Geniza Lab

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen. See Goitein's attached notes for further information.

Letter (memo) from an unnamed India trader, probably in Aden, to Mufaḍḍal Ibn Abī Saʿd, in Qūṣ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: First third of the 13th century, based on the references to the Jewish chief judge of Cairo Menaḥem b. Yiṣḥaq b. Sasson. The document lists a great number of shipments and gifts. Same hand as T-S NS J182 (India Book 7, ז51). See Goitein's notes for further information.

Business letter. Introduction in Hebrew, body in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the arrival of the Yemeni merchants (v3). Also mentions R. Shemuel Ismāʿīl b. Yūsuf and someone named Ibn ʿAddād: "I mentioned the matter of the dinar, and he went crazy and swore באלילו"—by his אליל? Goitein read this as signifying that Ibn ʿAddād must be Christian or Muslim, but his notes do not reveal specifically how he understood this word.

20 orders of payment issued by Abū Zikrī Kohen. See individual PGPIDs (18979 through 18998). See also Goitein's attached notes.

Accounts in the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen. See Goitein's notes for further information andt ranscription.

Text of the oath that Bū ʿImrān must swear to his brother Abū l-Maʿānī concerning his mercantile activities, the price of a house, and the payment of the capitation tax during the time when Abū l-Maʿānī was absent (in Yemen or India). In the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. On verso there are also entries about the sale or exchange of books, perhaps in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

State petition. Recto: petition to the the imām Al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh from a Jewish merchant, Mūsā b. Ṣadaqa, who was detained unlawfully after his return from India and Yemen with goods. The merchant writes that he had already registered documents in the court of the judge Jalāl al-Mulk Tāj al-Aḥkam (Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf b. Ayyūb al-Maḡribī) and asks for his property and freedom to be restored. Ca. 516-521 AH (= 1123-1127 CE). On verso there is Hebrew liturgical text. (information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentions debits and credits of people and entities such as Ismāʿīl, "the Indian," Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, dīwān al-R[...]. Needs examination.

Letter from Ṭāhir, in Qūṣ, to his mother, in Alexandria. In Arabic script; large, very regular characters. Dating: Possibly 11th century. Goitein notes that this fragment is a palimpsest, but the 'undertext' may simply be a mirror-image imprint. The sender has rented animals (either donkeys or camels) to travel to ʿAydhāb for 8 dinars. He hopes to set sail at the end of Rajab. A large part of the letter is devoted to greetings to everybody at home and requests for prayers. He reports that a man known as [...] al-Farsī (or al-Qurashī?) told him that his cousins (awlād ʿammī) are well, living in a place called تبليه ?نبايه? in Yemen. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and attached notes.)

Business letter in Arabic script from Efrayim b. Shemarya to Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen. This hand looks very different from the other hands Rustow has identified as belonging to Efrayim (see The Lost Archive, 498n49, which identifies Halper 354, T-S NS 320.45, Bodl. MS heb. d 66/83, CUL Or. 1080 J7, T-S10J6.6, T-S13J36.14, and T-SAS152.236 + T-SAS 152.269 as all being in Efrayim b. Shemarya's Arabic hand).

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Bū ʿUmar, in Upper Egypt, to his family (his son Abū l-Maḥāsin and his wife), probably in Fustat. In Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1167 CE. The sender is also known from ENA 1822A.75. In this letter he praises Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn (here called Khalaf b. Maḍmūn) for his help after the sender had been stripped of everything by the Ghuzz (a Seljuk contingent) and for an invitation to Aden, from which he would proceed to India. Ḥalfon also took care of a young woman of the sender's family, who had been divorced by her husband in Aden. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book II.)

Legal query probably addressed to a Muslim jurisconsult. In Arabic script. Concerning a Jewish woman whose husband converted to Islam and later traveled to India, where he seems to have disappeared. "Concerning a Jewish [man] who converted to Islam (aslama) and was attached to a Jewish woman, after he had converted, for a year. Then he wished to travel, and the aforementioned wife said to him, “You will not leave without giving me my bill of divorce,” to which he replied, “I won’t be gone but for a little while.” And he left and has now been missing for ten years. And she requests to [re]marry, seeing her dire economic condition, for she lacks support due to the hardships of the hour and the difficulties of the time. Is it possible that she will marry after all this time, and no news were heard from him, since he is in India (fī bilād alHind)?" Information from Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam" (2020). Verso contains piyyutim; Goitein's attached edition suggests that they may be in the hand of Ben Yijū.

