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Letter from Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov, in Fustat, to his in-law Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Alexandria. Dating: Sunday, 15 Jumāda = 16 Adar, which is probably 3 March 1135 CE. The letter is an urgent warning advising Abū Zikrī to take all his merchandise out of a warehouse in Alexandria. "A business partner of Abu Zikrī's in Fustat was dying, and because of the lawlessness prevailing at that time in Egypt, Abu Zikrī's goods would be confiscated together with those of the dead man (before 1129, it seems). {The dying man, Abū Saʿīd, was related to Abu Zikrī's partner the well-known Alexandrian India trader Abu Naṣr b. Elishaʿ. Evidently, Abu Saʿīd did not have any heirs of the first degree, and the officials of the diwan al-mawārīth (line 5: aṣḥāb mawarif!), the Office of Estates, which took advantage ofsuch situations, were about to confiscate all ofhis belongings held by Abu Naṣr. Not taking any chances, the officials would sequester Abu Naṣr's assets and, moreover, those of Abū Zikrī, since the partners' holdings were stored together. The Head of the Yeshiva, certainly Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, who in fact was apparently Abū Zikrī's cousin, personally conveyed the warning to Maḥrūz and instructed him to send immediately an urgent message to his brother-in-law Abū Zikrī. For this purpose, Maḥrūz hired a private courier (najjāb) to Alexandria by camel. In his letter, Maḥrūz tells Abū Zikrī to disregard costs and extricate his wares without delay. The warning is repeated in a postscript written after Musallam (see the previous document) informed the writer that the courier would not set out that night. The Head of the Yeshiva's warning is not related to Abu Zikri's urgent request to him in II, 58, since that letter was written several years after II, 59. No. II, 59 is dated Sunday, 15 Jumada. Since Maḥrūz urges Abu Zikri to return to Fustat to be with his family before the approaching holiday, the date can be fixed with a fair degree of certainty as March 2, 1135, when 15 Jumada I came four weeks before Passover. (I do not know why Goitein assumed the letter had been written before 1129.) As already noted, Maḥrūz was not accustomed to writing, and others penned for him most of his letters, which have been preserved, except for this one and V, 20. Because ofthe urgency ofthis letter, he evidently wrote it himself. His untrained hand, poor style and substandard language, replete with vulgar forms and other orthographic irregularities, prove the wisdom of his normal practice.}" Also of note: Maṣliaḥ Gaon is sick with "the stone" (al-ḥaṣā), i.e., a urinary stone (r17). On verso there are six lines of love poetry in Arabic script. Description based on India Book; see attached. ASE.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq about turmoil in Yemen and measures taken by Abu Zikri Kohen for ensuring Khalaf’s rights after the death of Abu Imran Nufay. Abu al-Yumn is also mentioned, and Khalaf further notes that the recipient of the letter, who was involved in the affair, had traveled from Egypt; Aden, fall 1138. (S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India Book, 462) EMS

Letter from Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: freight jettisoned. Aden, ca. 1137–39 or 1145–49.

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yosef to Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97 CE. "The addressee Moses, mostly referred to as Mūsā, was active in communal affairs and was honored, because of his generosity, with the title Segullat (ha-'Yeshiva), 'Treasure' (of the Academy).l He was a native of Tunisia, who had settled in Alexandria and was temporarily in Fustat. Lines 1-32, and margin. Expressions of friendship, complaints about the bad times, personal misfortune, and an eye disease, which made it impossible for Amram to come to Fustat in person.2 Verso, lines 1-7. Letters from Yosef b. Abū Kathīr Ibn Yahboy,3 sent, it seems, from 'Aydhab,4 contained, according to hearsay, news about Abū l-Faraj Nissim and the camphor. The addressee is advised to question the Jewish merchants arriving from there. Lines 7-20. In his dire circumstances ʿAmram had given some of his books to the schoolteacher Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī (also a Maghrebi) to sell, but this man had moved to Fustat and nothing was heard from him. Mūsā is asked to remind him of his duties as a pious person and gentleman.5 {See the introduction to II, 3, for the dating.}" Description from India Book, English edition

Three poems by Avraham Ibn Yiju in honor of Madmun b. Ḥasan, Aden, ca. 1140, who was expecting his third son.

India Book, II, 21a (T-S NS J241). See PGPID 5479.

Memorandum from Yosef b. Avraham to Ishaq Nafusi. Aden, 1130s.

