Geniza Lab

Letter from a man to his sister Umm Bū l-ʿAlāʾ. Sent care of Eliyyahu the Judge. In the hand of a scribe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. The letter contains an extremely vivid account of the imprisonment and tortures to which he and Abū Saʿd were subjected. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 609; III, pp. 43, 432). Discussed in Esther-Miriam Wagner, "‘Only death remains for him’, T-S 10J7.4" (Fragment of the Month, May 2011). Same scribe as ENA NS 48.26 (likewise an account of torture). ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Hananyah ha-Kohen from "his son" Abu l-Ḥasan. After a flattering introduction, the body of the letter begins about halfway down the page. He reports that were it not for the Shaykh Abū l-Faḍl al-Dāʿī, he would have been in trouble (?) (קטע אמרנה = אמרנא) over 2.5 dinars . He was imprisoned for one day until Abu Saʿīd al-Tinnīsī bailed him out on Friday night. Abu l-Ḥasan begs Hananyah to send him his circumcision knife without delay. He sends regards to his father Abū Naṣr, to Abū l-Ḥasan and Abū l-Khayr and Abū Saʿīd and his cousin. Abu Manṣūr and his son send their regards. ASE.

Letter/petition from a woman to Yakhin Rosh ha-Qehillot. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. She asks for help for her son, who suffers in prison due to cold weather and mistreatment. (Information from Goitein's note card.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Letter from a tax farmer in the Fayyum, who was cheated of his share by his partners, was unable to pay his debts, and was therefore taken into custody. He has been in prison for four days. He is sick with ophthalmia and his dependents are perishing. He asks help getting released before the Sabbath. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 35, 362 and from Goitein's index cards )

Letter from Ramla, from Shelomo b. Yehuda to his son Avraham in Fustat, May 1029, describing in great detail the economic and other calamities which haunted the country. Includes the line, "The nation (al-umma) must be treated gently, as a sick man is treated gently" (v23).

Letter fragment reporting about a dignitary in prison from whom a declaration was taken to be given both in a Jewish and a Muslim court. Possibly dated to the 11th century. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to Abū l-Ḥusayn b. Abū l-Khayr al-ʿAkkāwī, Fustat, from his uncle (khāl) Ṣadoq b. Namir he-Ḥaver, Tiberias. "The imprisonment (and torture) of defaulting debtors was common practice. The letter here tells about the imprisonment of the wives and children of absconding debtors, who owed money to Eschiva (Echive), the countess of Tiberias and wife of the renowned Raymond III of Tripoli. One wonders for what services Jews could owe considerable sums to the countess so that they had to flee to Egypt in order to try to collect there funds for repayment. The most likely assumption is that the services were the same as those found so often as a source of disaster in the relations with the Muslim government, namely: tax farming, see Med Soc II, 361–63. Raymond, who is referred to in this letter, returned from Muslim captivity in 1173/74, and Eschiva remained ruler over Tiberias until it was taken by Saladin in 1187. Thus the letter must have been written sometime in between these two dates." Goitein, Nachlass material. This document is also mentioned, considering the perspective of the addressee's wife, in Ashur, Engagement and Betrothal Documents, p. 116, no. 121. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Ṭoviyya b. Daniel (as far as the first few words of line 31) and the Gaʾon Shelomo b. Yehuda (from the remainder of line 31, as well as line 30, inserted between lines 29 and 31 in minute script), on behalf of the academy, in Ramla, regarding the imprisonment and subsequent release of "our ḥaver who had been ordained in our academy’, (probably Efrayim b. Shemarya). Dating: ca. 1030. The ḥaver and some colleagues had been falsely charged, apparently by rivals within the Shāmī Rabbanite congregation in Fusṭāṭ, but the intervention of the Sahl, Saʿadya, and Yosef b. Yisraʾel al-Tustarī and Abū Naṣr David ha-Levi b. Isḥāq caused the governor to investigate and dismiss the charges. The faʾon led prayers of thanksgiving in Ramla, mentioning both the caliph and his governor, and has arranged for the same to be done in Jerusalem. He urges the leaders of the Rabbanite community in Fusṭāṭ to strive for peace. (Information from CUDL) Letter in Arabic script on verso (as catalogued); see separate entry.

Note in which a physician is asked to help a captive woman, imprisoned probably due to debt. The addressee responds with a brief note on verso stating that he will fulfill the request. He crosses out the sender's self-abasement from the original letter and replaces it with "rather, I am your slave." Cf. Bodl. MS heb. f 101/43 and T-S 6J5.18 for the same phenomenon.

