Geniza Lab

Letter from Saʿīd b. Marḥab, in Aden, to Shelomo b. Yehuda ha-Kohen, probably in Fustat. Dating: Mid-12th century. In Hebrew (for the long, eloquent introduction) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body). Discusses various mercantile, legal, and communal matters. Awaits examination. (Information in part from India Book VI, 51.)

Letter from a novice India trader, ʿAydhāb, to his brother, Libya. Dating: 1103. Complains about the hardships of travel from Fustat to ʿAydhāb. He had run into Makhlūf b. Moshe, known as ʿAyn Sarra (Goitein's rendering of the name, "the son of the man with the gladdening eye(s)," missed the interlinear addition; Elbaum and Rustow render it "Happy Eyes"), who told him about how pleasant life was in India, and at least as the writer represents the situation to his brother-in-law — guiltily, as he had left home without saying goodbye — he somewhat spontaneously decided to travel to India. It would be significant if the barriers to entering the Indian Ocean trade were as low as they seem here. Yet he also complains — with puns — about various locations in the Red Sea (ʿAydhāb/ʿadhāb, Dahlak/muhlik, etc), again presumably in order to reassure his brother-in-law that he wasn't actually enjoying himself. On Happy Eyes, Goitein writes that this man had settled in Alexandria, Egypt, where he possessed a valuable house. He also possessed a house in Barqa, eastern Libya. Cf. T-S NS J241. (Goitein, Med. Soc., x, B, 2, 136) On verso, line 1, there is a phrase from Isaiah (25:1), "emuna omen," “steadfast faith,” which seems to be the equivalent of "burn after reading". It appears on 13 other geniza letters, usually at the end of the address, but it's only in this letter that its meaning becomes totally clear: it seems to have served as a code-word indicating a confidential letter, absolutely not to be shared with others. Its other appearances: Bodl. MS Heb. a 2/16, Bodl. MS Heb. b 11/22, Bodl. MS Heb. c 28/56, CUL Or.1080 J38, T-S 10J10.15, T-S 10J16.7, T-S 10J17.9, T-S 10J25.3, T-S 13J27.11, T-S 8J13.13, T-S 8J17.3, T-S 8J20.14 and T-S 8J23.12.

Letter from [...] b. Avraham ha-Kohen to Abū l-ʿAlā' Ṣāʿid b. al-Munajjā al-Ne'eman. In Judaeo-Arabic (recto) and Arabic script (verso; the text block containing 8 lines of Arabic script appears to be a postscript to the previously Judaeo-Arabic letter). Contains a great deal of information about business arrangements. People mention include Abū Muḥam[mad] al-Ḥalabī, Abū l-Māḍī Khalīfa known as אלכאורגֿי al-Ḥalabī the Muslim, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al-Raqqī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān, and Bū l-Ḥasan Zikrī. Concludes with greetings, "written on the 6th of Kislev," and then a postscript about how "the testimony that is between me and her (or: you?) is deposited with Salāma b. Saʿīd." In the Arabic-script postscript on verso, he reports that the wife of Abū Saʿd al-Muqaddasī has begun to recover (qad tawajjahat) [from her illness]. He then mentions Abū l-Najm Hilāl and having sent a gourd/vessel (fuqqāʿa) of oil with somebody to Abū Ṭāhir. There may be Goitein attachments for this document that have yet to be uploaded.

Letter from a Jewish trader in India to his partner in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. Among many other matters, he mentions donations to pilgrimage sites in Iraq: "for our lord Ezekiel, our Lord Ezra, and Rabbi Meir." See Goitein's attached notes for further information.

Letter from Moshe b. Yefet to Tamīm b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen (apparently a merchant trading in the East). Dated: Monday, 8 Adar I 1421 Seleucid, which is 1110 CE. The hand is probably that of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, who also sends his regards. The letter opens with a strong rebuke for failing to write and goes on to mention the arrival of merchandise/gifts, and greetings to and from various people.

Letter from [...] b. Yaʿqūb to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Mentions commodities such as: silk (ḥarīr, khazz); coral; oil; soap; dustarī garments;. Mentions people such as: Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā al-Fāsī; Ibn Rajā; Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa al-Kohen; and Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef b. Efrayim who is to bring something to the sender in Yemen. (Information from Goitein's attached transcription.)

Letter from a woman named Najma, in Fustat/Cairo (l. 4), to her father Moshe Perdonel. Dating: ca. 16th century. There is a detailed summary in Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 222 note 17. See also Esther-Miriam Wagner, “Goitein and girlish prose: T-S 13J 24.22," Fragment of the Month, Cambridge University Library, March 2012, for revisions/refutations of many of Goitein's beliefs about this letter.

Letter from a certain Yosef, in Alexandria, to his brother, an India trader. Mentions people including Avraham al-Miṣrī, Abū l-Maʿānī, Abū l-Surūr, Ibn Khalaf and Ibn al-Ḍarūra. The writer conveys a great deal of concern for the addressee and writes, "if I were not worried about falling ill or wounding the heart of the old man, I would have sworn to fast in the daytime until I saw your face again." ASE.

