 1052.

Letter segment in the hand of Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Ramla, September or October 1052.

Note from Eli Ha-Mumhe b. Avraham to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Hagay, probably 1050.

Letter, fragmentary, from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unknown addressee. 1033 or 1037. Shelomo b. Yehuda informs that he receives money probably from Fustat. A part of the payment was divided between the Gaon, head of the court, and a third person, it seems like this is an inheritance. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 210-212, #116). VMR

Letter segment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unknown personality, mentioning monies paid to Abu l-Faraj. Dated 1033-1037 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Verso: Letter in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: Ca. 1026 CE. Referring to a speech made by Abū Isḥāq (Avraham b. Sahlān), a member of the Babylonian yeshiva, concerning the eclipse of the exclusive juridical authority of the Palestinian yeshiva (i.e. the authority of Efrayim b. Šemarya). (Information from Gil and CUDL)

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."