Geniza Lab

Beginning of a draft petition from a woman. After ca. 1120 (includes taqbīl clause).

Letter of appeal in the name of an old woman, whose mantle was stolen while she was about to wash it in the Nile, asking the community in a well-styled address to help her to buy at least a large shawl. She emphasizes her age and frailty and eye disease as the reason why she cannot help herself. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 170, 500.) ASE.

Letter from a Byzantine silk dyer to the elder al-Najib Ezra in Fustat, detailing that the writer is afflicted by severe agony (al-ʿadhāb al-shadīd) after having been tortured and his children seized as a security. He had allegedly spoiled some previous silk garments, and asks Ezra al-Najib to help in reclaiming his children. (Information partly from Goitein’s index cards.) EMS. Verso also contains the draft of the beginning of a family letter in rudimentary handwriting, in which the writer defenes himself against his brother's rebukes. ASE.

Petition from the wife of Abu'l-Faraj the Silkweaver, to Shemuʾel ha-Nagid b. Ḥananya (in office 1140–59). She is an "unprotected woman" (marʾa munqaṭiʿa) whose father could not support her and whose brother was a young boy with no connections. She explains that she “got stuck” with a man who was not ashamed of the bad things people had said about him (or maybe of the bad things of which he himself speaks?). The petition was written after a legal proceeding in which the Nagid ordered the husband to restore the ketubba to its original wording (apparently the husband had decreased the sum stated in the ketubba). However, now the husband has taken an oath that he would restore only ten dinars, a lower sum than previously agreed upon. The husband apparently managed to ignore the Nagidʼs commands by finding someone who supported him in his claims. The wife had been getting advice from her congregation and from the local judge, but, she writes, she is fed up with words and no action. The judge, for example, told her brother to leave the matter until Sunday, but “Sunday came and nothing was done for my issue except postponement.” She complains that she is treated “as if it was I who has done something unpermitted” (ḥattā ka-annī qad ʿamiltu shayʾ lā yanṣāgh (!) – for the last word (=yanṣāgh) see Blau, Dictionary, 379). Even a ruling of the Nagid was subjected to a process of negotiation at the local level until it was watered down to ineffectiveness. The same matter is also mentioned briefly in T-S 10J17.22. (Information from Zinger, "Women, Gender and Law" (PhD diss), 248n139, lightly revised by MR.) Alternate description based on Goitein's notes: Complaint to Shemuel ha-Nagid (his titles occupy 7 lines) by the wife of Abū l-Faraj, the silkspinner (qazzāz). Her husband had left her and her little daughter without provisions, however, he was not without means. His female slave she claims had been adjudicated to her, but was kept by her husband in his sister's house. The judge, to whom the complaint was made first was not effective in securing her rights. (some corrections by AA)

Report or petition to a Fatimid caliph or vizier, opening blessings only. Dating: ca. 1100–71. Cuts off after the taqbīl clause. Addressee may be al-Afḍal b. Badr al-Jamālī (cf. Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections, p. 284). Cf. also CUL Or.1080.15.77 (Khan, no. 84).

Petition from a man described as having many dependents (the first two lines read: wa-huwa mamlūk kabīr al-ʿāʾila wa-yasal al-inʿām ʿalayhi wa-al-iḥsān ʾilayhi bi-khurūj ilā al-ʿummāl).

Jottings and drafts of phrases both from a petition (yuqabbil al-arḍ) and an order of payment (yadfaʿ li-muwaṣṣilhā) addressed to al-Shaykh al-Makīn Abū l-Faraj (early 13th century). There is also one line in Arabic script. These are written in the margins and on verso of a literary Hebrew text (seems liturgical or piyyuṭ). There are also various pen trials.

Letter/petition/recommendation to a Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender asks him to help the bearer, Ibrāhīm b. Abū Dāʾūd al-Ashqar al-Bilbaysī, who betrothed (amlaka) a woman in Bilbays years ago. Everyone in Bilbays knows that he has continued to send gifts to her and her family. However, when her brothers learned that he had suffered financial losses, they tried to cancel the betrothal. Mentions a specific person who came and spread this rumor, and mentions the arrival of R. Yeḥezqel. The Nagid mentioned might be Avraham Maimonides, but there is no clear evidence. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 445.)

