Geniza Lab

Letter from Avraham Maimonides (autograph) to Fakhr al-Dawla al-Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic. He has heard that Fakhr al-Dawla is upset at him, and he is shocked and dismayed and tells him that there is no reason to be upset. Also mentions the Nasi Shelomo.

Letters in Judaeo-Arabic, probably copies of letters sent in the name of Avraham Maimonides. There are at least two letters sharing the same folio. Only the ending of the first one is preserved, and it helpfully ends with the date (Adar II 1535 Seleucid, which is 1224 CE), and "Avraham wrote this." The next one begins with the motto "hineh el yeshuʿati" (also used elsewhere by Avraham Maimonides). The letter is addressed to the congregation of Ashmūm and at their head, R. Moshe ha-L[evi]. It addresses the problem that there is no muqaddam in Ashmūm to oversee marriages and divorces, and as such, the people have been going to the Muslim courts. They are informed that this is wrong and that they should stop doing it. R. Moshe b. Peraḥya ha-Dayyan is mentioned. The text on verso seems to be a continuation, because it continues to discuss Ashmūm and brings in a certain R. Yehuda and Minyat Zifta. Needs examination.

Legal query, probably to Avraham Maimonides and possibly in Shelomo ha-Melammed b. Eliyyahu's hand.

Letter of recommendation from Avraham Maimonides addressed to the congregation of 'Goshen' and surrounding villages, at their head the judge Shemuel. In Judaeo-Arabic. The recommendee is R. Shelomo ha-Levi from Iraq. Due to his debts in his own country, he had to leave his family behind and go wandering about, despite his weakness and age.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Handwriting of Avraham Maimonides. Addressed to al-Kohen al-Peqid(?). Giving instructions concerning a visit(?) of Eliyyahu the Judge. Needs further examination.

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic. Handwriting of Avraham Maimonides. Addressed to al-Shaykh al-Melammed Tamīm(?). Telling him to ask (yataqaḍḍā ilā) Maḥāsin al-Ṭabīb to attend the court case (muḥākama) of Abū l-Majd al-Ḥazzan (probably Meir b. Yakhin). ASE.

Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to al-Ḥedvat. Handwriting of Avraham Maimonides. Letter of recommendation for the poor man al-Shaykh al-Kohen al-Talmid Abū l-Riḍā.

Autograph letter by Avraham Maimonides to Moshe b. Peraḥya. It is a recommendation for the bearer, the French rabbi R. Yeḥiel [b. Yiṣḥaq Ẓarfatī], to the community of rabbis (ʿulamā' al-sharīʿa) in Palestine and Jerusalem. Moshe b. Peraḥya served as a judge in the Rīf, including in Minyat Zifta and Minyat Ghamr; he was the brother of Yosef b. Peraḥya. On verso is a donation list with many names, conceivably for a fundraiser on behalf of the bearer of the letter. Information entirely from Mordechai Akiva Friedman's edition and discussion.

Kifāyat al-ʿĀbidīn by Avraham Maimonides. Information from FGP.

Legal document from the court of Avraham Maimonides. The members of the court are listed in a neat table: Ḥananel b. Shemuel, Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim, Yiftaḥ b. Yaʿaqov, Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, Yosef b. Shemuel, and Ḥalfon Kohen b. Elʿazar. See Goitein, Med Soc II, 546 no. 16, where this is the "unidentified ENA manuscript" mentioned. Information in part from Friedman, Maimonides Appoints R. Anatoly Muqaddam of Alexandria [Hebrew], p. 153 no. 71.

Letter. Request to Avraham Maimonides to write a recommendation to the head of a yeshiva in Damascus for Barakat b. Isma'il the clothier, from Alexandria, who is a relative of the writer. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter (copy) from pietist disciples in Alexandria to Avraham Maimonides, complaining about persecutions by their co-religionists, who prevented them from practising their prayer rites. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Avraham Maimuni informin the Nasi that a certain document was not found among papers brought forth by a third party and that the matter would be followed up only if the recipient insists. AA

Exposition of a halakhic point (taʿlīq ʿal sefer Nezaqim) which the writer says he heard from Avraham Maimonides.

Account of the pledges, pesiqa, for [the synagogue of] Dammuh, during the time of Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237).

Letter on behalf of a Byzantine woman named Rachel, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. The main part of the letter (in Judaeo-Arabic) is scribed by the teacher and court clerk Yehuda b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī; there is a postscript (in Hebrew) added by Shemuel (a.k.a. Kalev) b. Yaʿaqov. Dated: 19 Adar 1538 Seleucid, which is 1227 CE. The letter concerns Rachel's husband, Yosef of Barcelona, who is about to marry a local woman, leaving their children orphans in their lifetimes (and "pieces of meat"). Eliyyahu is asked to relay her case to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205–37), to intervene and prevent Yosef from doing this to her. Yehuda switches to writing in his own voice on verso, line 3. He sends various respectful greetings and adds that Rachel's eyes (or those of her mother?) have developed ophthalmia (ramad) from all her weeping. The postscript in the hand of (and signed by) the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov corroborates the story in the body of the letter and blames the husband's mother, who tempted him to do these bad things, and also "his wife, the snake, who married him against his will"—which makes it sound that Yosef has already married the local woman. Shemuel seems to conclude by saying that he has taken on the name "Kalev" (or vice versa?) on account of his illness, evidently an effort to change his fortune by changing his name. ASE

Legal deed. Opening lines only; abandoned mid-way through the fifth line. Dated: Sunday, 1 Sivan 1539 Seleucid, which is 1228 CE, under the jurisdiction of Avraham Maimonides. Parties: Avraham b. Shela and Muvḥar b. Tiqva both known as sons of Misbāḥ. On verso there are a few lines in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly hijāʾ (invective) poetry: yā jāhil bālī wa-yā khabīth al-ṭawiyya kam.... Underneath there are a couple words in Arabic script together with Greek/Coptic numerals. AA. ASE.

Two questions addressed to Avraham Maimonides about milking sheep on Shabbat. (Information from Goitein's index card). VMR

Letter from Salim b. Harun to Avraham Maimonides concerning financial issues relating to the children of his late brother Farah b. Harun al-Janawi, who were under his care after the death of their mother. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:303-4, 494) EMS

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides' court, written to the Dayyan Nissim, in the hand of Shelomo Ha-Melammed b. Eliyyahu the judge.