Geniza Lab

Letter from the Jewish community of Qafṣa (Gafsa), Tunisia, to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1016 CE, as it mentions Manṣūr b. Rashīq's conquest of (or arrival in?) the town, and this Manṣūr was the governor (ʿāmil) of Qayrawān in the year 1016 when al-Muʿizz b. Bādīs came to power. Gil identified the addressee as Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Ibn ʿAwkal, but Goitein disagreed (per his index card). The addressee is asked for a favor or intervention of some kind; Gil assumed that it had to do with the capitation tax, but it is not clear that this is actually mentioned in the letter. The letter is very damaged, but it may be possible to extract more information from it with great effort. (Information in part from CUDL and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 603.) ASE

Informal note addressed to Mukarram and Abū Manṣūr. In Judaeo-Arabic. They are requested to convey the dinar they had pledged for the first installment of the capitation tax to al-Shaykh al-Makīn Abū l-ʿIzz al-Levi. It will be used to pay the capitation tax of a cantor. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 511)

Enigmatic fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic describing what happened to the writer in front of the addressee's house; how people were appealing for help on account of the capitation tax; how the writer has lost 25 dirhams; and how there is 'ḥamas' in the country. Also, Abū l-Ḥasan has asked the writer for clay and/or bricks. Verso contains several crossed-out lines and the address in Arabic: to Fustat, to Manṣūr b. al-Ḥazzān (?) al-[. . .] from his brother Abū Saʿd.

Recto: Letter fragment, probably addressed to Moshe Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting on the arrival of Abū l-Mufaḍḍal and mentioning a letter to Abū l-Fakhr al-Ṣayrafī b. Saʿīd. Possibly mentioning the capitation tax (jizya) of someone's father. Verso: Letter from Moshe Maimonides. Autograph. Giving instructions to a certain judge to go to the dyehouse (maṭbakh, maṣbagh) where Abū Isḥāq works and confirm the value of its rent. Information in part from Friedman, Dictionary, p. 723.

Letter from a European Jew whose ship sank en route on his way to fulfill a vow to visit Jerusalem, and lost all his belongings by jettisoning. The writer’s appeal to the congregation, written in Hebrew on a piece of vellum, describes his multi-faceted journeys: first to Alexandria, where the Muslims tried to collect the capitation tax from him, and secondly, to (likely) Fustat after being rescued by a Jew and where he was currently hiding out after being harassed by the tax collector and fearing imprisonment. (Mark Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, 120; and S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1:323, 483) EMS

Letter from Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq, evidently of al-Maḥalla, to Abu Saʿd Hibatallāh (aka Netanʾel b. Yefet Rosh ha-Qahal), in Cairo. The beginning is in Hebrew ("twelve lines of exquisite Hebrew proem"), and the body of the letter is in Arabic script, except for two phrases. (On verso there are also a few lines of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.) This is a letter of recommendation for the bearer, one Yakhin ha-Meshorer ("the poet") who had settled in al-Maḥalla but fled from there and abandoned his family,when the superintendent of revenue (ṣāḥib al-Maḥalla) "harassed him" by demanding from him the capitation tax (al-kharāj). The letter presupposes that Yakhin was entitled to tax exemption because he was a Khaybari, a Jew descended from an Arabian clan that asserted it had received special privileges in the time of Muḥammad. The addressee is asked to help Yakhin sort out his documentation. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 386, 611, MR, OZ, NV, ASE.)

Recto: Letter from Futūḥ the cantor to Shemuel and Hayyim and Nasir and their cousins Sadaqa and Yiṣḥaq, congratulating them on their safe return and requesting their help in the form of a gift that would solve the writer's problem of being imprisoned after being unable to pay the capitation tax. The letter starts with a biblical quotation (l. 1, Ps. 33:1). The letter is in Hebrew, beautifully written and styled. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 352, 490; III, p. 436, and Goitein's index cards) Verso: Arabic document and jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Letter (petition) asking for help to free the writer’s brother who apparently had been incarcerated for failing to pay the capitation tax (here, called kharāj). Dating: 11th century. The spelling is phonetic and possibly somewhat archaic: the definite article lacks lām before sun-letters, and many of the short vowels are written plene. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Walad al-Nezer (i.e. Mevorakh b. Nathan b. Shemuel) to the notable Netanel b. Avraham, a physician living in the Rif (and muqaddam of al-Mahallah, see 10J20.21), recommending ha-Hazzan Abu l-Bayan Moshe b. ha-Hazzan al-Ahuv who traveled to the Rif in order to collect money for his capitation tax. The young man is recommended as one growing up among the hazzanim in the time of Sar Shalom - may his name live forever - and in our own time. Information from Goitein's note card and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:389-90, 612. EMS. ASE.

Letter of recommendation from Yehuda to Avraham ha-Zaqen about a righteous silk weaver named Tahor al-Talmid from the pupils of Avraham Maimonides (min jumlat aṣḥāb sayyidinā), who has "left the world from his heart" and sought the service of the Creator. The letter discusses Tahor's altruistic intention to marry an orphan girl.

