Geniza Lab

Letter, draft, from Shelomo to Avraham ha-Sar, Ner ha-Maʿaravi, in childish script. He is unable to come because his father is ill. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from a physician in Silifke (Seleucia) to his sister's husband, presumably in Fustat. Dated 21 July 1137. "The Emperor John II Comnenus was on his way to Antioch—held at that time by Raymond of Poitiers—and a part of his powerful army passed through the town in which this letter was written. The Byzantines arrived before the gates of Antioch on August 29. Our letter, however, reports a rumor that the city had already fallen forty days earlier. The writer, a physician, even expresses the expectation that the Emperor might take Aleppo and Damascus as well and already placed an order for medical books which would be looted there from the homes of his colleagues." The writer had emigrated from Fatimid Egypt to Byzantium. Goitein suggests that he traveled initially with the Fatimid navy, as he lists letters he sent in previous years from the army camp at Jaffa, from Rhodes, and from the island of Chios, which were occupied by the Venetian navy in 1224. The physician also stayed in Constantinople before settling in Seleucia and marring a woman with a Greek name (Korasi). He repeatedly describes how wealthy he is despite having arrived penniless, and urges his in-laws to follow his example and join him, no matter how much they have to leave behind. [Recto 1-8:] He opens with a discussion of the fertility of his sister; she has already borne two girls to the recipient, who is now presumably hoping for a son. She has not been able to become pregnant "due to her emaciated state"; the writer believes he would be able to give her medications to allow her to conceive "even after the emaciation." (Goitein's reads shurb instead of shaḥb, and zawāl instead of huzāl, yielding, "My sister did not become pregnant despite the many medicines. If you were here, I would fix her pregnancy, by my life, even after she had ceased to bear children.") The writer's own wife never conceived except with medication. [Recto 8-9:] The writer was unable to cure Avraham, "the little beggar from Akko," who died and left his son an orphan. [Recto 10-17:] The writer provides a detailed list of the dowry that he gave his son-in-law Shemuel b. Moshe b. Shemuel the Longobardian merchant, worth altogether 200 dinars. [Recto 17-21:] The writer explains that his own letters may have never arrived because he used to send valuable materia medica with them, including mulberry concentrate (rubb tūt), ribes (rībās), barberries (barbārīs), Gentiana (ghāfit) leaves and extract, and absinthe (afsintīn). [Recto 21-27:] He lists the five letters he has sent in past years in exchange for only one from the recipients, including Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā and Abū Naṣr b. Isḥāq. [Recto 27-31:] He offers messianic wishes, citing Daniel 12:11 and a piyyut for Havdala written by the recipient's father. [Recto 31-38:] He writes of his great happiness and wealth, including a house worth 200 dinars and 400 barrels of wine. [Verso 1-4:] If the recipient really does join him, he should bring the medical books that the writer left behind. Regardless, he is hoping to obtain some medical books from the loot of Aleppo and Damascus. [Verso 4-22:] He conveys news of family and friends. [Verso 22-24:] He requests a quarter dirhem of seeds of mallow (mulūkhiyah), mandrake (yabrūḥ), and althaea (khiṭmiyyah), as these are unavailable in his location. Information from Goitein's attached summary and translation. EMS. ASE.

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Menashshe's daughter to her maternal uncle ʿEli b. Hillel, the deputy overseer (nā'ib al-nāẓir) of Bahnasa. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1100–38 CE. The writer urges her uncle to visit herself and her mother. She is in the sixth month of her pregnancy (r5). She asks the addressee to buy for her a black girl about 5 or 6 years of age from the jālib (slave trader), because she has heard that there are many available in Bahnasa (r15–17). The writer is sad to be separated from her daughter (r26–27). She reports in the margin on the sad condition of Sitt Ikhtiyār, who has been bedbound (rāqida lāzima) for three months with hectic illness (ʿillat al-diqq). "There is nothing left in her but that we say, 'right away, right away'"—does this mean they wait on her hand and foot? or that they expect her to die soon? In any event, her condition is a terrible blow to the writer. ASE.