Business letter in Arabic script. Very long. Incomplete. Mentions someone's brother who has not returned from India as expected (seven lines from the bottom of recto). Needs examination.

Business letter in Arabic script from Ibrāhīm b. Hillel to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef (who ʿAodeh thinks was in India at the time), mentioning shipments of copper, textiles, brazilwood, pepper and cardamom.

Court record, or deposition of witnesses. Written on cloth by Avraham ben Yiju. Location: India, perhaps Mangalore. Dating: 1132–39 or 1145–49 CE, based on ben Yiju's years in India. The record itself is almost completely effaced. It notes that a trader presented a court record/ruling (maʿase) which had been drawn up in Bharuch (Broach), the well-known port city in northwest India. On verso there are two medical prescriptions in Arabic script. (Information from Goitein and Friedman.)

Memorandum (tadhkira) for a trader named Mufliḥ b. Binyamin Ibn Ahwāzī. In Judaeo-Arabic. In which he orders a scarf (radda) with his son’s name (Yaʿaqov b. Mufliḥ b. Binyamin) to be embroidered on it in Hebrew script. This fragment contains additional accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals, as well as a recipe in Judaeo-Arabic for a kind of wine (nabīdh al-dā[..]). The trader is based in Aden, as a note in Arabic script on verso reads "wazana/wuzina ilayhim fī furḍat ʿAdan," referring to a payment made in the customshouse (furḍa) of Aden. Goitein writes, "Another order for a garment embroidered with a name, pre­sented by a father to his son, written, as usual, in Arabic language, but Hebrew script, raises problems. It is an incomplete draft of a memo to be sent from Aden to Egypt. I translate in full, line by line, so that the reader may be the judge: (1) Memo from the sheikh Mufliḥ [Successful]: (2) A Dabīqī scarf (radda) (3) five cubits long and (4) five spans broad (4a) of highest quality, (5) bordered by two embroidered inscriptions (maḥshiyya bi-ṭirāzayn) (6) each running from one edge to the other (ḥiwālayn kull ṭirāz) (6a) the first (7) written in Hebrew script: (8) Yaʿqūb b. R. Mufliḥ (9) b. R. Binyamin (10) [Given] to Ibn Ahwāzī." For further information on tirāz, see Stillman, Arab Dress, 120–37. (Information in part from Goitein's attached notes; Goitein, Med Soc IV, 197–98; and Goitein and Friedman, India Traders p. 428 n. 80.) ASE