Letter from the wife of Shemuel, a poor woman from al-Maḥalla, addressed to the Gaon Maṣliaḥ. She asks for assistance for herself and for her blind son, particularly for paying the capitation tax. She had already been in Fustat one month without relying on anyone for charity. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Recto: Letter from an unknown busybody in Minyat Zifta to the Nagid Avraham (II?) in Fustat/Cairo. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The purpose of the letter is to relate various improprieties ("matters proceeding not as they should," r13–14) of a muqaddam (perhaps of Minyat Ghamr?), al-Shaykh al-Sadīd. The first episode (r17–32): The local schoolteacher had to go to Cairo to pay his capitation tax (jizya) because he was originally from the Levant. When the teacher was delayed in returning, the community began talking about hiring a new teacher. Al-Sadīd caught wind of this and vetoed the proposal, fearing that a new teacher would be a nuisance (tashwīsh) to him, and he insisted that he teach the children himself. They responded that he was far too busy with his medical practice and serving as muqaddam, not to mention his business dealings. He persisted, and they said, "But you don't even live here!" He said that he would come live there until the original teacher came back. The teacher came back, and al-Sadīd was so enthusiastic about the additional income that he refused to let the children return to the original teacher, and he had made their parents vow to that effect. The community felt pity on the original teacher because of his poverty. The second episode (r32–45): During the same period of al-Sadīd teaching the children, someone fell sick in Minyat Zifta. A group of people, including another physician named al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, came to visit the patient and found al-Sadīd attending him. Al-Sadīd rudely ignored al-Muhadhdhab. After everyone had sat around the patient, al-Muhadhdhab said, "Are you angry at me? I have been courteous to you, just like the community. I don't know what you want from me. I left you the synagogue and didn't attend today." Al-Sadīd (saracastically): "Thank God you found people to support you (against me?)." The writer of the letter editorializes: There were many people present who also don't attend the synagogue, but not because they were supporting al-Muhadhdhab, rather because they heard about how al-Sadīd had disparaged them. Back to the story: Al-Sadīd sighed and said: "How I hold back from complaining about my travails!" The writer: He didn't hold back at all. The third episode (r45–end): A certain judge (qāḍī al-ḥukm) was seriously ill (marīḍ bi-maraḍ shadīd), and al-Muhadhdhab was attending him "[against] his will and not for his good." This is unclear: was al-Muhadhdhab treating the judge incompetently, or was al-Muhadhdhab the one somehow coerced into this job? Meanwhile, al-Sadīd had been angling to get a connection to this judge. The judge had a slave with jaundice (khadīm bihi yaraqān). This too is unclear: is the slave acutely ill, or is this simply a description of his chronic state? Al-Sadīd came and spoke to the slave, and then came back with something to give to the slave—and the story ends here, unless the join is found. This document is possibly related to Bodl. MS heb. a 3/15, a letter from Avraham (I) Maimonides ordering a territorial muqaddam in Minyat Zifta/Minyat Ghamr to share his duties with his cousin al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 189, 560.) Verso: Mysterious page of notes in Judaeo-Arabic in at least two different hands. The items on this page include two recipes for staining (or dying? or removing stains? the word is tulaṭṭakh/laṭkh); Judaeo-Arabic poetry; a riddle or two; and an extended grammatical discussion of case endings after 'kāna and her sisters' and related topics. 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 mentioning dirhams, the capitation tax, and names such as Benjamin, Jacob and Yaḥyā. The writer asks addressee to give his deference to every single one of the Kohen brothers. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentioning the [Head of?] the Yeshiva, the countryside, and the capitation tax (al-jāliya). (Information from CUDL)

Petition to the Ayyubid sultan al-ʿĀdil regarding the capitation tax. Dating: ca. 596–615 AH, which is 1200–18 CE. The petitioner asks that his tax rate be modified from the middle rate (2 dinars), which he cannot afford to pay, to the lower rate. On verso there are some Hebrew poetical texts (possibly piyyuṭ) mentioning Iṣḥaq Khanāf (?). (Information from Khan and CUDL)

List of about ninety persons receiving subsidies for their capitation tax obligation, similar to T-S K15.14 + T-S K15.66, Apps. 4-5. Many names and sums are identical. As in official documents from the Fatimid chancelleries, a blank space, three times as wide as the height of the script, is left between the lines. Thus, no doubt, the list was destined for public display. Col. I, l.2 'from the collection, pesiqa' is added because of a special circumstance. It was found that the person concerned was unable to pay even the very reduced rate of 1/4 dinar imposed on him. Verso col. II, l. 11: Yahya al-Majjani, 9 qirats. probably the well known merchant, in dire straits that year and in need of assistance with his capitation tax. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 440, App. B 6, dated 1040-1060)

List: “Register (thabat) of the names of the elders who...” written upside down on the reverse side of a list of payers of incomplete capitation taxes (see T-S K15.94). The superscription is nearly entirely effaced but the word ‘jarida’ (also register), mostly used on lists of the poor, is clearly visible in the second line. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 2:476) EMS

List, long, irregularly written, mostly effaced, of males. In many cases sums like 1/3, 1/4 (dinars) 5 qirats added; in other instances, a well-to-do person such as the prominent banker Abu al-'Ala b. Sha'ya stands security (II, approx. l. 27). In several places the words 'may God have mercy upon him' are added, meaning the capitation tax had to be paid for persons who had died in debt to the state. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 455, App. B 59; verso = App. C 14)

Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to expedite the payment of 81 dirhams to the Muslim Judge Shams al-Din. This is the remaining balance due for the capitation tax of the poor for the Muslim year 614 (ended March 29, 1218) for Shams al-Din. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)