Letter from a male family member, probably in Damīra, to a physician, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating unknown. The letter is convoluted and repetitive, giving the impression of having been dictated. The purpose of writing is to urge the addressee to stop trying to obtain a government salary (jāmakiyya) and to apply only for a license (dustūr), for he if persists in seeking the salary, they will refuse him even the license. The writer and those with him have been on tenterhooks regarding the addressee's news, in a state of anxiety (hamm) and fasting (ṣiyām). He writes that it would be better to treat patients for free than to have the government salary, even if it were 100 dinars. It seems that the government salary would also require the physician to return to Damīra and practice there, an outcome the writer is desperate to avoid. "If you return to Damīra, it will be our destruction (dimārnā)." The writer (humorously) insists that here in Damīra there has been no season (faṣl, of illness), and disease (maraḍ) and ophthalmia (ramad) are nowhere to be found; there is no demand for the addressee's services, for everyone is healthy. (Whether intentionally or not, this passage echoes the first chapter of Ibn Buṭlān's Daʿwat al-Aṭṭibā', in which a shifty physician in Mayyāfāriqīn tries to convince a newcomer and potential competitor that all the diseases have disappeared.) The family is not from Damīra originally (the writer calls it bilād al-ghurba); the writer wants to return to their hometown where they own property and do not have to pay 10 dirhams a month for rent. Meanwhile, the family is perishing from the cold, and the children are 'naked.' The writer himself is ill: in a postscript, he writes, "Do not even ask about me: the illness has gotten seriously worse (zāda bī jiddan). Now, pieces of bloody phlegm (qiṭaʿ balgham dam) are coming up, together with the intense pain (al-alam al-shadīd). How often this flares up in me (yathūr bī)!" He does not ask for a prescription or medical advice, but perhaps the request is implied. The letter also contains quite a lot of discussion of wheat. ASE.

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Yaʿqūb to an unknown recipient. Written in a good hand and pleasant style. This letter implores the addressee to help the writer buy medicine (?) and 2 ounces of sugar for his ill infant child, assuring him that he and his wife didn't have enough money even for a pound of bread. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 188; Goitein index cards.) Specifically, the writer requests the price of a qirṭās (probably meaning a bag) of nuqūʿ (which can mean infusion, as of a medicine, but also dried apricots, which would more easily go in a bag). The writer's son has a terrible cold (nazla ʿaẓīma). Verso: The beginnings of seven lines of a letter or petition in Arabic script, with wide space between the lines. In between the lines and at 180 degrees, there are a few more lines in small Arabic script, possibly the address of the letter on recto. The name Abū l-Ṭāhir can be read. ASE.

Invitation by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father to spend the Sabbath with him. Shelomo has "turned toward health" after an illness.

Letter from an unknown writer, in al-Maḥalla, to Nahray b. Nissim, presumably in Fustat. The body of the letter is in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1070, based on Gil's estimate. The writer is in need of money and his son is ill. He complains that there is not enough meat in his town; perhaps he mentions this because he thinks his son needs meat to get better. There is widespread unemployment in al-Maḥalla, and traveling at this time is dangerous (ופחד הדרכים יותר). The writer also discusses something that he needs to return, perhaps money or books. The letter ends with a legal query on rabbinic usury (avaq ribbit). Apparently Nahray's letter to the writer contained the Hebrew saying, "Don't judge somebody until you are in his place," and the writer here responds with the popular Arabic saying (משל הדיוט), "The thirsty does not know what is inside of the hungry." Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #829. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Araḥ b. Natan, also known as Musāfir b. Wahb, in Fuwwa, to his brother Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Natan (Wahb) the Seventh, probably in Fustat. Dating: 1090s CE, according to Frenkel. Araḥ is returning from a journey of much travail (taʿadhdhabtu fī safrī wa-waṣaltu sālim). He is now in Fuwwa and intends to return soon to Alexandria. The main issue in the letter is an urgent request to convey a letter from Ḥusām al-Mulk to the Qāḍī of Alexandria, Makīn al-Dawla, regarding the protection of the Jewish community from the 'hatreds' (sin'ot) of the Muslim population. Both the addressee and their cousin Abū l-Faḍl have been ill, based on the wishes for recovery. The faint line of text at the bottom is the mirror imprint of line 9 ("I am intending to trave on Thursday"). Information in part from Frenkel. ASE.

Letter from the physician Abū Zikrī, in Jerusalem, to his father Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Abū Zikrī reports that his masters, the princes al-Malik al-ʿAzīz and al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam, were laying siege to Damascus and that he was unable to get through to them to request a leave. Although ill himself, the writer states that he visited the sultan’s palace every other day. The letter also makes a note of “our colleagues at Qūṣ.” (Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS 18 (1967), 18; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:347, 603.) "Do not send me the biqyār (a goat-hair garment?), because I am not well, and I am thinking of how you will fare after my death. How terrible would it be to receive your garment in the tailor's packaging, unopened! Ever since you left, I have not even had a single week of health. Regarding the collyria and equipment that you requested, I have not been able to get to it, because I am ill. I am wintering in Jerusalem, because the army is at Damascus, and I am stranded here, and cannot leave without an order from the sultan." EMS. ASE.

