Geniza Lab

A circular of Maimonides on the ransoming of captives. Dated: Summer (Tammuz) 1169 CE. With Maimonides' signature.

Maimonides, responsa

Maimonides, responsa

Letter from Moses Maimonides (in his own hand with his own signature), in Fustat, to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa, in Minyat Zifta. This is a letter of recommendation for Yiṣḥaq al-Darʿī. The community in Minyat Zifta is asked to pay the capitation tax for Yiṣḥaq and his son, who are new arrivals to Egypt and on their way to Damietta. On verso there is the address. In Arabic script: في معنى ابراهيم الدرعي. Perhaps Ibrāhīm is the son of Yiṣḥaq, and this is a note summarizing the content of the letter ('re: Ibrāhīm al-Darʿī'). Or perhaps it is delivery details (‘By means of Ibrāhīm al-Darʿī’). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Maimonides to his brother (presumably David, who died at sea not long after the brothers' 1167 arrival in Egypt). Not in the handwriting of Maimonides, but possibly bearing his autograph signature ("The signature does not quite correspond to any of the known specimens, but we must remember that we have here an early signature, from the early thirties of Maimonides' life, whereas the others date from later periods."). "God, may He be exalted, knows the sorrow and the loneliness which are in my heart because of the separation from my brother by my father and mother and tender friend, may God spare me the evils which may befall him, and join us again in Old Cairo, if God wills. I write to let you know that I am very well. Moses, the son of Rabbi Maymun, the memory of the righteous for blessing." The text of the letter is surrounded by apparently unrelated jottings in Hebrew, Arabic, and Judaeo-Arabic. ASE. (Information from Stern)

Legal query addressed to Maimonides, whose autograph responsum is written underneath the query. The question regards an elderly widow who accused a teacher of asking her to sleep with him. The writer insists that she is merely trying to destroy the reputation of a man who would never do such a thing, and he asks how the man should proclaim his innocence. Maimonides responds that her claim should not be believed without witnesses, that anyone who has been slandered can excommunicate his slanderer by name, but may not obtain a blanket excommunication against all who accuse him. However, still better in this case is to put an end to the gossip and avoid any kind of public discussion or excommunication. The handwriting of the questioner closely resembles that of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (see also ENA 2808.16 in which Moshe b. Levi asks the recipient to obtain an answer to a fatwa that he had previously sent to Fustat). ASE. Ed. Joshua Blau, R. Moses b. Maimon: Responsa, (Hebrew; 3 vols; Jerusalem, 1957–1986): Vol. 2, pp. 522-3, #274.

Maimonides’ epitome of Galen’s περὶ τῶν πεπονθότων τόπων (De locis affectis), from the second and third treatises, in Judaeo-Arabic, in Maimonides’ own hand. On the margin of P1 f.2v there is an example of Maimonides’ Arabic handwriting. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Hebrew prayer. Verso: last lines of an autograph responsum by Maimonides, and part of a liturgical text in Hebrew. (Information from CUDL.) See Outhwaite, B. (2007). "Two New Responsa of Moses Maimonides." [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, April 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.34048.

Letter in the hand of Maimonides, with a medical recipe consisting of (iron) water, lentisk and spikenard, and a mysterious mention of a huge number of wooden ships ("There arrived from the wooden (ships) that which blocked the sea/Nile, 100 ships and 18 great ships, all of them wood.") (Information from CUDL, join from CUDL.) See Wagner, E. (2007). A newly-discovered fragment of a letter written by Maimonides (T-S AS 152.86). [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, October 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40720.

Responsum in the hand of Maimonides. See Ben Outhwaite, "Two New Responsa of Moses Maimonides." [Genizah Research Unit, Fragment of the Month, April 2007]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.34048

Verso: Maimonides autograph. A list of contributors, probably related to collecting money for ransoming captives. Mentions names such as Barakāt b. Ṭayyib, Baqāʾ al-ʿAssār(?), Abū l-Munā al-Mustaʿmal, Makārim the partner of Baqāʾ, Abū l-Faḍl al-Mustaʿmal, Abū Manṣūr b. Nuṣayr, Abū Sahl b. Ayyūb, al-Ḥemdat, Sālim al-Bayyāʿ, Hiba al-Ṣabbāgh and his children. The list is written on the verso of a petition in Arabic script (see separate record) written by a woman who is asking for financial assistance, probably addressed to Maimonides. As he often did, Maimonides cut the letter for small strip and used the verso to write this list. The fragment was discovered by Amir Ashur, who is preparing it for publication. AA

Recto: Maimonides’ autograph draft of a 3-line poem he composed and included at the beginning of his philosophical work ‘Guide for the Perplexed’. Verso: letter in a different hand (not that of Maimonides) to Joseph b. Judah (possibly Ibn ʿAqnin, a student of Maimonides). The letter continues overleaf(?), along with diverse jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Leaves from Maimonides' Judaeo-Arabic draft of his Arabic treatise on sexual intercourse, commissioned by the Ayyubid prince Taqī al-Dīn Umar. Maimonides prescribes various concoctions to increase Taqi al-Din Umar’s vigour and recommends a diet that avoids ‘cooling’ foods (long pepper, galanga, ginger, aristolochia, cinnamon, anise, clove, mace, and nutmeg are recommended but lentils, vetch, and cold vegetables such as cucumber, donkey cucumber, melons, garden orach, spinach and especially lettuce are to be avoided). A drink of iron water boiled with the ox tongue herb, lemon peel, beaten carnation, wine and honey, is suggested. He also advises moderation, as the sexual act itself was ‘enfeebling’. (Information from CUDL.)

Liturgical, Documentary; main text concerns benedictions before and after eating; followed by several autograph notes of Maimonides; published (with translation) by Allony (שלוש הוראות אוטוגראפיות לרמב"ם). (data from FGP)

Document that tells the story of Aharon ha-Levi and Ḥalfon, who collected money on behalf of the Rambam (Maimonides) for ransom of captives. They sent the Rambam a list of names and amounts of money which people agreed to pay, from the Jewish community in al-Mahalla. One of the community members sold his female slave and gave nine dinars of the payment to the Rambam's messenger. On the other side Moses Maimonides declares that he received the money. Av-Elul 1170. (Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 316-318) VMR