Legal document. Record of release; partnership renewal. Written in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. These two fragments are part of single document, which contained a partnership release (T-S 16.23) and renewal (lines 23-39 of T-S 16.23; and T-S 10J5.2). Amat al-Qādir, widow of Shela, and her son Yefet (likely a minor), release ʿArūs b. Yosef from a partnership he had with Shela. Shela’s investment of three hundred dinars is to remain on account with ʿArūs. Amat al-Qādir seems to be acting as trustee for her son, but also seems to have a financial interest in the partnership; since she would not have ordinarily inherited from her husband, her equity in the partnership may represent payment of her ketubba. The widow and son are to receive two thirds of the profits from the investment, and ʿArūs is to receive the balance "as a claim for his service". Following the commenda model, ʿArūs assumes no responsibility for loss. Yefet is to travel between Fusṭāṭ and Yemen with the funds and has discretion in choosing the commodities he trades; he promises that he will work "with caution ... as if [he] were working with [his] own assets." (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 122)

Letter from Moshe b. Labrāṭ, in al-Mahdiyya, to the Head of the Jews of Egypt (Moshe b. Mevorakh) asking him to assist the son of Yaʿaqov II b. Nissim I, who was murdered on his way from Dahlak to Yemen. The son is trying to retrieve his father’s belongings, as well as the goods carried by him for Muslims and Jews. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Commercial letter sent from Isaac and Joseph (probably in Babylonia) to Judah ha-Sar, mentioning a voyage to India and commodities including gold and silver slag (iqlīmiyā' tibriyya and fiḍḍiyya respectively). Information in part from CUDL. See also Goitein's notes below.

Letter from Daʿūd Fasī to the cloth merchant Abū l-Afraḥ ʿArus b. Joseph. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes below.

Letter containing the testimony of Makhlūf, a respectable merchant, who had to flee from Alexandria before an oppressive government official, 'the plundering monk,' Abu Najah, and to hide in the western desert for years. He had arrived in Alexandria in the spring following Abu Najah's death, traveled to Ifrīqiya in the summer of the year 1130, and wrote the letter the following summer, that is, 1131. The writer was appointed as an overseer of the Sultan's ships. It is also an extraordinary document of estrangement between father and son. The son loved music, Italian wine and bad company, and, of course, was always in debt. All attempts of the father to correct him: presenting him to the qadi of Alexandria, taking him on a trip to Ifrīqiya, sending him to the countryside on administrative work, suggesting to him travels to Yemen and to Syria were of no avail. The young man of twenty-two was not a mere good-for-nothing. He was allergic to his father: 'as long as you are alive, I have bad luck. As soon as you are dead, I shall be successful.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46, 119, 268, 277, 280, 316, 320, 482; II, 588, 359; III, 246, 243, 249.) There is also the beginning of a draft of a letter in Arabic script on verso.

Letter to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen Sijilmāsī (d. ca. 1149). In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions goods such as garments and soap. Contains a request to help with a shipment that it was in the hands of Nissim b. Yaʿaqov. Also mentions Mukhtār and Abū l-Barakāt. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā. Dealing with the India trade. Dating: Mid-12th century. Mentions names such as Zikrī b. Sar Shalom; Maḥrūz; Ben Yiju; Ibn al-Nafūsī; Yiṣḥaq; the Jews who were living in India; the son of Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter from an Alexandrian trader who is on a journey, possibly in the Persian Gulf, to a family member. The writer wants to visit Baghdad and Ezekiel’s tomb before returning home, and mentions people including Manṣūr and Sālim. The letter continues onto verso, where there is also an astrological table in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's attached notes.

Letter from ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, in 'Aydhab, to his sons, before embarking again for the east. He reports that he had dismissed his traveling companion and chosen a different one, and that no one, not even in the Kārim flotilla, had arrived in 'Aydhab. He expresses regret at having undertaken the voyage at all, and advises his sons not to be on the road constantly as he is; he advises them that a family partnership would enable them to share the effort of travel. Goitein identified ʿAllān as the author of the letter based on his handwriting. (Information from Goitein, "Portrait of a Medieval India Trader: Three Letters from the Cairo Geniza," BSOAS 50 (1987): 449–64, published posthumously; see also the attached notes, used as a basis for the article and stored in Goitein's files.)

Letter from Alexandria sent around 1120 C.E. from a Maghribi merchant, Makhlūf b. Musa al-Nafusi (Ibn) al-Yatim, who proclaims that a friend carried for him a purse with 101 “fresh” (‘tari’) dinars weighing 100 and one/fourth. He asks the addressee to “sell” them, meaning to convert the Sicilian currency he was dispatching into local Egyptian money. Makhlūf devotes eleven lines of the short letter to an apology for not buying his friend a Sicilian turban that was ordered. Confirming the reason by two oaths with God’s great name, the writer acknowledges the omission was due to his own forgetfulness. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:237, 459; 5:248, 575 ) EMS

Judge Elijah orders a white "burda", some handwriting exercises at the bottom

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā to Abū ʿAlī Yeḥezqel b. Netanel Dimyāṭī. Accusing him and Abū Naṣr b. Elishaʿ of conspiring to cheat him out of money. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's index card.