Geniza Lab

Letter from Yusuf b. al-Lukhtūsh, probably from Granada, to Ḥalfon, after leaving Granada. After October 1138. The writer writes about his willingness to see Ḥalfon again and to receive a letter from him and mentions some business matters with Yehuda b. Ghiyat. (Information from Goitein and Friedman "Ḥalfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar (India Book 4), pp: 210-213) VMR Probably Granada; After October 1138

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. ʿEzra to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dating: ca. 1128 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Mukhtar b. Yaʿaqov to Sa'id b. Naja describing Ḥasan b. Bundar's assistance. Aden, ca. 1100.

Letter from an Alexandrian trader who is on a journey, possibly in the Persian Gulf, to a family member. The writer wants to visit Baghdad and Ezekiel’s tomb before returning home, and mentions people including Manṣūr and Sālim. The letter continues onto verso, where there is also an astrological table in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's attached notes.

Poem by Avraham Ibn Yiju praising Madmun b. Ḥasan and cursing his enemies. Aden, ca. 1140-1144.

Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in 'Aydhab, to his sons, before embarking again for the east. He reports that he had dismissed his traveling companion and chosen a different one, and that no one, not even in the Kārim flotilla, had arrived in 'Aydhab. He expresses regret at having undertaken the voyage at all, and advises his sons not to be on the road constantly as he is; he advises them that a family partnership would enable them to share the effort of travel. Goitein identified ʿAllān as the author of the letter based on his handwriting. (Information from Goitein, "Portrait of a Medieval India Trader: Three Letters from the Cairo Geniza," BSOAS 50 (1987): 449–64, published posthumously; see also the attached notes, used as a basis for the article and stored in Goitein's files.)

Letter from Alexandria sent around 1120 C.E. from a Maghribi merchant, Makhlūf b. Musa al-Nafusi (Ibn) al-Yatim, who proclaims that a friend carried for him a purse with 101 “fresh” (‘tari’) dinars weighing 100 and one/fourth. He asks the addressee to “sell” them, meaning to convert the Sicilian currency he was dispatching into local Egyptian money. Makhlūf devotes eleven lines of the short letter to an apology for not buying his friend a Sicilian turban that was ordered. Confirming the reason by two oaths with God’s great name, the writer acknowledges the omission was due to his own forgetfulness. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:237, 459; 5:248, 575 ) EMS

Letter from Perahya b. Yosef Yiju to his brother Shemuel in Fustat, complaining of his failure to procure a responsum. Perahya also includes brief remarks on their mother’s illness and his apology for being unable to visit, a request for Shemuel’s assistance in collecting a debt and in paying the capitation tax, and a one-line inquiry about whether his brother has made a bible amulet or ankle for his son, to protect him. Probably sent from Mahalla, late twelfth century. (S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Friedman, India Book, 790-1)

Letter from Perahya Yiju to his brother Shemuel Yiju, complaining about his brother's failure to procure a responsum (see III, 55). Friedman-Goitein edited only the relevant lines (ll. 12-16).

Almeria; Monday, 29 of Av, 4898; August 8, 1138 This is a short letter written by Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh, certainly from Almeria, to Ḥalfon, who was apparently staying in Lucena, and hinted that the subject of the letter was Abū l-Rabīʿ al-Lusani, that is, a man of Lucena. The writer sent sixty Mitkal, through three different messengers, 'by Rabbi Yehuda b. Giyat', referring to the sixty out of the hundred that, according to certificate ח30, were received from Tilimsān and which b. Giyat had to deliver to Yehuda ha-Levi. One of the two ships that sailed from Alexandria, mentioned in certificate ה30, arrived at Almeria. One of the passengers was Abū l-Barakāt b. Harith, who said that peace be upon Ḥalfon’s brother, he is Eli the Judge. Abū l-Barakāt did not see the letters Ḥalfon sent to Egypt before he left Egypt. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Maybe Alexandria; End of 1139 - middle of 1140 Ḥalfon writes to Yūsuf Ibn al-Khāzin, one of the dignitaries of Almeria, Spain, and asks for his help in delivering a dispatch sent by the Egyptian judge Rabbi Elʿazar b. al-Kasabi to his brother in Lucena. This note, which was apparently attached to a letter already written by Ḥalfon to the addressee, is one of three notes dealing with the same matter, which he wrote to different people in Almeria. See certificate ה61, which is also one of the three. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter previously thought to be from Abū Yaʿqūb Ibn al-Najera, somewhere in Spain, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, likely in Lucena. Dating: likely August 1138 CE. Identifications and datings are based on comparison with the preceding document, T-S 12.285. [However, T-S AS 149.119 is a letter from Ibn al-Najera and does not resemble this one.] This letter recounts the writer's visit to a woman who owed him 10 mithqāls, but he found her sick. He now asks Ḥalfon to advance him a certain sum, probably the same 10 mithqāls, for the purpose of his travel to Almeria. Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book 4 (Hebrew description below) = Goitein and Friedman, Ḥalfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar (India Book 4), pp: 182-183. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Maymūn, in Spain, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Consists almost entirely of polite expressions of longing and flattery. Dating: Probably 1138–39 CE. (Information from India Book 4; Hebrew description below.)

