Geniza Lab

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya. The addressee is unknown. The writer thanks the person and mentions his own large family and its financial difficulties.(Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 pp. 626-627, #343) VMR

Letter from the future Gaon Daniel b. ʿAzarya, in al-Mahdiyya, to the leader of the Babylonian community Sahlān b. Ibrāhīm (aka Abū ʿAmr Sahlān b. Barhūn), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Dating: Tuesday, 11 Tishrei, probably October 1038 CE (according to both Gil and Goitein). The letter congratulates Sahlān on his marriage, which we know to have taken place on 9 September 1037 CE, from his ketubba (T-S 20.6). The letter also discusses difficulties experienced by the Babylonian/Iraqi congregation of Fustat that were resolved with the intervention of Abū Naṣr Ḥesed al-Tustarī (ll. 13 and 16). Daniel is working on these matters together with the Rosh ha-Gola, at present in the Maghrib, and with the Nagid of Qayrawān (Yaʿaqov b. ʿAmram or Shemuel ha-Sefaradi). The Arabic-script address on verso references Sahlān’s late father Ibrāhīm b. Sahlān (d. ca. 1031), previously the head of the Iraqi community of Fustat, and refers to him as “Barhūn.” The letter briefly mentions Sahlān's deliverance from an illness, but this part of the letter is too damaged to discern any more information (l. 8). (Information from Gil and from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:511; 3:118, 451.) EMS. NB: As of 01/2022, the PGP transcription is missing all of the text in the margins and on verso.

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya to a Jerusalemite staying in Fustat (Gil, Palestine, II, pp. 655-662)

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya regarding several trading issues included the purchase of different merchandise and payments. The writer's distress is shown from the letter. Was probably written in Damascus. (Information from Gil, Palestine). VMR

Letter from Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, Fustat, to Daniel b. Azarya, approximately 1053. The tear between the two sides is indicated here by the following sign /. (Gil, Palestine, Pt. 2).

Recto: Letter, written on red paper by Daniel b. Azarya's assistant (According to Goitein). Verso: Draft of poetry, with a citation from Psalms 33:11. VMR

Letter fragment from Daniel b. ʿAzarya (active 1052–62), in Palestine, to a dignitary in Fusṭāṭ. An urgent request to ask the authorities to stop an expected decision about Israel. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 698--699, #381) VMR

Four legal queries and one responsum in the handwriting of Daniel. b. Azarya. A part of a collection of questions that were sent to b. Azarya or one of his ancestors, as "Nasi" or "Rosh ha-Gola". The first question is about money that is kept by a guardian for orphans. The second deals with the value of promising money without a contract. The third is concerning a person who says bad things about his wife and as a result his son was seen by the community as "Halal". The fourth is about the responsibility of a person that inherited a vow that he did not fulfill. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 704-712) VMR

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yishaq b. Furat, to save a prisoner who was sentenced to death. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 640, #351) VMR

Letter from an ardent supporter to Daniel b. ʿAzarya. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1055 CE (per Goitein). This is only the first leaf of the letter. The sender puts his money and his friends at Daniel's disposal. The entire letter is also an attack on ʿEli b. ʿAmram, who is never directly named. The sender describes communal strife in Fustat after the death of the gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda (d. 1051) and Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Shemarya (d. after 1053 CE, probably ca. 1055 CE). The other supporters of Daniel b. ʿAzarya wanted to appoint the Rav (=Yehuda b. Yosef) as the successor of Efrayim b. Shemarya, and they did not want ʿEli b. ʿAmram to assume the position. (The Rav was in the camp of Daniel b. ʿAzarya despite being the cousin of his rivals Yosef and Eliyya, the sons of Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Yehosef who was briefly gaon in 1025 CE.) However, the sender paradoxically thinks that their enemy ʿEli b. ʿAmram should succeed Efrayim, precisely because then he will have to pay obeisance to Daniel, and the two camps will be united. The letter's contents are as follows: (1) Condolences for the death of Daniel's sister (r1–12); (2) Praises and seeking forgiveness for the fight that they had in the house of al-Damsīsī—Goitein understands that this is because the sender had advocated for ʿEli b. ʿAmram, Daniel's enemy (r13–21); (3) ʿEli ("the idiot") didn't understand that the sender has long been a supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya, even before the death of Shelomo b. Yehuda; and anything the sender has done for ʿEli is like what David did for Saul—serving him despite the latter's intention to kill him (r23–36); an explanation of how the sender supported ʿEli b. ʿAmram over the Rav, against the objections of the rest of Daniel's contingent, including Abū Isḥāq (Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn al-Furāt) (v1–12); ʿEli b. ʿAmram's boorish behavior once he assumed leadership, which alienated the other leading figures of the community (including Abū Sahl al-Kohen, a certain Abū l-Surūr, and a certain Elḥanan) to the point that they boycotted the synagogue (v12–28); ʿEli, fearing that he would be deposed in favor of the Rav, recruited his son-in-law Ḥunayn and started spreading malicious rumors about the Rav, including something he supposedly said to Ibn al-Talmid involving the latter's mother. Then, "Ḥunayn went and gathered some potters and quarrelsome people, and hired about fifty of them, and they wrote legal deeds about the Rav, [saying] that he had apostatized (pashaʿa) in al-Shām and [later] arrived in Egypt to re-Judaize (yatahawwada)" (v29–36). (Information from Goitein's edition. Translation of the last section from Moshe Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam," (2020).)

Letter fragment from Daniel b. Azarya (in his handwriting). Expressing his gratitude for a gift he received. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 699-700, #382) VMR

Record of a testimony written in Alexandria regarding a family excommunicated by Daniel b. Azarya. The members of the family desecrate his memory. Date: May 1079.

Letter from Avraham b. David b. Sighmar, Fustat, probably to Daniel b. Azarya, Jerusalem. The beginning of June 1056. After the passing of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, there were new problems to do with kosher butchering. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 746-748, #402) VMR

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli b. Amram in Fustat.

Draft of a letter from Yefet b. Shekhanya, from Fustat, to Daniel b. Azarya, around 1053. Daniel did not reply to Yefet's requests to supervise the slaughter in the community. Yefet has heard that a rejection is already included in Daniel's letter to Avraham ha-Masos and feel like people harassing him. The community in Fustat gave Yefet the authority to be the supervisor in the markets. The letter is unfinished. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 745-746, #401) VMR

Recto: Petition or letter. In Arabic script. Dating: late 11th century. Excerpts: "...the Jews, in accordance with that which is known of him and is famous of his... vulgar people (aqwām min al-ʿāmma) [met] with your excellence... their place with him, and from those who help... against them from him, obstruction of joining the noble procession (? al-taʿarruḍ li-liqāʾ al-mawkib al-saʿīd) and raising up petitions (rafʿ riqāʿ)... Daniel b. ʿAzarya al-Dāʾūdī... and the sect of the Qaraites (ṭāʾifat al-qaraʾiyyīn)... headship (bi-l-riyāsa)...." Needs further examination.

Fragment of a letter from Daniel b. ʿAzarya to ʿEli b. Amram, in Fustat. Daniel is expressing his support of ʿEli b. ʿAmram against people who disagree with him. Also words of condolences for a person who passed away. On verso there is Hebrew literary text. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 pp. 683–84, #369). VMR

On recto an opening of a letter to Daniel b. 'Azaryah the exilarch. Ob verso Arabic letter- needs examination.