ʿAydhab; End of the summer or fall of 1131 Halfon wrote from ʿAydhab, the Sudanese port city on the coast of the Red Sea, to his older brother Eli the Judge, who was living in Cairo. In a letter of account and a brief account of Ḥalfon’s unsuccessful journey to Yemen and India and especially the difficult dispute that arose in Yemen, which revolved around the confrontation between the Jewish authorities in Egypt and Baghdad in general and the mention of the authority of the Gaʾon Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, the head of the Jews in Egypt, in the prayer. Ḥalfon fought the war of Maṣliaḥ, but he and his fellow foreign merchants suffered severe insults from the Persian Jew, the cousin of the head of the exile, who ordered Maṣliaḥ‘s permission to be revoked, and from the dignitaries of Eden. His letter was run by Ḥalfon to Cairo by the North African merchant Avraham b. Muʿṭī, who, together with his fellow traveler Yosef b. Ezra, cooperated with him in the quarrel and defended the rights of a successful man. Ḥalfon advised Ali to bring Avraham before the Gaon, so that he would tell him about the events in Yemen in detail and so that the Gaon could prepare a suitable response to those who insulted his honor. It is possible that Certificate ח10 is the last document written about the affair, which has survived, even though it summarizes it from the beginning, and the first document is Certificate ח5. The background to the dispute and its events are discussed in the introduction, including the considerations for determining the estimated time of writing the ח10 certificate. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Twenty orders of payment in the hand of Abū Zikrī Kohen & one fragment of accounts: Fol. 1: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 3 ounces of apple syrup. Fol. 2: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1/2 raṭl of oxymel. Fol. 3r: Remnants of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Fol. 3v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of lemon syrup and 1 ounce of rose. Fol. 4: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 5r: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Related to the India trade; mentions the Kārim fleet, worrying news, and someone named Abū l-Saddād. Fol. 5v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 6: The addressee is to give the bearer lemon syrup (the left side of the fragment is torn away). Fol. 7r: Note in Arabic script. "Send us. . . lemon. . . ḥalāwa. . . obtain for me pomegranate syrup." Fol. 7v: Abū l-Ḥasan is to give the bearer 1/2 raṭl of rose syrup and 1/4 raṭl of pomegranate syrup. The same instruction is written in Arabic script and crossed out. Fol. 8r: Remnant of a letter or possibly state document in Arabic script. The ends of two lines are preserved: ...لعبك من الخاصة... Fol. 8v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 raṭl of rose and lemon syrup. Fol. 9: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 3 ounces of lemon and rose syrup ("none other"). Dated: Kislev 1451 Seleucid, which is 1139/40 CE. Fol. 10r: Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The first few lines and the upper margin are preserved. Muslim/Musallam sends his regards. Almost all the content preserved is formulaic. Fol. 10v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer lemon and rose [syrup]. Fol. 11: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 12: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 13: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 14r: Lower part of a petition in Arabic script: "...to your slave my son Faḍāʾil, and please bestow favor on me with this great favor, and the reward and recompense will be from God the exalted. Do not delay, for I await deliverance from God and from you. I wish you the utmost peace." Fol. 14v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1/2 raṭl of oxymel. Fol. 15r: Remnants of accounts in Greek/Coptic numerals. Fol. 15v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of pomegranate oxymel. Fol. 16: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 raṭl of oxymel. Fol. 17: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of oxymel syrup. Fol. 18: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of chewy candy (ʿaqīd). Fol. 19: Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. This is the sole fragment under this shelfmark that does not include an Abū Zikrī Kohen order of payment. Fol. 20r: Sulaymān is to give the bearer, the cantor Abū Saʿīd, 15 (ounces?) of rose (syrup?). Dated: Nisan 1451 Seleucid, which is 1140 CE. The contents of the order are repeated at the top in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. All this is crossed out. Fol. 20v: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 1 ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd) ("none other"). Fol. 21: Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod is to give the bearer 2 ounces of some kind of syrup. On verso there are remnants of accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.

Fol. 3: Legal document. Left side of an agreement with a wife that she would receive the rent from the middle story of a house, but if it was unoccupied it would be her loss. Dated: 1436 Seleucid or slightly earlier, which is ca. 1124 CE. Names Isḥāq b. Makhlūf al-Nafūsī; a Lebdī; and [...] b. Abū ʿUmar al-Ṭabīb. In the lower margin, at 90 degrees: "Efrayim b. Elʿazar ha-Ḥazzan, Sitt al-Kull bt. Yaḥyā." (Information from Goitein’s attached notes.)

Aden, 1131 This document is a draft, or more precisely, partial lists that Ḥalfon wrote to himself, and based on them, he obviously intended to write a letter with orderly instructions to so-and-so. The certificate begins in the middle of the sentence, and there must have been at least one page before it that was not preserved. The writing is difficult to decipher (and translate), and the fragmentation of the things and the closed and sealed style make it more difficult to understand the matters. In the first part of the certificate, Ḥalfon describes the interest of Masmun b. Hassan or his messenger in the letters that arrived, and also mentions the matter of delivering other letters. Mentioned ben Jumayhīr (̇גַמַאהִר) (line 25), who, as is known from document ח7, ח8, ח10, objected to mentioning the 'authority' of a successful person in the prayer. The general tone of these lists indicates that they were written at an earlier stage of the affair than that known from the previous documents. A sign of this is Ḥalfon's doubt about whether he will return to Egypt or go to India (line 35-36). He may be telling about what happened the night after the day the foreigners arrived in Aden (line 24-25). Rabbi Yaʿqūb’s letter, mentioned in line 7, is probably one of the letters of Yaʿqūb b. Sālim mentioned in document ח5, line 14 onwards, and it becomes clear, therefore, that document ח6 was written after document ח5. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)