Geniza Lab

Letter from Shimʿon b. Shaʾul b. Yisraʾel ha-Ṭulayṭulī, in Jerusalem, to his sister Ballūṭa in Toledo. The writer (a Rabbanite) relays two years of news about Qaraites and fellow Andalusians in Jerusalem, as well as family news. He conveys the distress he felt upon hearing of the epidemic (wabā') and unrest (tashwīsh) in the environs of Toledo. One theme of the letter is their father's health. "Our father is in a state that one would wish only for one's enemies. He has become paralyzed (mabṭūl), blind (aʿmā), and feeble-minded (madkhūl al-dhihn), and suffers much (mumtaḥin). The bearers of this letter will tell you about him and about my care for him. He does not lack a thing, for he is well served (makhdūm) and cared for (maḥfūẓ). I do not rely on anyone else to concern themselves with him. My bed adjoins his; I get up several times every night to cover him and to turn him, since he is not able to do any of these things alone (idh lā yamlik min nafsihi shay'). May God, the exalted, reward him for his sufferings." Med Soc III, p. 241. Later in the letter, Shimʿon tells Ballūṭa that she need not concern herself with sending the turban that had been requested, "for, woe is me, he no longer has the wherewithal to leave the door of the house. He used to devote himself (wādhāb should be read as wāẓāb) to the Mount of Olives and to God's Temple for as long as he was able and [the strength] was in him, may God reward him." (Gil's translation diverges significantly from this.) A second theme of the letter is the story of a fellow Toledan, Ibrāhīm b. Fadānj, and his wife, who arrived two years earlier after having been taken captive in Byzantium and redeemed in Ramle. For a detailed analysis of their case—involving multiple changes of allegiance between the Qaraite and Rabbanite communities, and the writer's role in aiding them—see Rustow, "Karaites Real and Imagined" (2007), 43–47.

Letter from a son to his mother describing the events of his journey from Alexandria to Fustat and mentioning the illness of his uncle. Much damaged. The travelers stayed with Yusuf in Fuwwa Manṣūra, who is infirm and weak of sight ("May God establish his health and illuminate his sight" etc.). Somebody in the party had an earache, but recovered ("entered the bath") in Fuwwa. On the torn portion at the bottom, the writer cryptically mentions walking barefoot and that his "liver was in the red fire... after the shaking and the weariness...." (Information from Goitein's note card) ASE

