Geniza Lab

Short letter on a vellum from Palermo by a Baghdadi, mentioning a trip to Sicily and referring to merchandise sent to Damascus by one Harun b. al-Saruji. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter written and sent from al-Mahdiyya by Musa Tahirti to his brother Barhun in Fustat, containing details about trade in the Maghreb and advising his brother about buying flax. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. III, p. 198)

Short business letter with request to send a reply with the same mail courier and mentioning purchases of commodities. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 284 and from Goitein's index cards)

Short letter written and sent from Alexandria by Musa b. Abu al-Hayy to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat, dealing with a shipment of robes and with collecting a debt of 106 dinars. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. III, p. 525)

Letter written and sent probably from Alexandria by Yaʿaqov b. Salman al-Hariri perhaps to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Ca. 1052 (Gil). Discusses business matters, announces that merchandise transported in Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ's ship arrived safely in al-Mahdiyya, and describes an attack by warships on the commercial ships in port.

Half of a letter (left side of recto, right side of the three lines of verso) from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat. Line 8 probably reads, "[My heart is wi]th [my brother] al-Shaykh Abu l-Ḥasan in his illness [פי תעבה]." Also mentions flour; Ibn al-Dakli (?); Fada'il; Abu Nasr; Najm the Faqih. ASE.

Fragment of a beautifully written business letter, dealing with the sale of various items. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 592 and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter by Yosef b. Musa Tahirti from Alexandria containing details about shipments of flax including. List of expenditures. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. III, p. 260)

Calligraphic letter sent by Yefet to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, confirming the arrival of 10 dirhams and sending him some fuller's earth used in households. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 407 and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter sent from Alexandria by Nissim to Abu al-Karam Marwan in Cairo, ordering 50 zabdiyas (vessels) with decorations in color. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 145 and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from an unidentified sender, in Rashīd, to Abū Saʿīd al-ʿAfṣī ("the gallnut dealer"), probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Containing over 30 orders for materia medica in small quantities. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 442.)

Letter concerning business affairs in which the writer describes ships that are about to leave port and references ‘al-ṭārma,’ a small cabin on Nile boats, along with garments that the addressee mentioned previously. He reports his intention to leave and asks the addressee for official letters. EMS. Join: Alan Elbaum.

Letter from Hayyim b. Immanuel b. Qayoma from Mahdiyya, probably to Yehuda b. Ismail al-Andalusi. Around 1055. Concerning a shipment of boswellia and clothes. The clothes got wet during the sailing. Also mentions pearls. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 274-276, #687). VMR

Business letter from Rahamim b. 'Imran in Tinnis to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dated ca. 1055.

Letter regarding business from Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī, probably in Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim (c. 1045 CE). On verso is the continuation of the letter and a (draft of a) letter in a different hand and ink, mentioning Abū Zechariah b. Menashshe and expressing the hope that [...] b. Abū Ibrahim al-Iskandarānī, who travelled from Barqa, is fine.

Fragmentary business letter anxiously inquiring about the state of the wakils and the effect of some unknown event on them and on the public. Dated to the beginning of the 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 190)

Letter concerning business issues in which the writer discusses the price of silk and references a previous conversation between Abu al-Tahur and the addressee. Abu al-Muna is also mentioned. EMS