Letter in Arabic script concerning a governor, a bishop and monasteries. In the formal third-person address, the writer apologizes for sending the request in writing instead of making it in person; his excuse is that he’s pressed for time since he’s currently studying (ḥadīth? jālis ilā) at the feet of a certain Ibn Ṣāʿ. Asks the addressee write to the scribe of a Fatimid governor titled ʿAzīz al-Dawla with a request for two documents. The first document should be addressed to the bishop Binyāmīn of Ṭamwah (Dammūh), who is responsible for two monasteries, Shahrān (in Minyat al-Shammās) and Ḥilwān (also south of Cairo), “strengthening his hand,” presumably meaning reinforcing his property rights over the monasteries' property; the second should be addressed to the overseer of Shahrān itself, both strengthening the hand of the bishop and establishing who owns the property that belongs to the two monasteries. The property in question may be waqf property of the monasteries. The title of the governor, ending in al-dawla, dates the letter to the Fatimid period; contains a taqbîl clause, kissing the hand of the addressee rather than the ground, so likely 12th century rather than earlier.

Letter of request in which the widow of Abu Sa'id b. Shalom, writing to a Nagid, expresses a cry for help on behalf of her children, who are lacking food and clothing, since their father's death. She is suffering from ophthalmia. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 304)

Petition in Arabic script from a physician employed in the hospital in Cairo who had received orders to the effect that his pay would be cut (?), even though he hardly earns five dinars per month. He asks for the benefaction and kindness of a decree to the effect that (there the petition is cut off). The formulary is Fatimid but suggests the 12th century rather than the 11th. Reused for a private petition in Arabic and Hebrew script from and/or two a woman.

Letter in which the sender sends a request for help. R. Avraham is mentioned

Letter of petition to Sa'adya the great prince - probably the father of Mevorakh b. Sa'adya. The writer complains that he and his family are hungry.

Letter from Aharon ha-Tinnisi b. Nahum the scribe. The writer is in need. He lost his job and prices are high, so he left Tinnis (in the Egyptian Delta), leaving behind two children as 'orphans' with their grandfather. He asks for help from the unnamed addressee.

Petition in Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew beginning for financial assistance addressed to Rabbenu Avraham, can be dated by script to around the 13th century (i.e. probably Avraham Maimonides). Yosef al-Andalusi has spent three months in Fustat, his robe is torn and the authorities are demanding the capitation tax from him. He needs help.

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Arabic script, possibly a petition. Contains blessings for the addressee: "li-ʿālim(?) khallaṣahu(?) li-ʿālamīn(?) adāma Allāhu saʿdahū wa waṭṭada(?)... majdahu wa ahlaka ḍiddahu wa naṣifu(?) shukrahu wa yanādu(?)." On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Two names, Bū l-ʿAlā (..) and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, can be read in the third line.

Petition to the Gaʾon Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen (in office 1127–39). Begins with six lines of Hebrew blessings, and ends with one line of Hebrew blessings. The sender describes himself as a man of more than seventy years who has been afflicted by an illness that makes him unable to work and earn a livelihood. He owes a debt (or rather capitation tax payment?) of 14 qirats and 1 dirham; somehow this is connected to a man named Salāma Ibn al-Maqāniʿiyya and a guarantee. If he is unable to pay, he fears being imprisoned. He states that he is near death and starving, some days eating and some days not. Maṣliaḥ had previously promised to help him pay this sum, so this letter is a reminder. In the margin, mentions a meat shop and someone named Mīkhāʾīl. Verso is filled with Arabic-script jottings and document drafts in a chancery hand, including drafts of a letter or petition to a notable. VMR. EMS. ASE.

Letter from a woman to Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon containing an update on a lawsuit between her and a male family member (possibly her son). She seems to be submitting this letter in order to postpone the lawsuit until after the end of the period of the man's "ḍamān" (tax farming tenure?). Mentions the death of the man's maternal uncle and his claim that he is not withholding anything that is due to the woman. Also mentions a garden (bustān).

Petition in Arabic script, in a chancery hand. The sender is saying, to paraphrase, "I am your most devoted servant, so don't force me to file a complaint with a higher authority over such a little matter" (...fa-yakūn al-mamlūk mamlūk mawlānā ʿumrī kulluh yuḥrijunī an ashtakī li-l-sulṭān ʿalā hadhā l-miqdār wa-mawlānā...). In the last two lines, he mentions 'the land' and 'its planting' (zirāʿatuhā). On verso there is a Judaeo-Arabic literary text. Possibly containing some dream interpretation, but there is also other material (e.g., "...on the holiday they say, there is nothing more forbidden to us than wine...).

Petition or report, Fatimid, fragment from near the beginning containing end of blessings, the taqbīl clause, and part of the qiṣṣa. Dating: 1100–71.