Geniza Lab

Legal document from Rashid dated 1693 CE (1 Kislev 5454). Needs examination.

Recto: late letter in Hebrew by Yehuda Leib Efendi to a respected person. Some geomancy markings at bottom left. Verso: Astrological diagram.

Late legal document(s) in Hebrew. Needs further examination.

Page 2 is a calligraphic letter in Hebrew to the elders of Alexandria, dated 1697/8 CE (5458), signed by three men, on behalf of a woman who, along with her infant son, had been abandoned by her husband Ya'aqov al-Luzio (? אללוזייו or possibly אללומיו) b. Avraham. Ya'aqov had moreover sent to tell her that if she attempted to follow him, he would steal away in the dead of night and she would be left to wander the land. The writers of this letter ask for the addressees' help to bring Ya'aqov before a court before he escapes from Egypt, and make him give her the get and pay her ketubbah in full (6000 mu'ayyadi) as well as the cost of food that he has been negligent in providing for his wife and his son all this time. Page 1 is a puzzling set of drafts of letters and perhaps legal documents in Hebrew, including one that opens in the same manner as the letter on Page 2, but others of which have nothing to do with it. Needs further examination. ASE

Late letter in Hebrew from [...] ben Naʿim to Yaʿaqov Molcho. A Yiṣḥaq ben Naʿim is mentioned in the letter. Needs further examination.

Late, formal, communal letter, likely from the community of Jerusalem, mentioning their shaliaḥ R. Ḥananya b. Barhūn (l.6), to a group of people including R. Moshe [the rest of his name is cut off]. The opening words of each line disappear into the crevice where this fragment is bound to the preceding one, so the original has to be examined. The writers strenuously contradict a claim of the recipients in a previous communication (l.7-8). The gist of the matter seems to be that the recipients used to send almonds and pomegranates to Jerusalem as charity for the sick and poor, in expectation of receiving certain blessings in return. Possibly they have ceased doing this, claiming that the blessings are not in order. The writers insist that they are not ungrateful, the blessings are in order, and they plead for the charity to resume. Signed by Yisrael Binyamin (perhaps Yisrael Binyamin Zeevi who died in 1688?) and three others whose signatures are stylized and somewhat difficult to read. Yiṣḥaq Ṣabāḥ adds a postscript reiterating the main points of the letter, also mentioning the merit of sending lulavim in this time. ASE.

Letter fragment in Hebrew. Late. There are drafts of letter openings in both Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic on verso.

Recto: Partnership agreement, probably late, between four individuals, including Masʿūd and Yehuda. Much of the space is devoted to how they will behave toward one another, e.g., they will never go more than three days without making peace even if one partner behaves badly. Verso: Pen trials. ASE.

Letter from Daniel ha-Levi, in Damascus, to someone important named Natan. Late. In Hebrew. The letter has to do with a man named Binyamin Fā'ina (? פאינה) who moved to Egypt some years ago. Rumors returned that he had converted to Christianity (or were Muslims also referred to as 'arelim?). His parents were very worried until he wrote to assure them that he was living in peace and tranquility. Daniel asks Natan to send this Binyamin back home to his parents so that they can be even more reassured. Binyamin's parents are related to the writer; the mother is the daughter of the late rabbi Yosef Kannawi (? כנאוי). BL OR 5561B.23 is the envelope/address. ASE.

Late letter that begins in Hebrew and transitions into Judaeo-Arabic from an unidentified merchant to Yosef Muḥibb. He writes that he traveled this year to Tripoli (Libya?) to look for a Jew who took 100 peraḥim from him and fled to Venice. He was not successful. He has purchased garments and sent them with Saadya Kohen and Yaʿaqov b. Hīnī (also mentioned in ENA NS 50.25) to try to sell. Recto is damaged, but deals almost entirely with business matters. He mentions R. Yosef Nahon (?) who died after a year of being bedridden and consuming half of his wealth. In his will, he left 200 peraḥim for the study of Torah and for the visiting of the ill and for the poor. The writer also mentions the addressee's brother Khubayr, his own nephew Yosef, and Shelomo Abulafia. The addressee's sister Maḥbūba sends her regards and urges him to take care of their other sister and find a husband for her. On verso he returns to business matters and requests a Cypriot commodity (קוברסי/קוברסיין) and orders tin (קזדיר) from a place called גמאע אלטיילון. He mentions Yaʿaqov Bū Saʿda and David al-Ashqar. ASE.

Letter from Yosef b. Ezra to Yiṣḥaq Ashkenazi (not necessarily Luria, as more than one Yiṣḥaq Ashkenazi was active in trade at this time). In Hebrew. Dating: 16th century, based on Avraham David's assessment. The contents of the letter are quite difficult and merit further examination; there are a handful of words that do not appear to be Hebrew or Arabic and many place names, some obscure. The writer's father-in-law Avraham Sūsī arrived with the two documents (ma'marim) from the addressee, but these documents are useless. The first because it is for the Amir ʿĪsā, with whom relations are not good. The second is an order involving Rashid (the city?) and the slave trade but is missing some key feature. He then gives detailed instructions regarding documents to be sent to him, chiefly involving the trade in slaves "from the West" (1–11, 15–26). In particular, he writes that in Buḥayra, slaves from ״חריב״ are brought only once a year, in Elul, whereas slaves from the West, i.e., Awjila in Libya (אוגֿלה) arrive every month. During the year and 9 months that the writer lived in Buḥayra, not 30 or 40 days passed without Bedouin caravans arriving to trade slaves from the West for horses. In the remainder of the letter, the writer mentions various European currencies including peraḥim and coronas. In the margin he mentions trade in raisins (margin, 1, 6) and sulfur (margin, 5). Information largely from Avraham David, FGP. This document was also edited by Simha Assaf (see FGP for bibliography).