Letter dated 15 Sivan 1208 from Yehuda b. Aharon b. al-'Ammani (Alexandria) to Abu l-Majd Meir b. Yakhin (Fustat). The first part (r.6-17) deals with exchanges of piyyutim between the two cantors. “You mention that the dirges have arrived and that you have everything. That is impossible. Had you said 'I have one out of ten,' all right; but that you have all of them is impossible, for some of them were composed [meaning recently] by my uncle Zadok—may his Rock keep him" (Med Soc V, 179, 556). Yehuda also conveys the news that Abu l-Majd's brother Sa'id was very ill but has now recovered, while Abu l-Majd's mother and his brother Hilal are well. The remainder of the original letter (r.18-v.12) is a recommendation for the bearer, the Maghrebi Moshe b. Khalifa who arrived in Alexandria at least a year and a half prior and who was blinded by an eye disease and a failed operation. For two months after the operation, he suffered elevated pulse (? צרבאן) and "saw dreadful things in his soul" (? אבצר אלעטאים פי רוחה), and today he remains like a dumb stone. He has dependents including a wife, a virgin daughter, and a 6-month old son. The community has supported them for a year and a half, but the pesiqah no longer suffices, and his own relatives in Alexandria are unable to provide for him. Moshe carries another letter with signatures from "the Judge"; Sadoq the cantor; Bu Sa'id b. Alqash; Bu 'Umar al-Levi b. al-Baghdadi; Yehuda himself; Bu 'Imran b. Ghulayb; R. Simha ha-Kohen; and Eliyyahu the Judge. There is a postscript (v.16-20) written two days after the original letter, when Yehuda heard that Abu l-Majd's wife is dangerously ill. He prays that he will hear of her recovery soon. There is a second postscript (v.21-24) noting that Moshe cannot travel at the present moment because he would be required to pay the capitation tax twice, but that Abu l-Majd should take care of him whenever he does arrive. Ashtor misread the date as 1400+168 by the Seleucid calendar (1257 CE), while it is in fact 4800+168=4968 since Creation (1208 CE). The same is true for T-S 13J21.25 which Yehuda wrote one week after this letter. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from the Egyptian physician ʿAfīf b. Ezra, in Gaza (detained there en route from Cairo to Safed), to Shemuel b. Yequtiel al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew opening. Dating: The beginning of the 16th century. The letter is a plea for help. ʿAfīf reports that Shemuel's letter arrived and was read aloud to the congregation of Gaza, which prayed for him (r19–22). He continues with an account of the illnesses afflicting his family members (r23–v1), all of which he has described in previous letters but has not received any response. "The family had been in the Mediterranean port for two months at the time of the writing of the letter, kept there by illness. The son was gravely ill {with bārida (chills) and sukūna (stupor?) and a nearly unstoppable nosebleed (ruʿāf mufraṭ)}. ʿAfīf says that he had sold everything, including his clothing, for the boy's treatment. The wife was confined to bed (marmiyya), unable to see, hear, or speak {"like a stone thrown on the ground"}. Seven times ʿAfīf cries out "Oh my lord Samuel," imploring him to answer this letter, which was preceded by others that had gone unanswered. Now he promises that this would be the last one, asking the addressee at the same time not to force him to send still another one, for writing such a letter was an ordeal, and finding a carrier for it almost impossible. {"Send me a response before I no longer have a response or need a further letter. O God, o God, o God, I have melted like a candle. 'My heart is become like wax; it is melted in mine inmost parts' (Psalms 22:15). . . . I cannot write a letter and send it but that my heart melts. . . . Every letter that I write is with great distress. I can barely find with whom to send it but that my heart gives out (yanqaṭīʿ) from walking."} ʿAfīf rejects with indignation the charge that he had brought this disaster upon himself (ʿamila bi-rūḥihi) by his own fault (probably by disregarding the warning that the family would be unable to make the journey). Practicing as a physician in Safed (which at that time began to assume its role as a major holy city) was done "for Heaven's sake." No doubt his inability to gain a livelihood in Cairo was another reason." (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 86, notes 196–203.) ʿAfīf additionally reports that the righteous R. Pereẓ died on the same journey. Apart from the implied request for direct financial aid, ʿAfīf asks Shemuel to stand security for his sister in Fustat, who is to sell off ʿAfīf's share in a family property that brings in two half-dirhems (muayyadis) per month. ʿAfīf wishes to return to Cairo, but does not have money for hiring a donkey. ʿAfīf b. Ezra (also known as Yosef the Egyptian), along with his traveling companion R. Pereẓ, also appears in F 1908.44XX, lines 70–94. Information from Goitein (note card and Med Soc V). ASE.

Letter from a certain Ḥ[alfon] (?) to Shemarya b. David requesting an appointment as a religious functionary. Egypt, 1213 (?). He cannot work because of his weak vision. The handwriting resembles that of Moshe b. Levi (d. 1212), who may have written the letter on behalf of the petitioner—but this is speculative. ASE.

Letter written by a Byzantine scribe in Egypt on behalf of an unnamed blind man, addressed to a charitable administrator called ‘Eli ha-Kohen b. Hayyim and his son Efrayim. Dating: ca. 1090 CE. The letter details that the poor man’s wife and children are due to come up from Alexandria but they have written to say they cannot afford the cost of a boat ride, and so the writer requests that Eli ha-Parnas hold a collection and “do not let the oppressed return in shame.” The foreign scribe spells Alexandria with a qof instead of the expected kaf. (Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, Julia Krivoruchko, and Cameron Boyd-Taylor, 183, 197-201) EMS

Petition from Yusuf requesting help from the addressee, Natan, for a woman who has weak vision and a blind daughter. The sender also enquires after another woman.