One side: Draft of the beginning of a letter from a wretched prisoner in "the dungeon" (al-muṭbaq). In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly poetry and not a letter. The other side: Two lines of love poetry in Arabic script, surrounded by jottings and pen trials in Arabic and Hebrew script. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Petition to the caliph al-Mustanṣir from a man who has been detained in the arsenal (khizāna, probably the khizānat al-bunūd, which was also used as a prison). The man’s family, including his mother who is disabled or chronically sick (zamina), have stood ransom. Dating: ca. 427–87 AH (= 1036–94 CE). (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Letter to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya requesting he intervene with the Nagid on behalf of the bearer of the letter, who had spent six months in prison and was ill. The bearer is named Abu l-[Faraj?] al-Sayrafi. Goitein deduces that the bearer was sick even before his time in prison from the language in lines 14-18: "You knew him in his prosperous and happy state and how he was at that time and what he suffered. His suffering has only increased due to his degradation and his staying in prison close to six months, sick among the gentiles. He is in the meanest state among them due to his illness." (Information from Goitein's index cards. See also card #27109.) EMS. ASE.

Petition from Ṣāliḥ al-Khaybārī, a Jew from the community of Baghdad, to the Fatimid amīr Tāj al-Dawla. In Arabic script. Ṣāliḥ petitions regarding a miserable situation into which he fell after a pledge made to Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b. Ḥasan. As a consequence, Ṣāliḥ was imprisoned for six months and is still in debt for 300 dinars. In order to repay his debt he was given the task of producing a tunic out of two pieces of Persian fabric, one yellow and one white. This task has not yet been completed, and Ṣāliḥ seems to be seeking the amīr’s understanding and support in this delay. Dating: ca. 11th century. On recto and between the lines and in the margins of verso, there is a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on passages from Genesis, including the days of the creation, the creation of men and the incident of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Information from CUDL and Khan.)

Note in Hebrew requesting that the addressee intervene on behalf of a prisoner in his power (אשר אתה סותם אותו בשבי). It mentions R. Me'ir the cantor, the wise and learned. It invokes the principle of mercy on creations and the middot of Avraham Avinu (the verse cited seems to be Deuteronomy 13:18). Information in part from FGP

Petition from Ḍiyāʾ bt. Yūsuf al-Qamrī (or possibly "bayt Yūsuf al-Qamrī" = his wife) to her relative Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn al-Firnās (=ʿEli b. Yaḥyā ha-Kohen). In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: 1094–1111. She is in distress over her son’s imprisonment and asks the addressee to appeal to Sar ha-Sarim (=Mevorakh b. Saʿadya) for aid. She states that she must pay the jailer several dirhams every day, which she cannot afford, and suggests that Mevorakh will be able to secure the release of her son simply by writing a note (ruqʿa) to the Alexandrian qāḍī. (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University Press, 1980, 113, 260, 261; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:373) EMS

Letter of a prisoner mistreated by a Maghribi guard and affected by illness, who asks a notable ("my brother, Abu Imran") to intervene for him with a judge. He mentions an incident on Friday when he attempted to use the toilet after three days without a bowel movement, which is when the guard beat him. "They were also allowed to send letters out of prison, some of which we still have, and since in one such letter a complaint is made against a particularly wicked jailer who cursed and beat the writer without reason, we may assume that in some places at least the authorities in charge did not tolerate excesive cruelty." (Med Soc II, 373 and Goitein's index card.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment: upper right corner only. Addressed to a cousin (ibn ʿamm). Deals with a legal case, a document from the Muslim courts, Abū Nuṣayr, 100 dirhams, prison, and an unfortunate man. Almost all of the context is missing.

Letter draft from an unknown man in Egypt to Marzūq Chelebi (? גלבי) in Damascus. Both writer and addressee are Qaraites. The latter is greeted as someone who is renowned for his charity "among Muslims, Christians, and Rabbanites." Recto is written in Judaeo-Arabic, and verso is in Arabic script; both sides appear to belong to the same letter. The letter mentions a figure named Isaac Navarro several times as well as "the Pasha." It tells the tale of persecution and imprisonment; it seems that the captive Rabbanites had the wherewithal to advocate with the Pasha for their release, but not so the Qaraites, and the Rabbanites gloated tremendously (wa-yā shamātat al-rabbānīn!). Needs further examination.

Letter draft from the Qaraite community of Cairo to the Qaraite community of Damascus. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown. Regarding a marriage-related legal case that reached the Muslim courts and resulted in someone spending two months in prison. Needs examination.

Letter, or rather a legal query, from [...] ha-Kohen b. Avraham to a communal authority addressed as 'exilarch.' In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown, perhaps 13th or 14th century. This very long letter conveys the tale of a legal dispute involving a codex, a pawn, and a debt. The writer details his travails with various adversaries and his imprisonment at the order of the Muslim court and the physical violence that came to pass. He wants the addressee to make a judgment in this case and exert his authority to help secure the writer's rights. Needs much more examination.