Geniza Lab

Letter from Shemuʾel to his father, David Conforte, in Ladino, which was then reused for a draft of a halakhic treatise on divorce. (Information from CUDL.) "There is little doubt that the recipient is the famous chronicler/historian David Conforte author of the Qoreh ha-Dorot. He was in Cairo in 1664 as a student and in 1671 as Rabbi. In the letter the son refers to this brother Gabriel Conforte and it was long since surmised that David had a son by the name of Gabriel. The son refers to other letters and to remmitances of money. He complains at length about the state of his financial affairs: ,ke no keda koza sin enpenar. Hayom debo aki en la civdad sobre toda mi kaveza 98 grosos no tengo por donde valerme a sakar nada. El dio por sus piadades mos remedie." Eleazar Gutwirth, "The Family in Judeo-Spanish Genizah Letters," 213–14. ASE.

Letter. Commercial letter from Rashid (Rosetta) to Damietta, mentioning Christian Italian merchants (גירונימו ישו), and a French consul. The text has a number of European loanwords. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Khumsa (כומסה) with a postscript from Jacob Shalom. 18th-19th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in written in two different hands, with a postscript by ‘your brother’ Joseph Ṣarūr. Address on verso, possibly in the second hand, reads ‘to my brother ... Saʿadya ha-Levi known as Furaykh from me, David Beḥor’. Mentions people including Menaḥem and Abraham Zraḥiyya. C. 16th-17th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter (draft) mentioning Abba, Abraham, and Shemuʾel Ibn Sid. Sent by Yehoshuaʿ [...]. Postscript by Avraham Shaul. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yaḥyā (?) M(...) in Alexandria to Benjamin de Quriel. Dated 98 (either 5498 of the Era of Creation = 1738 CE or 5598 of the Era of Creation = 1838 CE, although the latter might be more probable), and mentioning people including Nissim, Salmūn, Umm Abraham, Jacob M[...], Shelomo and תנתן (?). (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Yosef Fitru to Yom Ṭov b. Ḥayyim, mentioning Alexandria, Shelomo Solal (cf. T-S NS 175.30) and Yehuda Fanu. Dating: ca. 18th century. Containing instructions about issuing a deed of lease. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Abraham to his brother, Mordechai Kohen, dated 5646 of the Era of Creation (= 1886 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Business letter in Hebrew. Dated Friday 13th [...]. Dating: second half of the 16th century, according to Avraham David. Mentions Shemuʾel, Yaʿaqov and Yiṣḥaq. Reports that a ship arrived from שיטיליש (possibly Sitia, Crete) bearing sakhtiyān (a kind of leather) and carpets. Likewise a ship arrived from מודון (Methoni, Greece). Jottings include the names Yiṣḥaq and Yosef. (Information from CUDL and FGP.)

Accounts concerning sugar and honey, with Coptic numerals. Mentions al-qāḍī Shihāb al-Dīn b. Shirīn, Jonah from Damietta and Abū l-Barakāt. Dated 934 Hijra (= 1528 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo to Shemuʾel, c. 18th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter of business from Avraham Haman and Gavriel Ḥefez (חפז) to Merkado Karo and Shim'on Frances, dated 1797 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Letter from Abraham Sagis (סאגיש) in Safed to an individual in Egypt who had previously studied with the sage Moses di Trani in Safed. Abraham complains about an outstanding debt owed by the recipient, and the recipient’s stinginess toward the descendants of his former teacher. Signed Abraham Sagis. Verso: Part of an address. C. late 16th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a trader in India to his cousin, who was also his brother-in-law, in Egypt. The writer had apparently been in India and for some time, and complains that he hadn’t heard from his relatives in Egypt, rebuking the addressee for failing to send news of his aunt, Umm Mufaḍḍal, of the addressee's mother, of Umm Saʿīd, or of Iftikhār, or news about who died and who is still alive. He also rebukes him for failing to send condolences on the death of his mother. He is also angry at Mufaḍḍal, apparently another cousin, the son of a different aunt of the writer, for his behavior after the sender lost 4,000 mithqāls. The letter demonstrates the tension between the writer’s belief in the legitimacy of his extended family’s claim on his resources, on the one hand, and his anger at their irresponsible conduct. While the writer is quite angry at the addressee, he nevertheless asks him to send his middle son to him to marry the writer’s daughter, who was there in India with him; he implies that this arrangement is preferable to him because it would preserve his daughter’s dotal property within his natal family. Between the lines, he specifies that he wants the older of the middle sons, the one with the “healthy” eye, presumably a euphemism for a diseased eye. He then discusses various business transactions, many involving stationery and garments. Also mentions Naṣr, who is in a ḥajj caravan; and sends regards to the addressee's children; Abū ʿImrān and his children; Abū ʿImrān and Ghulayb; Abū l-Munā (and congratulations on his safe return from al-Jāwa, probably meaning Southeast Asia broadly); and Munajjā. The fragment ends with the sender cursing the Aleppan (al-Ḥalabī) who made off with everyone's qumāsh. (Information from CUDL, from Goitein, Med. Soc., 3:35, from Krakowski, “Female Adolescence,” 166n20, from Marina Rustow and from Alan Elbaum)

Legal testimony. In the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham. Dating: Ca. 1030 CE. Concerning orphans and large sums of money in an estate. Mentions Efrayim the Ḥaver (probably Efrayim b. Shemarya). (Information in part from CUDL.) The join is not continuous, so there is no direct proof, but it seems very likely. ASE

Business letter to the Parnas Mordechai ביאלוכוס in Cairo from הצעיר יאודה יוסף נסים מניני and הצעיר יששכר כניסי, including accounts with Arabic numerals. C. 18th-19th century. (Information from CUDL)

Business letter to Karo y Frances from Nissim M[...], c. 1800 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Ladino to Joseph from Isaac in Cairo, mentioning ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān and Marseille (?). Dated 5488 of the Era of Creation (= 1728 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Business letter from Moses Ḥarād (חראד) to Shim'on Frances in Cairo, with European numerals. Dated 167 (5567 of the Era of Creation = 1807 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo Cesana & Company to Karo y Frances & Company. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 20 Sivan 5568 AM, which is 15 June 1808 CE. (Information in part from CUDL)