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim (Misr) to Abi Ibrahim 'Iyash b. Sedaqa Baruch al-Maghribi (al-Quds) concerning family affairs. Verso: Address in Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥasan and jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Musa b. Abi al-Hayy in Alexandria to Abu Yahya Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1057 (Gil). This is one of two letters describing a catastrophic set of shipwrecks; the other is CUL Or. 1080 J167 (PGPID 2259). Musa b. Abi al-Hayy is upset by the news of shipwrecks that had befallen some of the ships in which some of the traders from their circle (aṣḥābunā) had sailed with their merchandise. The first group of ships included: (1) the qunbār of the amīr, on which R. Maṣliaḥ, his brother, and Maymūn were sailing; (2) the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ, on which Isḥaq b. Khalaf, Tamām, and Musa's brother were sailing; (3) the qārib of the amīr headed to Tripoli, on which Khalfon, Ibn Nissim, Ḥajjāj, Shaʾul the son of Ibn Benayya's sister, Janūn, the son of the brother of Ibn al-Iskandarānī; (4) the qārib of the vizier, on which none of their aṣḥāb were traveling; (5) the qārib of al-Tarājima, which likewise contained none of their aṣḥāb; (6) the khīṭī captained by al-Dawwāma, also containing none of their aṣḥāb; (7) the khayṭī of al-Labāʾa, which was headed for Sfax and likewise contained none of the aṣḥāb; (8) the qārib of Ibn Zanbāj. In the second group of ships, the ships included (1) the qārib of Ibn al-Iskandar, on which Mardūk was traveling; (2) the qārib of Ibn Dayṣūr, on which the Kohen Ibn Hārūn and his boy were traveling; (3) the government ship (markab al-sulṭān) on which the son of Abū Yūsuf and Ibn Naḥum were traveling; (4) the qārib of al-Fāriqī, on which Abū Yūsuf, Ibn Raynāʾ, and an ailing man from Gabès (Qābis) were traveling; (5) the Ishfīlī, on which the son of the sister of Abū Ibrāhīm, Ṣemaḥ, Ḥānnān (!) and Ibn Asad were traveling; (6) the qārib of al-Jannānī, which wasn't carrying any of their aṣḥāb. This is not an exhaustive accounting of what's in the letter; also mentioned are the ship of al-Muʿizz, which was carrying the son of Abū Yūsuf, who perished, may God have mercy on him. There were other deaths, and still other people about whom the writer doesn't know whether or not they were saved. Goitein on this pair of letters (Med. Soc., 1:331) "What could happen to such a convoy is vividly described in two complementary letters, written in Alexandria around the middle of the eleventh century. Altogether, twenty-two ships are mentioned by name and the fate of each is recorded. In addition, the names of the business friends of the addressee, a total of twenty-five, traveling in them and what happened to each are reported. The convoy set sail in three successive groups, called 'sailings' (iqlāʿāt), the first two consisting of eight bottoms each. The first group consisted of a qunbār and a barge of the amir, or governor, of Alexandria; three other barges, one belonging to a vizier, two khīṭīs, one entitled "al-Ra'isa," "the Chief," owned by a lady [Gil reads this differently above, and Rustow concurs with him], and a craft called markab, the general word for ship. The second group consisted of the ship of the sultan Muʿizz of Tunisia, a ship and a barge belonging to a man from Seville, Spain, and several other craft among them one qunbar (as in the first group). These ships sailed on Monday before Pentecost (month of May), but two days later were overcome by a storm, in which the ship of the sultan and another boat perished; the writer of our letters and the addressee both had goods and friends in those ships. The convoy took refuge in two anchoring places on the North African coast, one of which, (Ra's) al-Kanāʾis, is frequently mentioned in our records and is still operating today as a local harbor. (The late King Faruk had a summer palace there, and since Ra's al-Kanaʾis means 'Cape of the Churches,' he renamed it Ra's al-Ḥikma, 'Cape of Wisdom.') Only five ships belonging to the first group succeeded in passing out into the high seas, for in addition to the storm just mentioned, there was another calamity. The enemy, certainly the Byzantine navy, 'which had complete mastery over the sea,' captured one boat and only because of its being busy with it did the rest of the convoy escape. The remaining ships had to return to Alexandria, however, where the governor ordered them to be unloaded, obviously because he did not see any possibility of sending out a second convoy."

Fragment of a letter from Nahray b. Nissim to an unidentified addressee mentioning accounts and the amount of linen that the addressee has to provide. A load of soap on the sultan's ship is also mentioned. Dated to the second half of the 11th century.