Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to Sulaymān the beadle. In Judaeo-Arabic. Regarding fundraising for captives, asking the addressee to take charge of it, and also "to collect something from the women." There is some sort of registration mark at the top of the page, which resembles those used by the offices of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355) and David II Maimonides (d. 1410). The handwriting resembles that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. Needs examination

Letter from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides to Avraham ha-Sar (for the same addressee, see T-S Misc.28.64 and T-S 8J40.2). He reports that he met with ʿAbd al-Karīm and that they 'parted ways in peace.' The addressee is to take the 'awrāq and ḥujaj' from Ibrāhīm and give them to ʿAbd al-Karīm. The upshot of the meeting is that if ʿAbd al-Karīm insults or beats his wife again, he will be excommunicated. Also, the Nagid learned that the synagogue was without a cantor for Minha and Maariv of Shabbat. The cantors Faraj Allāh and ʿAbd al-Karīm are to report to the addressee and declare a ban of excommunication against themselves (!) if they miss the prayer service without an urgent reason, and even then, the other one should substitute. If either one refuses to accept this condition, he will be fired, and if either one gives trouble, he is to be brought before the Nagid. Join by Oded Zinger. ASE.

Partnership agreement, likely in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides, involving a certain [...] b. Sulaymān known as al-Ashyāfī (seller of ophthalmics) and Faraj Allāh b. Ibrāhīm. ASE

Marriage contract from the year 1301 A.D., under the authority of Avraham Nagid. Bridegroom: Jephthah b. Avraham.

Letter to Yehoshua Maimonides (1310–55) reminding him of somebody who was excommunicated when his father Avraham II Maimonides (1245–1313) was Nagid. The letter is rather faded and difficult to follow. Needs further examination.

Letter by Yehoshua Maimonides to a physician known as al-Muhadhdhab, dated Heshvan 1646 (=1334 CE), from Cairo to another city. The letter has to do with the son of the addressee, a cantor in Cairo, who subsequently added his own postscript.

Engagement agreement between the widow Rashīda b. Yiṣḥaq b. She'erit and the widower Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe, Minyat Ghamr, Tishrei 1315 CE, under the reshut of the Nagid Avraham II (who receives nine lines of titles). Both appear in court; both appoint wakīl. The bride undertakes to educate the groom's little son for the duration of two years. Information from Goitein's note card.

First 7 lines of a legal document from [Minyat?] Bani Jawad, dated the 25th of Heshvan, 1316 CE (1628 Seleucid), under the reshut of Avraham ha-Nagid ha-Gadol. Minyat Zifta is also named in the last remaining line. ASE.

Document concerning the sale of the part of a house owned by a young woman named ‘Shams.’ The names of her father, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather are also recorded, along with a designation of their profession as doctors. The list consists of names with sums in two columns written on the reverse side of the deed connected with the sale of a house, written in 1378 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:245, 497) EMS

Letter from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355) warning against a traveling preacher, popular in the community, who "speaks of secrets whose meanings he does not understand, like a parrot who speaks and does not know what he says. Moreover, he does not know what is forbidden and what is permissible." Goitein suggests that the reference is to a Jewish preacher with Sufi inclinations, whose influence at this time is also evident in the well known letter published as "A Jewish Addict to Sufism in the time of David II Maimonides."

Marriage contract containing details of a dowry and written at the time of the Nagid ʿAmram (1378-1383). The name Avraham is preserved. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) The hand is very close to that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355); see T-S 13J4.15 for another document from the time of the Nagid ʿAmram possibly written by the same scribe.

Letter from the office of the Nagid Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355), to the Jewish community in Cairo. He is ordering them to pay back to the public collection for the money (150 dirhams) that was taken from it to the capitation tax, for the poor that could not pay. This amount of money was taken from the "food for the poor" section in the collection. Mid 14th century (Ashtor estimation). VMR

Letter from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides regarding a collection (jibaya), ordering that the addressee's 'wife' (bayt) and the wife of the beadle Sulayman collect from the women. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Two betrothal contracts. See individual records. The hand is very close to that of the clerk who wrote many of the letters of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355); perhaps a coincidence, or perhaps he had a long life.

Recto: Bill of divorce (geṭ). Location: New Cairo. Dated: Friday, 24 Adar 1[6]50 Seleucid, which is 5 March 1339 CE. Husband: ʿEzer b. Yehoshuaʿ. Wife: Shumaysa bt. Mordekhay. The divorce was not completed on this occasion, as there are no witnesses. Cf. T-S 20.10 (dating to 1310 CE), which may involve the same couple. Bottom of recto and verso: unrelated jottings in Judaeo-Arabic, and three lines of a child’s handwriting exercise. See ENA NS 55.18 for a similar geṭ with similar reuse (same scribes?). (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter in Hebrew by the muqaddam (head) of the community of Minyat Zifta, announcing that he had excommunicated a debtor according to an instruction by the Nagid. The Nagid had previously arranged for the debtor to repay part of what was owed to his creditors, but he reneged on his agreement and an excommunication was about to be enacted against him as per the Nagid’s instructions. The muqaddam, however, asks for a respite of one or two months for the debtor. Ca. 14th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 465 and CUDL)

