Geniza Lab

Letter written in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic script. Various blessings and Bible citations are rendered in Hebrew script, whereas the main part is written in Arabic script. Seems to be an elaborate letter of appeal for charity. Mentions Ibn ʿAwkal, Ibn al-Madhāmīrī(?), and Ibn Qarīṭa(?) (v3–4). (Information in part from CUDL.) Needs further examination.

Letter in Ladino to Efrayim ʿAdda (עדה) from David, mentioning Livorno, Ragusa and Senor Vidal. Dated 563 (5563 of the Era of Creation = 1802 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Recto: contract between two dyers (Abū l-Riḍā b. Abū l-Bahā and Abū Saʿd b. Ibrahim) about the sale of half of a house. The seller remains in the house for a yearly rent. Dated 1540 of the Seleucid Era (= 1228/29 CE). Verso: postscript to the document on recto in a different hand. (Information from CUDL.) NB: This used to be called T-S 10J21.17 on PGP.

Letter, from the elders of the Jewish community in Ṣahrajt, Egypt, to Efrayim b. Sehmarya he-Ḥaver, in Fusṭāṭ, confirming receipt of Efrayim’s letter and implementation of his instructions relating to an improper marriage. Dating: 1034 CE. Mentions [...] b. Nāmūs, and Raḥmūn, Ibn Yosef, and [...] Ibn Yāʾīr. (Information from CUDL.)

Legal document, written under the authority of the Nagid Samuel, concerning the repayment of a loan. Mentions people including Abū l-Ḥasan Yefet b. Mevoraḵ (known as Ibn al-Ḥaver), Abū Faḵr the perfumer, and Abū [...] Abraham. Signed by Abraham ha-Kohen b. Aaron and Yefet b. David, and dated 1457 of the Seleucid Era (= 1146 CE). (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's index card.

Power of attorney in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, dated 1447 of the Seleucid Era (= 1136 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Letter, written by a trader before leaving Aden for Nahrawāra, mentioning Abū l-Waḥš, Abū Saʿd, Abū Naṣr, Abū Jacob and the family of Bayt al-Baḥr (house of the sea). On verso there is the address in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Recto: fragment of a letter mentioning ‘the Nasi of the Exile’. The sender wants the addressee to speak to 'the captives' to take him with them and to give a small amount for the price of a boat. "Your brother Mevorakh" may have helped the sender in the past. Verso: unrelated business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, listing names and numbers. Dating: Likely 11th century. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment of a letter, mentioning Egypt but mostly illegible. Ca. 11th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from an unnamed business agent (fattore), in Egypt, to his employer Yosef Naftali. In Hebrew. Dating: Second half of the 16th century. The addressee appears also in T-S Misc.28.168. The letter concerns trade with Venice, where scammony (אשקמוניאה) is in high demand. Mentions spices and pepper and silk from Safed. Mentions Rabbi Moshe D'Larya of Safed, who is the representative of 'the holy congregation of Turkey'; Yehuda Masʿūd; and Yaʿaqov Albo. Dated Sunday 29 Adar. (Information from CUDL and A. David's edition on FGP.)

Halakhic discussion concerning the laws of debts. In Hebrew. Information from CUDL.

Fragment of a copy of a letter by Sherira Gaʾon. (Information from CUDL)

Legal document concerning a partnership between David ha-Levi and Ḥayyim Ṣanuaʿ (known as ʿAjamī), written in Fusṭāṭ in 5564 of the Era of Creation (= 1804 CE). Text is in Hebrew with Judaeo-Arabic translation after every few lines. Mentions sums of money such as 4500 meydim and 5000 meydim. Signed by the two parties and Matatiya b. Shekhanya, with a monogram signature of ʿAlī b. Shalom. (Information from CUDL)

CUDL: Part of a legal ruling from Ramla, mid-11th century CE, in which the brothers Joseph and Nahum, sons of Yannay b. Nahum al-Baradānī the cantor, enlist the Sicilian judge Maṣlīaḥ b. Elijah, in a claim against Hillel b. Isaac. Gil: Segment of a court proceeding in Jerusalem, approximately 1065, in the hand of Shelomo b. Ṭoviya ha-Shelishi.

