Geniza Lab

Letter from Tiberias considering appointments which were made in one of the communities in north of Palestine or in Syria.

Deed of release (שטר אביזאריה/פיצוי). Location: Almost certainly Fustat (and not Tiberias as Gil suggested). Dating: Late 10th century. Concerning property in Tiberias. A man releases his father's partner, Moshe b. Shemuel b. Sahl, from all claims. Witnesses: Yosef b. Seʿadel; Ḥashmonay b. Avraham; [...] b. Ḥasan; Fashshāṭ b. Shemuel; and Efrayim b. Ṣadoq. (Information from Gil and Friedman.)

Deathbed will of Khalaf b. Yeshu'a, mentioning the lepers in Tiberias, Elul 1345/August 1034.

Form of a recommendation letter to the emissaries of the lepers of Tiberias, probably 1025.

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen Ha-Ḥaver b. Yoshiyyahu, Tiberias, to Eli Ha-Ḥaver Ha-Me'ulle (b. Amram ?) in Fustat, approximately 1050.

Letter from Natan Ha-Kohen Ha-Ḥaver b. Yoshiyyahu, Tiberias, to Yaʿaqov b. David, approximately 1050. The writer asks the recipient for support on behalf of the sick who are seeking a cure at the hot springs of Tiberias. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ Ha-Kohen B. Yair, Tiberias, to the communities of Aleppo, approximately 1020.

Letter from the lepers of Tiberias to Shemuel b. Ezra (Jerusalem?), approximately 1030.

Letter to Efrayim b. Shemarya on behalf of the lepers of Tiberias, approximately 1050. People with skin ailments were drawn to the hot springs of Tiberias and those without means to support themselves were sent with letters appealing to the generosity of communities such as Fustat by describing their sufferings in graphic terms. (Information from CUDL)

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.

Description from T-S 20.145: Letter/petition from ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen "the seventh" (the son-in-law of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva, Evyatar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen) to dignitaries in Fustat, including the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya. Dating: 1108–09 CE. The sender wants the addressee to exercise his influence to have the Fatimid navy rescue Evyatar and his family from Tripoli in the period between the summer of 1108 CE (when the populace of Tripoli overthrew Ibn ʿAmmār) and 12 July 1109 CE, when the Franks sacked Tripoli. (Information from Brendan Goldman's edition.) Description from T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177 (old PGPID 17817): Letter. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1108 CE, as it refers to the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār from Tripoli and how he left it in the hands of his cousin Abū l-Manāqib. The layout is like a formal report, with a narrow width and wide space between the lines. The sender says that he has previously sent a letter concerning "the same matter" to "our cousin," a great dignitary and a kohen. "They took it and traveled with it... toward the beginning of Shabbat Vayoshaʿ (=Beshalaḥ?), the day that Ibn ʿAmmār traveled for Beirut—let him return no more to his house, and let not his place know him any more (Job 7:10)—and then traveled for Tiberias (? טברי) to fortify himself there, and the city is now in the hand of his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū l-Manāqib." (Information in part from CUDL.) Joins by CUDL (for T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and Alan Elbaum (for T-S 20.145 + {T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177}). For an example of the Fatimid state document format which this is emulating, see another report concerning this period in Tripoli (unpublished): T-S AS 129.149 + T-S AS 116.11 + T-S NS 137.20 + T-S NS 207.44 + AIU I.C.73 + T-S NS 238.99 + T-S NS 244.84 (+ T-S NS 125.135). ASE

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ Ha-Kohen B. Yair, Tiberias, to the communities of Aleppo, approximately 1020.

Copy of a long letter sent by Ḥananya b. Yosef ha-Kohen, Av Bet Din. Dating: ca. 1020 CE, according to Gil. Probably addressed to the community in Fustat. Mentions Tiberias and a ban of excommunication on the Mount of Olives. The writer excuses his delay in responding to the previous letter, as he was suffering a severe relapse of his illness at the time that he received it. Gil summarizes the contents of the letter as follows: "At the beginning of the eleventh century, Geniza letters definitely disclose that Tiberias is no longer the seat of the yeshiva. The av-bet-din of the yeshiva, Ḥananya ha-Kohen b. Yosef, mentions in his letter the serious differences within the Tiberias community and the yeshiva’s intervention. It appears that Ḥananya's brother served as judge in Tiberias, and when he died, the people of Tiberias asked the yeshiva to send them someone to take his place. Someone was indeed sent, after a group of Tiberian notables promised they would treat him well, but that person apparently tried to discard the authority ofJerusalem, and even took the liberty of proclaiming leap years(!), whereupon the Gaon and the yeshiva excommunicated him. Nevertheless, he continued to do as he saw fit and even organized a faction of supporters, and it seems that they also took for themselves the revenue from the ritual slaughtering that was intended for Jerusalem. [Two brothers in Fustat were apparently helping him.] It does appear, then, that there was some sort of rebellion in Tiberias which tried to re-establish the old order." On the biography of Ḥananya ha-Kohen Av Bet Din, see Gil, History of Palestine, section 854 (pp. 664–65). And see ENA 4009.4 (a letter addressed to him from Sicily) and Moss. Ia,9 (a document drawn up in his court, dated 1007 CE). (Information from Gil and CUDL.)

Letter fragment from the lepers of Tiberias to Shelomo b. Eli, probably in Tripoli, Lebanon, approximately 1030. Verso: End of the address.

Letter fragment from the lepers of Tiberias, approximately 1030. There are only traces of text on verso.

Letter from the lepers of Tiberias to Furayj b. Ḥasan. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. Asking for donations be given to the emissaries from Tiberias collecting charity on the senders' behalf.

Letter from the Tiberias lepers.