Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to Abū l-Ṭāhir al-ʿAṭṭār (the druggist). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century. Concerning the India trade. Giving details about 15 or so spices and their prices in Fustat. The writer first assures the addressee that his children are well and that many people are traveling from Fustat. He orders a couple mystery items: רבע פילס נרזד and גוז אצטראמי טואל. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. "1200 royal dinars. . . I was distressed by (the state of) those poor children. . . "

Legal deed. On parchment. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In which Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Tinnīsī (aka Yefet b. Shemarya) appoints Makārim b. Shelomo b. Yeshuʿa ha-Ḥaver known as Ibn al-Sulamī as his agent to claim what the late Ṣāfī b. Yakhin (see T-S NS 224.40 + T-S NS 184.67) had willed him and which was deposited with [...]. The name of this person was vigorously erased, and the lower part of the document was crossed out with diagonal strokes. (Information in part from Goitein's notes.)

Inventory of what was found in the house of a certain Yiṣḥaq. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. Written on textile (cotton?). Scribed by Avraham b. Ismāʿīl al-Maghribī. Also signed by Mevorakh b. Yehuda. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Involving Abū l-Baqā' and the late Abū l-Riḍā, who had business dealings in Yemen. Needs further examination.

Legal document. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1120-1150 CE, based on the mention of Yakhin b. Netan'el Rosh ha-Qehillot. This range may be narrowed to 1120–38 if Ḥalfon b. Menashshe is the scribe. The document is a release for a certain India merchant [...] b. Rajā ha-Zaqen from any potential claim against him from the orphans of his deceased traveling companion, and from having to give any further testimony or make any vow. The document explains that the merchant acted with great valor hiding his companion's merchandise from the rulers of Dahlak who would have confiscated it—and would have killed the merchant himself if they had found out what he had done. This merchant also made haste to go to the court and declare all the goods belonging to his companion (and therefore his orphans) as soon as he returned to Fustat (l. 10), and even mentioned "several things that were not in the account ledger (daftar al-ḥisāb)." Information in part from Goitein's attached discussion, transcription, and translation. ASE.

Legal document. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Dating: Shortly after 511 AH, which is 1117/18 CE. (This is in line 3.) Mentions three burniyyas of civet perfume (written as zabad and zabada; cf. India Book III, doc. 29, ll. 8,10 and III, doc. 2, verso, l. 2). People include: Mūsā al-Nafūsī, al-Faqīh al-Siqillī, and Abū Saʿīd Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq (Rosh ha-Qehillot). Sums of money listed are in the tens of dinars.

Letter, written by a trader before leaving Aden for Nahrawāra, mentioning Abū l-Waḥš, Abū Saʿd, Abū Naṣr, Abū Jacob and the family of Bayt al-Baḥr (house of the sea). On verso there is the address in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Payment for customs in the Red Sea ports of ʿAydhāb, Bāḍiʿ, and Sawākin. Commodities include: lac; boxthorn; myrobalan; galangal; pepper; gum; cardamom; spices (ṣaqaṭ/صقط); aloeswood; and cotton. There is a transcription in Goitein's attached notes, which should be digitized.

Legal document detailing how Ṣāfī, the slave (ghulām) and agent of the Jewish Academy in Fustat, insulted a notable in ʿAydhāb, Ibn Jamāhīr, in the presence of Jewish merchants. Ṣāfī accused the man of having a child with a female slave and then disposing of her, in Berbera, on the African coast. Ibn Jamāhīr filed a complaint of slander against the ghulām, although the governor tried to convince him otherwise because of Ṣāfī's special status. Ṣāfī was ordered to be flogged and jailed, although after intervention by a Jewish merchant from the Maghreb, he was set free, although “not without loss of money.” Goitein dates the document to 1141 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:133, 432) EMS

Recto: Legal document. On parchment. In the handwriting of Mevorakh b. Natan. In which Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet the head Parnas leaves to his wife Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya, their two daughters, and their female slave 25 dinars and 5 irdabbs of wheat for the duration of his absence in Yemen, in addition to the rent of a new house in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ in Fustat (which he has already sold to her, as certified in a separate document in her possession). Verso: Draft of a legal document. In which Sitt al-Fakhr bt. Ṭoviyya testifies that she has received from her husband Bū Saʿd Moshe b. Yefet all that was due to her from her ketubba (dated Av 1468 Seleucid = 1157 CE), including all but 5 dinars from the delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar) of 60 dinars and her dowry worth 400 dinars (except for the female slave who "was lost"—ran away?—from the house even before Moshe b. Yefet traveled). Moshe b. Yefet is also known from other documents; he signed PER H 161 in Yemen in 1156 CE. And T-S 8J5.23 (dated 1169 CE) is a conditional bill of divorce which he granted to Sitt al-Fakhr before departing for Yemen (perhaps T-S 8J5.23 and T-S 12.585r were drawn up at the same time, and T-S 12.585v is evidence that the conditional divorce was fulfilled?). There is additional text in the upper margin and beneath the main text block at 90 degrees. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and Ashur and Outhwaite, "Between Egypt and Yemen in the Cairo Genizah" (2014).)

Note on a deposition in court about a sending of oriental goods carried by two merchants killed in the East African port ʿAydhāb. Location: Fustat. Dating: ca. 1104 CE. Hastily written by Rabbi Avraham b. Shemaʿya. See Goitein's attached notes for a translation with extensive commentary. The goods include "a piece of Chinese jasper, a mann of Chinese (petrified) craw-fish, and 3 aprons of asbestos, which are not burnt by fire."

Will of a merchant. Specifying that his assets be cashed for his infant daughter (who should marry before the completion of the year 500 AH = 1107/08 CE). Containing various references to the India trade. Mentioning many people including Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al-Qudsī, Abū ʿImrān b. Avraham al-Kohen, Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Barakāt al-Ḥalabī, Yaḥyā ‘the son of the dyer’ and Abū l-Barakāt b. Shuʿayb.

Awaiting description

Awaiting description

Long letter from Yaʿaqov b. Salīm, in al-Juwwa (near Aden, Yemen), to the judge and parnas Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo, in Fustat. Quoting Deuteronomy 32:43 and Isaiah 33:24. Dated: Tishrei 1445 of the Seleucid Era (= 1133 CE). Natan had previously written asking the Aden community for money on behalf of the Palestinian Gaonate but Yaʿaqov reports that because of disagreements with the community in Yemen he is not on good terms with them and has moved away. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Letter from a man, in Fustat, to his brother, probably in ʿAydhāb. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender urges him to return quickly; their mother fasts out of worry for him. Gives prices for pepper, lac, indigo, קסט מכעב, clove, red sandalwood, salsola (qāqullā).

Letter from a certain Maḥāsin, in ʿAydhāb, to his "brother" the cantor Abū Isḥāq b. al-Mumḥe, in Fustat. Sent to the shop of Abū l-Munajjā the druggist to be forwarded to the addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. Begins: "What happened to me would take too long to explain. You will hear it from Abū ʿAlī b. Faḍāʾīl al-Ṣāʾigh (the goldsmith). . . . I am still sitting here in ʿAydhāb, sad and weeping over. . . ." (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's attached notes.)

Letter with a legal purpose. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. From an unidentified sender to a certain parnas, trustee of the court. The sender urgently asks the addressee to send for the merchants Yaʿaqov known as Ibn al-Suṭūḥ from Tripoli (Libya) and his traveling companion Yaʿaqov b. Zikrī al-Nafūsī who are soon to depart for Yemen. One of them has a bill of divorce with him that must be delivered before he travels. (Information from Goitein's notes and Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Awaiting description