Geniza Lab

Letter probably from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, probably in Fustat, to Yehuda ha-Levi. Dating: September 1140 CE. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English to come).

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Avraham Ibn Yiju in Dahbattan on the Malabar coast. Goitein dated the letter to after 1139, while Friedman to after 1138. The letter contains much information on commercial business and the report of a shipwreck in Bab al-Mandab.

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju (Aden, 1133-1140). There is a second copy of this letter: T-S 13J7.13 + T-S K25.252.

Letter containing the testimony of Makhlūf, a respectable merchant, who had to flee from Alexandria before an oppressive government official, 'the plundering monk,' Abu Najah, and to hide in the western desert for years. He had arrived in Alexandria in the spring following Abu Najah's death, traveled to Ifrīqiya in the summer of the year 1130, and wrote the letter the following summer, that is, 1131. The writer was appointed as an overseer of the Sultan's ships. It is also an extraordinary document of estrangement between father and son. The son loved music, Italian wine and bad company, and, of course, was always in debt. All attempts of the father to correct him: presenting him to the qadi of Alexandria, taking him on a trip to Ifrīqiya, sending him to the countryside on administrative work, suggesting to him travels to Yemen and to Syria were of no avail. The young man of twenty-two was not a mere good-for-nothing. He was allergic to his father: 'as long as you are alive, I have bad luck. As soon as you are dead, I shall be successful.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46, 119, 268, 277, 280, 316, 320, 482; II, 588, 359; III, 246, 243, 249.) There is also the beginning of a draft of a letter in Arabic script on verso.

Letter from Madmun b. David: Murder of the 'Caliph' and return of Jewish life to normalcy. Aden, 1202.

Letter from Ḥalfon and Bundār b. Maḍmūn, in Aden, to Sulaymān b. Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1150 CE. Maḍmūn's two sons write from Aden to express their sympathy on the death of Abū Zikrī Kohen to his son Sulaymān, Fustat ([A] 27 lines). They discuss unfinished business of the dead merchant ([B] 30 lines) and report briefly about the grave illness of their own father ("Do not ask how he (my father) is suffering from the strain of illnesses and constant pain," v1) and the well-being of the widow of Sulaymān's maternal unde, the shipowner Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov, and his children [C]. Information from India Traders (attached).

India Book I, 14: Letter from Yosef Lebdi to Ḥasan b. Bundar, 'the representative of the merchants' in Aden, written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. There are several indications that the letter was composed in an early stage of the court case between Yosef Lebdi, the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. An important piece of information in the letter is that on his way back from India, Yosef Lebdi stopped at Mirbat, on the southern coast of Arabia, and from there continued straight to Dahlak, on the western shore of the Red Sea, thereby by-passing Aden (and Ḥasan b. Bundar) completely. Lebdi made arrangements with Bundar that he would forward the money that Lebdi and Yequtiʾel were owed. The fact that Lebdi did not settle his affairs in Aden contributed much to his current conflict with Yequtiʾel. At the time of writing of this letter, the fact that the large shipment of pepper, bought by Lebdi in India, had sunk on the way was unknown to Lebdi and Yequtiʾel in Fustat.

Letter to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen Sijilmāsī (d. ca. 1149). In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions goods such as garments and soap. Contains a request to help with a shipment that it was in the hands of Nissim b. Yaʿaqov. Also mentions Mukhtār and Abū l-Barakāt. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter from a certain Ḥ[alfon] (?) to Shemarya b. David requesting an appointment as a religious functionary. Egypt, 1213 (?). He cannot work because of his weak vision. The handwriting resembles that of Moshe b. Levi (d. 1212), who may have written the letter on behalf of the petitioner—but this is speculative. ASE.

Legal document: testimony about the will of Yosef Lebdi. This fragment, written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli, records that before leaving for his last journey, Lebdi made the will. Friedman dates the fragment to the beginning of the 12th century.

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: three fragments of two copies. Aden, ca. 1130s.

Account written by Avraham Ibn Yiju in Yemen around 1149-52 detailing a compensation in kind to Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq and Yosef b. Avraham.

Memorandum to a traveler carrying Indian goods to Yiṣḥaq b. Bundar. India, ca. 1110.

Letter from a man, in Fustat, to his brother, probably in ʿAydhāb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender urges him to return quickly; their mother fasts out of worry for him. Gives prices for pepper, lac, indigo, קסט מכעב, clove, red sandalwood, salsola (qāqullā).

India Book 4 A letter from Ibn al-Fakhar to Halfon b. Nethanel Halevi, asking for assistance and sending regards to R. Yosef Ibn Migash and relatives. Probably Granada summer 1138-spring 1139. AA

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Alexandria, to his brother Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, probably in Qalyūb. Dating: Prior to 21 February 1140 CE. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā. Dealing with the India trade. Dating: Mid-12th century. Mentions names such as Zikrī b. Sar Shalom; Maḥrūz; Ben Yiju; Ibn al-Nafūsī; Yiṣḥaq; the Jews who were living in India; the son of Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Maybe Lucena; July 1, 1138 A section from the middle of another partnership deed between the two, in which Yosef agrees to hand over the profits by Passover of the year 1139. If he violates the agreement, Yosef must pay twenty mitkals 'to the poor of Almeria and the captives'. Apparently, the passage is from the beginning of the note. The deed was written by a professional scribe, but the truncated addition at the end of the 12th is by Ḥalfon himself. Just as document 826 opens with the statement of the active partner, Yūsuf b. Shuʿayb Ibn al-Naghira, who received money from Ḥalfon to trade in, so it is told at the beginning of this page that Ḥalfon gave money to Yosef to trade in. If so, we have before us two partnership deeds that were written in the West between Ḥalfon, the investor, and a 'dealer' named Yosef, and it turns out that this refers to the same partner. Since it was agreed that if Yosef broke the agreement, he will give twenty mitkals 'to the poor of Almeria and to the captives', it turns out that certificate ח29 was written in Spain, and there was presumably at the time when Ibn Al-Naghira visited Ḥalfon, presumably in Lucena, at the beginning of July 1138. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from a certain Maḥāsin, in ʿAydhāb, to his "brother" the cantor Abū Isḥāq b. al-Mumḥe, in Fustat. Sent to the shop of Abū l-Munajjā the druggist to be forwarded to the addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. Begins: "What happened to me would take too long to explain. You will hear it from Abū ʿAlī b. Faḍāʾīl al-Ṣāʾigh (the goldsmith). . . . I am still sitting here in ʿAydhāb, sad and weeping over. . . ." (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's attached notes.)