Letter from Surūr, in Bilbays, to his widowed mother, in Cairo, who lives with her two other sons Faraj Allāh and Rashīd. The letter deals with a case to be brought before the Nagid Yehoshua Maimonides (1310–55) b. Avraham II (1245–1313) b. David (1222–1300) b. Avraham (1186–1237) b. Moshe (1135–1204), containing circumstantial evidence (amāra) and details sustaining it. The first part of the letter (r1–17) includes lengthy apologies for failing to visit when he heard that his mother was sick. He was unable to come because of the expense of renting an animal, the danger of the journey, and because he was suffering from ophthalmia ('but now, thank God, I am better'). In the next part of the letter (r18–v1), he informs his mother that he remarried four months earlier, to a beautiful virgin who shares all of his mother's good traits and who is the fulfillment of his mother's prayers for him. His wife is distressed on behalf of her mother-in-law's illness and wishes to come to visit. Goitein suggests that the key to why Surūr neglected to tell his mother or ask her permission prior to the marriage lies in his neglect to mention his wife's name or that she comes from a good family. Most likely, she did not come from a good family, and his mother would have disapproved. In the third part of the letter (v1–27), he gets to the main purpose of writing: he had loaned a siddur to a pilgrim to Palestine named Fakhr against a security of 6.5 nuqra dirhams (containing three times as much silver as regular dirhams). Now that Fakhr has returned to Cairo, he has heard that family members already returned the silver, but Fakhr refused to return the siddur. The writer wishes Fakhr to be pressured to return the siddur. He suggests first that his family tell Sulaymān al-ʿAṭṭār, who mediated the original loan/security, "So-and-so [Surūr] says such-and-such to you with the following signs." He then recounts the story of how Sulaymān and Fakhr stayed in the khān in Bilbays with six other pilgrims (al-Shaykh Muwaffaq the cantor, Saʿīd b. al-Kātib, Nāṣir b. Ṭayyib, Yehoshua b. al-Ghāriq, Mūsā b. Mardūk, and Ibn Abū Saʿd al-Khādim), and how they were stranded there over Shabbat when the caravan left. If Sulaymān's intervention doesn't work, Surūr's brother Faraj Allāh should approach the Nagid Yehoshua. He then gives "signs" to remind the Nagid of his case: how, when he visited Bilbays, he spoke with Surūr about the copy of a Bible belonging to Yaʿqūb the brother of the teacher; how the Nagid was involved in Surūr's divorce from his first wife; and how the Nagid went to see the head of police (wālī) of Bilbays, who directed him to the Qadi, who was not available. If this doesn't work, he suggests that his brother go to Yaʿqūb the brother of the teacher and solicit his help. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 337, 601 and from Goitein's Tarbiz article on Yehoshua Maimonides. ASE.

The Nagid R. Yehoshuaʿ warns against disqualified kosher butchers. Middle of the 14th century.

Legal deed: Karaite deed of betrothal for Khalaf b. Maḥfūẓ (groom-to-be) and Ama al-Qādar bt. Efrayim b. Manṣūr b. Furāt (bride-to-be). Dated Thursday, 17 Sivan 1357 (= 1045 CE; note interlinear reference to Tammuz), probably in Fusṭāṭ, in the lifetime of the Nasi David b. Ṣemaḥ. There are quotes from Psalms 69:13, Nehemiah 2:18, Psalms 64:11, Hosea 2:21, Deuteronomy 1:11, 7:14, and with testimony from Barakāt b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen, and Yefet b. Abraham ha-Levi. Witnessed by Ṣedaqa b. Maṣliaḥ b. Sahl ha-Levi, David b. Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe ha-Levi, ʿAlān b. Nahum, Yosef b. [...] b. Efrayim, David b. [...], and [...] b. Naḥum. (Information from CUDL)

Legal deed: Qaraite deed of betrothal for Khalaf b. Maḥfūẓ (groom-to-be) and Ama al-Qādar b. Efrayim b. Manṣūr b. Furāt (bride-to-be). Dated Thursday, 17 Sivan 1357 (= 1045 CE; note interlinear reference to Tammuz), probably in Fusṭāṭ, in the lifetime of the Nasi David b. Ṣemaḥ. There are quotes from Psalms 69:13, Nehemiah 2:18, Psalms 64:11, Hosea 2:21, Deuteronomy 1:11, 7:14, and with testimony from Barakāt b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen, and Yefet b. Abraham ha-Levi. Witnessed by Ṣedaqa b. Maṣliaḥ b. Sahl ha-Levi, David b. Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe ha-Levi, ʿAlān b. Nahum, Joseph b. [...] b. Efrayim, David b. [...], and [...] b. Nahum. (Information from CUDL)