Letter from Ibn Ibrāhīm b. Ṭībān to his brother-in-law Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: late 11th century. Shortly after these two parted ways, Abū l-Afrāḥ had sent a boy to the writer requesting a medicinal syrup, as he felt ill (mutakassil). The writer returned to the camp site the next day, but Abū l-Afrāḥ had already departed. The writer traveled as far as Būsīs but did not catch up with him. In this letter, he apologizes, explains himself, and requests that Abū l-Afrāḥ inform him about his health before he travels. ASE

Letter from Mashā'il (=Misha'el?) b. Natan, location unknown, to Khalaf b. Barakāt b. al-Dayyān, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer has had no news of the addressee's family ever since he traveled, so he asks them to write to him with their news (r5–12). He sends his gratitude to Umm Khalaf and to the wife of the ḥaver, Umm Bū ʿAlī, probably for their hospitality (r12–18). He is very worried on account of the children's sickness (ḍuʿf al-ṣibyān, r10 and probably r21 and v8). The letter is ambiguous, but these are likely his own children rather than children in the addressee's family. He asks the addressee to be diligent in 'doing the thing I mentioned with those people, for it will save our lives, with this weakness (ḍuʿf) we are in (again ambiguous: ḍuʿf can refer to illness or financial need or any difficult strait) (r18–22). The nature of this task is unclear, unless it simply refers to sending him a letter with their news. Verso consists of further regards and gratitude. (Information in part from Goitein's index card). VMR. ASE.

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yosef, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim. Asking Nahray to intervene with Ḥasan b. Bundār. Dating: 1094–97 CE. "This is the opening letter of the correspondence; Amram b. Joseph recapitulates what had been done thus far and asks Nahray b. Nisslm to intervene with Ḥasan b. Bundār through the merchants returning to Aden. Lines 1-13. Excuses for the writer's long silence: he always inquired after Nahray's well-being, but refrained from writing so as not to obligate a response. Lines 13-29. A letter of Abu 'l-Faraj Nissim, containing the story of his horrible experiences, had been forwarded by Nahray ten months earlier. It caused the family great distress, which was exacerbated by the illness of both the writer's sister (Nissim's wife) and his own wife, an orphan whom he had recently married after the death of his former wife, and who had borne him a sickly boy. Economic difficulties did the rest. "Man's road is not his [to choose]." Line 30-verso, line 13. In that letter Nissim had mentioned that he had shipped to Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan b. Bundār 1 1/4 manns camphor with the request to sell them in Aden and to send the proceeds to Nisslm's family; the camphor had arrived in Aden, but Nissim did not know whether Ḥasan had forwarded anything. That letter had been written exactly two years before. Recently a number of acquaintances, all mentioned by name, had arrived from Aden, some with letters and receipts from Adenese merchants. One receipt seemed to be connected with Nissim's shipment, and Nahray is asked to inquire into this and similar matters. Verso, lines 14-24. Having learned that the merchants who had arrived from Aden were returning there, Amram wrote to them letters and now asks Nahray to meet 'all of them' and to give them his letters. They should explain to Ḥasan b. Bundar that his "taking temporary possession of the camphor's proceeds as security against possible claims" was a great sin Verso, lines 24-31. On his way to the East, Nissim had met in Dahlak Sheikh Abu 'I-Ḥasan Salāma al-Maʿarrī, the brother of Sheikh Abū l-Ghanā'im. In the aforementioned letter (lines 13, 29 ff) Nissim had written that he had met that man again and asked him to carry with him the proceeds from the camphor from Aden, if they had not been sent before. Nahray is requested to find out whether this man had arrived in Fustat and whether he had brought any helpful message. Verso, lines 31-38. In the concluding part, Nahray is reminded to enquire about another traveler who was reported to have some news on the matter. One or two lines are missing at the end. {See the introduction to II, 3, for the dating.}" Description from India Book (see attached).

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen Ha-Ḥaver b. Yoshiyyahu, Tiberias, to Eli Ha-Ḥaver Ha-Me'ulle (b. Amram ?) in Fustat, approximately 1050.

Letter from Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef (active 990s–1030s CE), in Qayrawān, to his brother-in-law ʿAyyāsh b. Nissim. The sender reports that the addressee's son is doing well, reports on the success of another relative (Abū l-Surūr), discusses business transactions, and asks for medication for his eyes (something Indian, "the white kind . . . ostrich eggs, and the green kind, because I need to use it on my eyes"; line 15). Information in part from Gil. ASE

Letter from Mūsā b. Yaʿqūb al-Miṣrī, in Minyatayn (the "two Minyas," Ghamr and Zifta, located across from each other on one of the Delta tributaries), to Abū l-ʿAlā' Yūsuf b. Dā'ūd b. Shaʿyā, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1056 CE. The letter discusses the flax harvest and confirms the receipt of some clothes. There is a passing mention of someone's illness in the margin (line 3). (Information from Gil.)