Recto: calendar reckoning. Verso: legal document, mentioning Shela, his brother and a half qinṭar of mercury. (Information from CUDL)

Draft of the end of a letter, with many corrections, sending greetings to Elʿazar ha-Kohen. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from the Qaraite Jews of Ashqelon to the Qaraites and Rabbanites of Fustat. Dating: Summer 1100 CE. The letter deals with the ransoming of Qaraite captives from Jerusalem following the Crusader conquest of the city. (Qaraites represented a large percentage of the small number of Jews who still lived in Jerusalem after the Seljuk conquest[s] in the 1070s.) The letter also explains that the fortified city of Ashqelon had not yet fallen, but the residents are struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and the need to make large payments to the Crusaders to ransom back Jewish captives - men, women and children - as well as books and scrolls pillaged from the synagogues of the Holy Land. Despite the terrible circumstances, they take solace in the fact that that the Crusaders appeared not to have mistreated the women. The writers report that they had received the suftaja (bill of exchange), at least the second substantial donation from the Jews of Fustat to the campaign to redeem captives and books. This letter is a request for further donations. The community in Ashqelon had spent over 500 dinars; ransomed over 40 captives; continues to bear the high expenses of caring for the 20 redeemed captives who remain in Ashqelon; and is now in debt for more than 200 dinars. The writers also mention Jews who had escaped from Jerusalem on their own, and others who had been given safe-conduct with the wālī. Of the refugees who arrived in Ashkelon, many had died of the epidemic they encountered there: "The attacks of these illnesses (amrāḍ), the falling of that plague (wabā'), that pest (fanā'), that disaster (balā')" (recto, lines 17–19); later, describing how the refugees perished, "Some of them arrived here healthy, and the climate turned against them (ikhtalafa ʿalayim al-hawā'), and they arrived at the height of that plague (wa-waṣalū fī ʿunfuwān dhālik al-wabā'), and many of them died" (recto, lines 42–44); then, twice more, the writers emphasize their great expenses caring for those who have survived but are still sick, who need not only food and clothing but medicines and syrups (recto, lines 53–55 and right margin 19–20). There are notes by the writers and forwarders of the letter in the right margin on verso, including Yehayyahu ha-Kohen b. Maṣliaḥ, David b. Shelomo and Ḥanina b. Manṣūr b. ʿUbayd. See DK 242 + T-S AS 146.3 for a letter written one year earlier from the Rabbanites of Fustat to the Rabbanites of Ashqelon, also having to do with the campaign for the ransoming of captives. (Information CUDL and from Goldman, "Arabic-Speaking Jews of Crusader Syria" (PhD diss., 2018), 49–58. See also Goitein, Med Soc 5:537; Goitein, "New Sources on the Fate of the Jews during the Crusaders' Conquest of Jerusalem" (Heb.) Zion, 17 (1952), 136; Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 241-242; and Goitein's notes attached to Bodl. MS Heb d 11/7 (page 9f). ASE/MR

Draft of a halakhic question. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: letter from Fusṭāṭ, dated 15th Shevaṭ 5505 (= 1745 CE), describing the appointment of Joseph ha-Levi as cantor and minister at the Karaite synagogue. Signed by Elihu Ḥassūn, Moses Shalom, and Shemuʾel Naʿīm. Verso: brief text in Judaeo-Arabic concerning this same Joseph ha-Levi. (Information from CUDL)

Agreement from Fusṭāṭ, dated 5562 (= 1802 CE), between Abram ‘the witness’ b. Shabbetay ‘the witness’, and Yaaqov Abzaradel. Witnessed by Yehezqel Ḥaffaḍ, Efrayim [...], and Yosef Ḥassān. (Information from CUDL)