Letter in Arabic script from a blind man, Barakāt al-Jiblī, to the man with whom his son Ḥassūn lives, Sābiq al-Kohen b. Maḥfūẓ, dictated to Yaʿqūb, the cousin (ibn ʿamm) of the addressee. The purpose of the letter is to rebuke Sābiq: "I think of you what I think of my son Ḥassūn, namely, that I have written him many letters and not received a single response. All this time he has not thought of me or inquired about my health (iftaqad ḥālī) at all. His mother passed away one year ago with a great fire (or: grief) in her heart on his account. I am an old man, and I have lost my vision and ceased earning a living." In the remainder of the letter he beseeches Sābiq to respond and to urge his son to behave properly and remember his father. Information in part from Goitein's note card and Med Soc, V, p. 124, n. 423. ASE

State document. Petition to a Fatimid ruler in which the writer asks to be exempted from the payment of his capitation tax (of 1 + 1/3 + 1/4 dinars and a dirham), since lost his sight as a consequence of an eye illness and is now unable to perform his job, while the tax collectors are increasingly pressing. The writer also states that in the past he had been able to pay his capitation tax only thanks to the charitable intervention of the community. Dating: 12th century. On verso there is Hebrew text, possibly liturgical. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from a blind man in Salonica to his son Ismāʿīl in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. Written on vellum in a scholarly hand. The first page of the letter is lost. Dating: 1088/89 CE, or shortly after, based on Goitein's interpretation of the year "48" as 4848 AM. The letter picks up with the father explaining his happy situation in Salonica and why he cannot possibly return to Egypt, as his son had asked him to do (r1–19). The writer lives in Salonica with his wife (not the addressee's mother) and a daughter with many suitors. He fears that they would be a burden on the family in Egypt. He is blind and weak—"I have nothing left but my tongue and my heart" (i.e., mind)—but he has not perished. On the contrary, he is in a thousand states of well-being and is highly regarded by all who fear God. He overhears the Shabbat services from his dwelling. None of the scholars of Salonica are able to match him in his knowledge of the law. He next sends regards to various family members and congratulates his son on the acquisition of noble in-laws (r20–27). He is worried about his family, because he heard that "in the year 48 the Nile had a low flood, and my heart trembled, and I have no rest, neither by day or by night. For God's sake, write me immediately regarding your well-being" and about each person's livelihood (r27–32). The son should send his response to ʿImrān b. Naḥum in Alexandria who will forward it to Salonica, to the upper synagogue, to the house of Shabbetay b. Moshe Matakla 'the head' (r33–36). He exhorts his son not to neglect the study of Torah or be distracted by his business affairs (r36–v1). He then recapitulates the reasons for his departure from Egypt 26 years earlier and what has happened in the interim (v1–v21). It seems his motives for traveling were both pious (wishing to bury his bones in Jerusalem) and financial. At first he sent all the money he earned back to his family, and had none with which to travel back himself. He traveled from place to place for 30 months. At that time he learned that a business partner of the family perished in a fire, from which point onward, "I never had anything but expenses." The 'Turks' then invaded the Byzantine east, so he fled to the west, ultimately reaching Salonica. His vision weakened, gradually, over the course of five years. In Salonica, he has refrained from granting his daughter to any of her many suitors until he received word from his son and his brother-in-law Abū l-Ḥ̋asan. The writer then returns to the subject of why he cannot possibly travel back to Egypt (v21–v34). Even as his son's letter was read to him, he had no strength to go out his door or leave his house without being supported. He can hardly see or hear. If his son saw him, he would "flee the distance of a month's journey." This is apart from the grave danger of the travel itself and his anxiety on account of his old age and his wife—even though she herself would love to travel. It is not in his nature to save money, and he repeats his fear that he would be a burden on the family. There is then a cryptic passage (v30–34) warning his son against listening to 'a generation that left us' and which had various faults that cannot be written in a letter. He concludes (v34–39) with another exhortation to study Torah diligently. When the son was 13 years old, he used to astound people with his intelligence. Information in part from Goitein and from Joshua Holo, Byzantine Jewry in the Mediterranean Economy, p. 53, 56. ASE.

