Geniza Lab

Fragment of a letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū Sahl al-Ṣāyigh. Very little of the subject matter is discernible without a join.

Letter by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to an elder relative (wālid, but not his father, as he writes that both he and his father serve the addressee). He mainly reports that he has fulfilled the order to send a Bible to somewhere. The margins and verso are full of jottings. There is also an address on verso, difficult to read.

Short note from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, ordering a medicinal syrup (sharāb) from al-Shaykh al-Nafīs.

Legal document from the court of Avraham Maimonides. The members of the court are listed in a neat table: Ḥananel b. Shemuel, Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim, Yiftaḥ b. Yaʿaqov, Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, Yosef b. Shemuel, and Ḥalfon Kohen b. Elʿazar. See Goitein, Med Soc II, 546 no. 16, where this is the "unidentified ENA manuscript" mentioned. Information in part from Friedman, Maimonides Appoints R. Anatoly Muqaddam of Alexandria [Hebrew], p. 153 no. 71.

Letter in which the writer asks not to be removed from the addressee's service or friendship. Very effaced. Dated to the late 12th century. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Written by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, with many biblical quotations. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo (Abu l-Barakat) in Alexandria to to his brother, the physician Abu Zikri son of Abu l-Faraj (Eliyyahu the Judge), in Fustat. Only the introduction of the letter has been preserved.

Testimony fragment of a loan from 1224 in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu.

Letter in which Shelomo b. Eliyyahu asks his teacher, the judge R. Hananel, to inform his father Eliyyahu that he is very ill, suffering from weak eyesight, headache, and general weakness. He wishes to come for the holiday to Fustat rather than stay in the small town (Bilbays?) that resembles Sodom and Gomorrah and is devoid of worthy people. VMR; ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father-in-law Abu'l-Faraj, asking him to write a letter to correct his daughter’s (Shelomo’s wife’s) behaviour, since Shelomo is losing his patience with her. Early 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt Umm Daʾūd, asking for her daughter Sitt al-Yumn in marriage and enquiring about the dowry. Dated Tammuz 1530 of the Seleucid Era (= 1219 CE). In the margins of verso and recto are drafts of a release form in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, concerning the claims between two sisters and Thanāʾ, the mother the late Manṣūr concerning the inheritance of the late Ibn Abū l-Majd the dyer Ibn al-Nāʾila. Abū l-Maḥāsin guarantees his mother ʿIbād’s release for her sister Ḥasab and Thanāʾ bt. Sayyid al-Ahl. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Judge Eliyyahu to his two sons Abu Zikri and Shelomo. He wants them to come back from Jerusalem. 13th century.

Invitation by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father to spend the Sabbath with him. Shelomo has "turned toward health" after an illness.

Instruction by the Dayyan Eliyyahu to his son Barakat (Shelomo) in Qalyub.

Letter of holiday greetings from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt. 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

The teacher Dawud of Qalyub writes to the judge Shelomo b. Eliyyahu around 1225 complaining about his meagre salary and his inability to pay the jāliya (capitation tax). (Information from Goitein's index cards, Med. Soc., CUDL and Marina Rustow)

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his brother, Abu Zikri in Alexandria. An episode of Abu Zikri in which he suffered from "evil men" alluded to

Letter from Abū l-Barakat b. Abū l-Ḥasan to Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender is evidently a family member of Shelomo's wife Sitt Ghazāl bt. Abū l-Faraj. Abū l-Barakat reminds Shelomo that Sitt Ghazāl’s relatives had only reluctantly agreed to let her depart for Alexandria in the first place, and that they had made this concession in good faith, believing that he would treat her well. The writer goes on to defend Shelomo’s charges against Sitt Ghazāl’s slothfulness, lambast him for his boorishness and lack of empathy for his young wife, and attempts to socially shame the husband into proper behavior. (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 68, 236, 238–39, 278–79.) EMS. Likely a join with T-S 6J3.15 (identified by Oded Zinger).

Verso: Draft of a legal document in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Dating: Mentions a period beginning Iyyar 1542 Seleucid, which is 1331 CE. Concerning the lease of two properties owned by Sitt al-Nabaʾ bt. Abū Isḥāq Ibn al-Amshāṭī, the wife of Abū l-Baqāʾ Elʿazar b. Abū l-Faḍāʾil. She leases a bustān with a house and a qāʿa (also referred to as a half-house) to Abū l-Riḍā for 7 years against 52.5 dirhams (i.e., 7.5 per year), which will be used for renovation of these properties. Abū l-Riḍā may also use the fruits of the bustān for himself. (Information from Goitein's index card and Mediterranean Society, 3:327, 328, 500, 501.) EMS

Letter from Abū l-Faraj, in Alexandria, to his son-in-law Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. Abū l-Faraj admonishes Shelomo to treat his wife Sitt Ghazāl well, and informs him that Shelomo's aunt (who is also his mother-in-law) is not coming to check that her daughter is well but rather coming to arrange a marriage between her son and Shelomo's niece, because she is the owner of 9/24ths of a house belonging to the family. He opens the letter with his preoccupation for Shelomo's illness and his happiness upon learning of Shelomo's recovery (r6–10). He also wishes a speedy recovery to Shelomo's mother (Sitt Rayḥān). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Recto: Family letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, asking for news of female captives which had been expected to arrive with ships from Acre. Verso: Another letter in a different hand, from a husband to his wife. He encourages her to send their two sons to school in the morning and in the evening, and sends along with the letter payment for their teacher. He warns that the boys’ noble descent will not help them - only their studies. (Information from CUDL)