Spain; Probably Toledo; August 1138 This short letter from Yehuda ha-Levi to Ḥalfon deals mostly with the cooperation between these individuals in collecting thirty-two mitkal (= a full dinar) and two-thirds, in order to redeem a Jewish girl who was imprisoned, a mitzva that Yehuda ha-Levi succeeded in doing. The 'accuser' possessed the girl, and it is likely that she was in prison in Toledo, and Yehuda Halevi probably lived there or in her vicinity (see Certificate ח36, ע"ב, line 2). (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Spain; Probably 1138-1139 A short letter of longing for Ḥalfon and greetings of peace to him. The writer Yiṣḥaq b. Shabbā compares separation from the recipient to separation from life and he adds two stanzas to express his grief for this. He compares them to the fading of the sun and the light that has gone away, and with them, the joy of life, which is likened to perfume and myrrh, is nullified. Demands of peace were also sent to Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya and Abū ʿAmr b. Barukh. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Spain The beginning of the letter is missing, including the beginning of the lines written in the margin, but most of the text is preserved in this section. It is possible that the names of the writer and recipient were written at the beginning of ע"א or ע"ב, but these are now missing. Apart from the request to know the recipient's travel plans, the letter contains only the usual polite words in such correspondence, namely confirmation of receipt of a letter, description of the praises the writer heaps on the recipient, the longing for him and the hope that God will bring the meeting with him again soon, a request for a response and blessings for peace. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from Yosef Ibn ʿEzra and Avraham b. Muʿṭī, in Tilimsān, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic, with some phrases in Judaeo-Persian. Dated: 28 Ṭevet 4898 AM, which is 13 January 1138 CE. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English description to come.) See also Shaked, "Persian-Arabic Bilingualism" in From A Sacred Source, pp. 322–24 (edition and translation)

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham to Abū Zikrī Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Apart from the address, only two other pieces are preserved: the first line of the letter ("The letter of your noble excellence arrived, and it was the happiest letter that arrived...."), and the last two words of the margin of recto: "in Ghulayfiqa," i.e., the seaport in the Tihāma region of Yemen just south of al-Ḥudayda. ASE. AA.

Fragment of a letter from Perahya Yiju to Abu al-Fakhr Ibn al-Amshati. Written in al-Mahalla, ca. 1161-72.

Letter apparently from Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Fusṭāṭ, to an unidentified addressee, apparently in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing news about Aden. Commodities include: pearl (luʾlūʾ), ivory (ʿāj), musk, tusk (? nāb), and a siddur—or rather the lack of a siddur; Abū Zikrī Kohen even checked the bill of lading (tadhkira) and found that it was never shipped. "As for what you said about Ben Yiju, there is no need to postpone the letter, because it is a heartrending situation, and it won't do you any good: every penny that belonged to him drowned with the ship of Maḍmūn, for the ship foundered when it was entering (India) and nobody survived. Likewise, three other ships for Bharuch foundered when they were entering, and not a soul survived." Goes on to mention Maḥrūz; a judge; a fatwā concerning a house; and on verso detailed instructions about garments to be made. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's attached notes.)