Genealogical list. Details about the family of Salīm al-Ghazūlī the Levi. Perhaps for the purpose of dividing an inheritance. The wife of Salīm's son Yūsuf is the daughter of Ṭāhir the Deaf, the beadle of Dammūh. Information in part from Goitein's note card.

Distribution list for public charity. In Judaeo-Arabic, transitioning to Arabic script on verso. Dating: Perhaps ca. 13th century, but that is a guess. There are markings next to many of the names, perhaps indicating whether or what they received. There are numerous diminutive forms and some interesting profession names. The beneficiaries include: Abū Yaʿqūb; Barhūn; Abū Zikrī; גזוק; Mūsā; Abū Sahl; Ibn al-ʿAjamī; Surayr; Ṣudayqa; Buraykāt and his mother; מגא; אשוימי; the ear cleaner (munaqqī al-adhān); Ibn Sulaymān; the sons of the killed man; the Kohen; al-maʿārīf; Fuḍayl; Mawhūb; al-jār and his mother; the disabled man (al-muqʿad); the teachers; the blind; Isḥāq; Sulaymān; the Lādhiqī; the Baʿalbakkī; Maḥfūẓ; al-Ramādī; the brother of the disabled man; Khallūf b. al-Dabbāgh; the Baghdadi; the philosopher. The total sum distributed may be given in Arabic script at the bottom left of verso.

Letter of appeal for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The topoi include weakness of vision and hearing and "all day long I sit in the corner of the house waiting for someone to open the door."

Public appeal of a blind woman to the congregation of Fustat to pay the fee of 4 dinars charged by a Muslim physician for the treatment of either herself or her sick daughter, who suffered from dropsy (istisqā'). Her other children (or child) had been given as security for this sum. Probably written by Hillel b. Eli (dated documents 1066–1107). Information from Goitein's note card. See also Med Soc, II, Appendix C, #96 (p. 501), and Med Soc I, p. 259 on children as collateral. ASE.

Letter from a woman named Harja (הרגה), somewhere in Syria, to her mother, the wife of Mūsā Ibn Fayrūz, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter is a remarkable account of Harja's months-long illness. "My heart flared up until I nearly died. I received an enema three times a day, but it did not relieve me. I remained anxious about how I would pass the fast. When the fast came, I let loose (my bowels) like one who has been loosened (in his bowels). I thought it was colic and considered that it was due to a discharge from my brain that settled in my stomach and felt like the colic. I did not sleep during the night of the fast, but I managed to last until midday, and from midday onward, it began to subside. I remained three or four days after the fast as it subsided(?) from me (or: gave me strength?). And when it subsided from me, I remained troubled on account of my eyes, for I could not see the light of the world with them. After that, the pain in my heart returned, and whenever it flared up the basin was not taken away from under my mouth, for whatever went down into my stomach came back up, and my stomach churned from all the vomit. But for now, it has abated, thanks to God for all things. I never imagined I would be carried to Syria sick and blind. I had taken the sickness into account, but not the blindness. I am afraid to have my eye treated, due to the season (i.e., season of illnesses) in Syria, and I am afraid that something else might come over me. I await a sign from God to illuminate my eyes. When you tell me that I am behaving recklessly as is my wont, I have never been more patient in all my life than I have been in these days. Someone who has not seen the light of the world for four months should not feel defeated? Whenever I awake and see the black obscurity of the morning and do not perceive the evening, my only remaining desire is to end my life. When they took me out into the sun, I didn't even see gloom, I saw only blackness." The margin and verso contain mostly greetings. See tag for more of her letters. ASE.