Geniza Lab

Letter from Hayya Gaon to Elhanan b. Shemarya, Fustat. February 7, 1018. The Gaon writes after he has been asked to write to Fustat on behalf of one of the community members in Baghdad, Ali b. Bishr, whose brother, Yosef b. Bishr, is in Fustat and needs help. The writer also informs Elhanan that the Sura Gaon Dosa b. Seadya passed away. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #39) VMR

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, ca. 1025. This letter describes a difficult and very brief visit to Jerusalem involving a controversy about some Jewish captives. (Information from CUDL)

Verso contains greetings and the name of the addressee, Nehemiah b. Perahya. Recto also contains the name of the addressee. The letter may have been sent from the Yeshiva of Iraq to Fustat and from there to Damsis, which is mentioned in the address. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter opening from Shelomo b. Yehuda to the communities, first half of the 11th century.

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya informing one of his supporters in Cairo that an unnamed prominent person had received a friend of his opponent in Dagun (a suburb of Ramla) and on top of that had not answered his letters. He urges his supporters to have the vizier write to the aforementioned man. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter by the leader of the Jewish community in a small town to Nagid Mevorakh b. Sadya (1094-1111) complaining about trouble he has had with legal cases brought before him and asking the recipient to assist the bearer of the letter, the slaveboy of the qadi. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 298-299 and Cohen, Self Government, p. 262)

Letter from Eliyyahu b. Kalev b. Leon, a Byzantine, to the Egyptian Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya. Written en route to Cairo, Eliyyahu complains of the dearth of learning among the Egyptian Jews and their laxity of observance. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, et. al., 208) EMS

Letter by the Jewish community of the village of Qalha, Egypt, apparently to Eli ha-Kohen b. Yahya in Fustat, 2nd half of the 11th century. The Jews of Qalḥa report to the Parnas in Fustat that Abū ʿImrān Mūsa b. Yequtiel arrived in their village on 17 Tammuz, injured and/or sick from the violence he experienced during the nahb (plunder) of Fayyūm. In addition he was robbed of everything by robbers near the village. He died a few weeks later, in Av. One of his two wives and the daughter of the other died also. The remaining wife was brought to Fustat at the expense of the community, because she had a cousin (ibn ʿamm) there. The little boy could not live in the village because of the Kushim (Sudanese soldiers?). Information from Goitein's note card.

Note in the hand of Daniel b. Azarya to Eli, the parnas of Fustat, concerning aid for a poor man, Wahb of the city of Raqqa, ca. 1051-1062.

Letter in Hebrew from the community of Kiev on behalf of Yaʿaqov ben R. Hanukkah. He had been seized by Christian creditors (goyim) of his brother, who had been killed by brigands. Yaʿaqov had stood surety for the loan. The community had redeemed him by paying part of the debt. Now, apparently, they had sent Yaʿaqov to collect as much of what remained of the debt as possible from Jewish communities. He had evidently ended up in Fustat. Dated to the 10th century (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 348 and from Golb and Pritsak)

Letter requesting aid for the poor of Palestine, 11th century. Recto: Fully vocalised poetry in a very crude (almost unreadable) hand. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a Babylonian gaon. Edited in comparison with manuscript. (Top and bottom missing)

Karaite document, compiled by a delegation of 12 Gaza and Jerusalem Karaites, regarding the state of fields in the spring in order to determine whether to intercalate the year, March 1052.

Letter, in Judaeo-Arabic with an opening in Hebrew, from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to Shelomo b. Sa'adya and the community of Rafah, concerning a dispute over an inheritance that drove the losing party to appeal to the Muslim court, approximately 1020. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to the Gaon, probably from Aleppo, complaining that the Gaon is paying too much heed to those who slander the writer, approximately 1035. Verso: Very faded and mostly illegible text, possibly liturgical or a sermon. (Information from CUDL)

Account of the Qodesh: building expenditures, ca. 1037. A very damaged record, mentioning the supply of different materials, such as oakum, straw, reeds, bricks, lime, twigs, clay, nails, water. Also, payments to sawyers, masons, carpenters, plasterers, and helpers. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.161 #9)

Letter from Tiberias considering appointments which were made in one of the communities in north of Palestine or in Syria.

Letter of a local Jewish leader to his superior in the Egyptian capital. The first part of the letter is irrelevant to polygyny, thus it is excluded from the work.

Letter from Babylonia to Shelomo b. Yehuda, approximately 1026.

Letter fragment from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to a community, approximately 1020.