Letter from a certain Yosef, in Aden, to Yosef Ibn Shanju, in Fustat/Cairo. In Hebrew. Dating: Early 16th century, based on the greetings to Efrayim Karo (v28–29). The sender is reporting on his business affairs in Aden, where he arrived from "Tabor" in Egypt (apparently there is a location that sounds like this between Fuwwa and Rashīd). The merchandise he was expecting to receive from India never arrived. He is planning a trip to Calicut. He mentions two Jewish traders in Aden, Moshe Hakan and David al-Kehlado, who are involved in business with him in Calicut and Surat. There is another, Ibn Yaqar, who is active in the city of Berbera (in Somalia). Information from A. David's edition via FGP.

Letter from Eliezer Zussman, in Jerusalem, to his son Avigdor. In Hebrew. It has an unusual form for a letter: there are no greetings and it ends "ne'um Eliezer known as Zussman"—he seems to have written this page mainly in order to document what happened. Dating: probably not very long after 14 January 1546, the date of the earthquake. "Contemporary Hebrew documents provide an additional, independent source of information about the earthquake. From a Hebrew manuscript notice written by Eliezer Sussman ben Rabbi Abraham Carit [or Tsarit?], who arrived in Jerusalem in [November] 1545 two months before the earthquake, we learn that 'In the month of Shvat the Almighty has shown us signs and wonders that none of our forefathers ever witnessed, and on the 11th of that month, on Thursday, about one in the afternoon. . . (because) of the quake many towers fell down, almost the third of their height, and the tower of "A.A." was one of them. About ten gentiles were killed in Jerusalem but none of the Jews, and in the town of Nablus the earthquake was so strong that at least three hundred gentiles, and three or four Jews were killed. There were also further shocks after that, but not so strong, and to this day we are in constant fear of an earthquake all day and night. . . (Braslavski, 1938).' The 11th of Shvat corresponds to 14 January 1546, which was a Thursday. Klein (1939) suggests that the acronym "A.A." stands for "Avraham Avinu", i.e. our Father Abraham, and refers to the tower over Abraham's Tomb in Hebron. This locality is mentioned in Mujir al-Din's sequel as Al-Khalil, the Arabic name used for Hebron because of Abraham's, the Friend of Allah, sanctuary. The disagreement as to when the copy of this document was made and by whom (Braslavski, 1938; Turnianski, 1984), does not detract from the authenticity of its contents. Sussman died about 20 years after the earthquake [see T-S 13J4.19], and the phrasing suggests that he wrote the note shortly after the event." Ambraseys and Karcz, "The Earthquake of 1546 in the Holy Land," Terra Nova 4 (1992), no. 2, 254–63. There are various notes and calculations added in Italian in 1917 on this fragment and the others in the folder.

Letter in Hebrew dated 1778/79 CE (539 = ותקוה טובה) from the Jewish community of Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Pisa begging for financial aid. The sum of 75,000 arayot is named. Among other distressing events, there was a terrible famine in the preceding year. Their sheliḥim are Eliyyahu Ẓevi, Yaʿaqov Burla, and Yaqar Gershon. ASE.

Letter in Hebrew dated 1781/82 CE (542 = מבשר) from the Jewish community of Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Pisa begging for financial aid. A sum of 8,000 arayot is named. Their shaliaḥ is Yosef b. Robi (? יוסף ן רובי). ASE.

Letter in Hebrew dated 1791/92 CE (552 = וינטלם וינשאם) from the Jewish community of Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Pisa, begging for financial aid, naming a sum of 70,000 arayot. Their shaliaḥ is Mordekhai ha-Levi. ASE.

Letter in Hebrew dated April/May 1807 CE (Nisan 567 = ונשמחה בכל ימנו), from the Jewish community of Safed to the Jewish community of Pisa, specifically the head judge Yiṣḥaq Gallico (יצחק גאליקו), begging for financial aid. Their shaliaḥ is מרדכי אשיאו.

Letter in Hebrew dated 1688/89 CE (תגילו = 449), from the Jewish community of Izmir to the Jewish community of Pisa, following the economic distress in the aftermath of the 1688 Izmir earthquake. It seems that the community of Pisa had been accustomed to sending charity to communities of the Ottoman Empire (ארצות קוסטאנטינה) but this practice had lapsed. Now, the government is demanding a payment if 15,000 of a certain currency (line 7). They already sent their shaliaḥ Yosef ha-Levi, and this letter is intended to encourage them to be generous with him. Note that the Italian on the final page was probably added in 1917, as with the other documents in this folder. ASE.

Letter in Hebrew dated 1726/27 CE (487 = בל תמוט), from the Jewish community of Safed to the Jewish community of Pisa, begging for financial aid on account of the heavy taxes imposed on them. Their shaliaḥ is Daniel Kafsuto (קאפסוטו). ASE.

Letter in Hebrew dated 1726/27 CE (487 = לך לאות), begging for charity from the Jewish community of Pisa. The writers, in Istanbul, call themselves פקידי א״י, and indeed it seems they are writing on behalf of the community in Jerusalem. Their shaliaḥ is Moshe Yisra'el. ASE