Magical text copied by Ibn Yiju, probably in Yemen around 1135. The text begins with a magical square (cf. sudoku) of which every line, row and diagonal adds up to 15. Such squares were used as amulets to ease a difficult birth. The square is followed with a protective charm against the evil eye, followed by a protective charm against fever. The largest section is a spell meant to cause one's enemy to be chased away from the town. It is followed by two fragmentary lines mentioning 'hatred.' Line 23 contains obscure magical symbols.

Letter of apology for a complaint that Madmun had mismanaged a trust. Aden, ca. 1135.

Letter from Khiyār b. Yaʿaqov to Netanel b. Yefet (aka Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Hibat Allāh b. Ḥusayn). In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter concerns a consignment of mercury (zaybaq), which he was unable to sell in Alexandria, since the price was not yet fixed, while in the bourse of Qāḍī Rajā' (in Fustat) it went for 14 dinars per qintar. No merchandise and no letter in the ship from the Maghrib. In the postscript, mentions traders returning from India and alludes to the concern about the disappearance of Abū l-Faraj Nissim. (Information from Goitein's index card and from India Book)

India Book II, 22a (T-S NS J240). See PGPID 5479.

Letter on the forced conversion of Yemenite Jews, but business as usual. Aden, August 1199.

Dirge by Avraham Ibn Yiju on Madmun b. Ḥasan's death. Yemen, 1151.

Letter from the court to the community of Dhū Jibla in defense of Maḍmūn. Aden, ca. 1135.

Memorandum from Khalaf b. Isḥāq al-Yamanī. In Arabic script, with additional notes in Judaeo-Arabic. Ordering pharmaceuticals from Egypt. There is an entire short book devoted to this document (Albert Dietrich, Zum Drogenhandel im islamischen Ägypten, 1954). This document is summarized in Goitein and Friedman, India Book 2, ב50, but Goitein and Friedman did not edit it. NB: The images of this document may be accessed on FGP under the shelfmark p. Heid. Hebr. 12. However, it is more often cited as p. Heid. Arab. 912.

Letter from Saʿīd b. Marḥab on behalf of the court, in Aden, to the druggist Hillel b. Naḥman (aka Sayyid al-Kull), in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Adar I [1]467 Seleucid, which is January 25–February 23, 1156 CE. The letter gives a uniquely detailed report on a shipwreck, as the addressee's son-in-law Hiba b. Abū Saʿd was on board, and the addressee had requested verification of his death and details about the retrieval of his possessions. The sender devotes the entire letter to the former and adds only one brief sentence in the margin of verso, about the possessions, which were confiscated by the sultan. The ship belonged to the Nagid Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan. Most of the cargo on the ship belonged to him, though every Jewish trader in Aden had some cargo on it. There were only four Jews on board. It was called the Kūlamī ship as it set out for Kūlam aka Kollam aka Quilon on the Malabar Coast. The court of Aden here presents all of the available evidence for the shipwreck: eyewitness accounts, secondhand reports, and legal pronouncements. The main source of the information that the ship sank came from the Barībatanī ship which sailed together with it, i.e., the ship for Valapattanam aka Valarapattanam aka Balyapattanam, a port five miles from Cannanore aka Kannur, which is north of Kollam. During the rest of that year and the following year, travelers arrived in Aden coming from all over India, from East Africa ("the land of the Zanj"), from Somalia ("the inland region of Berbera"), from Abyssinia and its provinces, and from the south Arabian regions of Ashḥār and Qamar, and the accounts of all travelers were consistent with the Kūlamī ship having been wrecked. The court in Aden had ruled that the evidence was sufficient to free Sitt al-Ahl, the daughter of Hillel b. Naḥman, from being an ʿaguna, but they defer to the authorities in Egypt, as this was a lenient and tenuous ruling. The sender of this letter, Saʿīd b. Marḥab, is incidentally the earliest known Yemeni Jewish poet. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Traders; see analysis and translation there for further details.)

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Madmun to Ezekiel b. Natan acknowledging condolences on Madmun's death. Aden, 1152.

Letter. Memorandum from Abu Zikri Kohen to Mahruz. Alexandria, ca. 1136-1149.

Letter from Amram b. Yosef, probably from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1075. Regarding a shipment of palm leaves that arrived from outside of Egypt. In addition, mentions purchase of wheat and a disagreement about packaging cloth that belongs to the writer but another person named Muslim (probably his Jewish name is Meshulam) denies that is his. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #679) VMR

Letter from Yosef b. ʿIwāḍ to Hananel b. Shemuel. Alexandria, probably 1214-1215.