Letter from Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf to the brothers Abū l-Makārim and Abū Yaʿqub ha-Kohen. The writer describes in detail the severe fever and dysentery (zaḥīr) of the addressees' brother Abū l-Riḍā, "as if you were present." There is no expert physician in the town from which he writes, and there are no medical ingredients. He therefore asks the addressees to approach a physician, to procure medication with the four dirhams attached to the letter, and to send it back with the courier. Initially there was a "cold" fever for 50 days, followed by a "hot" fever for 8 days. The patient was then afflicted with terror (wahul) and dysentery. There follows a detailed description of his bowel movements. At first there were 'filings' but no blood, and there were solid BMs along with the filings which had a terrible smell. Then the BMs became soft, without the terrible smell. His tongue is [tied? loosened?] but he is overcome by silence (? al-sukūna) all night long. "This is the description of his illness as if you were present." (Information in part from Med Soc, V, pp. 193, 194, and from Goitein's index cards.) Postscript on verso: "Obtain a prescription for what his diet should be. If he prescribes [...] Levantine sour grapes, obtain them, for we have none here [...] and exchange them for something else." The prescription is written at the bottom of the letter in Arabic script. ASE

Letter from Efrayim b. Isḥāq, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1070 CE. The writer owns several apartments in Alexandria and rents an apartment to Nahray. Nahray has heard rumors that Efrayim is loaning other people books that belong to Nahray, from his apartment. The writer defends himself and admits that he loaned two books to Mevorakh b. Seʿadya, but in exchange for a receipt signed by two witnesses. The writer has business relations with the addressee and writes about selling vinegar. The writer received Nahray's letter in the ship, in the evening of its sail. He therefore wrote this letter (because in haste?) on a reused receipt—written in Arabic script—from nearly twenty years earlier (it is dated 4 March 1051 CE). The writer also inquires about his sick female paternal cousin (bint ʿammī, r3). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #710) VMR

Letter of Benayahu b. Musa, an Alexandrian from Maghribi origin, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. The letter contains severe complaints on the local Alexandrian Jews treatment of foreigners, especially from the Maghrib. The letter sheds light on a big communal dispute which reached the Muslim authorities and almost caused the writer to convert to Islam. The letter mentions in passing Avraham al-Deri as being in Alexandria and, apparently, as being on friendly terms with the writer. Benayahu also conveys his preoccupation for the addressee, who is recovering from an illness (r3–6). (Information from Frenkel)

Recto: Letter sent from Damascus. In Judaeo-Arabic. Goitein describes it as a lovely family letter praising the town for its opportunities to make a living (r24–26) and describing the well-being of a boy who was left by his father with relatives while he traveled to Egypt (r8–13). "He is well, comfortable with them. He reads with them, dresses with them, plays with them. He is not a stranger. Everyone loves him. They sleep in one bed." As for the writer's brother: he is overcome by weeping due to separation from the family. If he had not been sick, he would have come together with the letter. (Information in part from Med Soc III, p. 234, and from Goitein's index cards.) Verso: Letter of appeal for charity. Opening with a long Hebrew poem. A few lines of the body of the letter, in Judaeo-Arabic, are preserved at the bottom. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Simḥa ha-Kohen (in Alexandria) to his parents-in-law Eliyyahu the Judge and Sitt Rayḥān (in Fustat). In Judaeo-Arabic. Simḥa describes in moving terms the illness and death of his female slave (jāriya). Goitein and Motzkin understood this to refer to his daughter, however it probably means slave here, because Simḥa cites as condolence the formula from Berakhot 16b, "המ ימלא חצרונכם" (noted by Eve Krakowski, 07/2022). The physician Abū l-Thanāʾ had been caring for her in his home, and ultimately told Simḥa to take her back when her illness became hopeless. Simḥa (briefly) rejoiced because no one had expected her to walk again. A porter carried her home in a basket. She then died at home despite their hopes for her recovery. Simḥa's wife–the daughter of Eliyyahu and Sitt Rayḥān—is now in a deep depression ("the world closed itself to her") and sees nobody except Sitt Rayḥān when she visits. Simha now begs her to visit again soon. See also T-S 18J4.10. Discussed in Goitein, Med Soc II, 251.