Geniza Lab

Letter from Abū Zikrī b. Ḥananel to Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef al-Arajawānī. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address partially in Arabic script. Concerning business matters, and mentioning commodities such as sal ammoniac (nushādir) and purple fabric (arjawān). Refers to a ship that is apparently not traveling—not to al-Mahdiyya and not to al-Andalus. A qāḍī is sick, and the traders cannot trade. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Business note in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century. Mentions the arrival of the merchants and a request that the addressee write something in his handwriting in 'the maḥḍar' (court notebook?). The sender cites his illness ("were it not for my illness and the fact that I cannot move") to excuse himself for not coming in person. On verso there is a note in Arabic script about a sum of money owed. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from a certain Ḥ[alfon] (?) to Shemarya b. David requesting an appointment as a religious functionary. Egypt, 1213 (?). He cannot work because of his weak vision. The handwriting resembles that of Moshe b. Levi (d. 1212), who may have written the letter on behalf of the petitioner—but this is speculative. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Abū ʿAlī. The sender says that "all the doc[tors] prescribed [...] for me... and after that they prescribed me the iṭr[īfal]...." On verso, assuming this is still the same letter, he complains of his old age and frailty (or perhaps poverty). He expresses gratitude to the addressee.

Letter from Yeḥezqel, unknown location, to Avraham ha-Melammed, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks the addressee to find out from Abū l-Bahā' if he has woven the blanket (malḥafa) as promised. When the writer previously met with Abū l-Bahā' regarding this matter, Abū l-Bahā' said that he was ill but would bear it and finish the work (annahu yataḥammal al-maḍaḍ). (The other instances of maḍaḍ in the PGP database generally refer to a figurative distress, but the context here suggests an actual illness.) If Abū l-Bahā' has not fulfilled his promise, then Yūsuf from al-Maḥalla is willing to make the blanket "in two pieces." Information in part from Goitein's notes. ASE.

Letter of appeal for help, mentioning a recent death, apparently of a husband, leaving the writer (the widow) without livelihood and unable to live with the 'dowager (al-kabira)' (her mother-in-law probably), who is demanding she move out. The lower part of the letter refers to a woman who died in the seventh month of her pregnancy. There is a gap of at least a line or two between the two fragments that comprise this document. It is conceivable that the two fragments belong to two different letters, but they are certainly by the same scribe. Join by Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity/help from a man who is housebound on account of his illness and poverty (wajaʿ, ḍuʿf, ḍīq ḥāl). Mentions Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav, Yeshuʿa, and Yosef.

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

Letter from a woman, in an unknown location, to her brother ʿAṭiyya b. Yehuda b. Sulaymān and to her widowed sister’s son Manṣūr b. Avraham, in the square of the perfumers, probably Fustat. (The two addressees—nephew and brother—evidently live together.) In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: Perhaps 12th century. She describes her distress—crying, fasting, blind (probably with tears), sitting in the corner, fire in the heart—ever since the nephew departed and she learned he was sick. She exhorts him not to worry or take on mental suffering (hamm), because that would be dangerous in his state. Then she switches to addressing her brother, whom she exhorts “by our upbringing and the breast which we suckled, do not neglect my nephew Manṣūr, for he is the one who protected me... he and his brother. Write me a response to this letter and cool my heart from the severity of its fire, for if you were to see me, you would not recognize me from my worry and distress.... I have sworn not to break my fast until you write me the response to this letter. And peace.” (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter from a sick man, complaining about illness in general and death among the population. Information from CUDL. Dated: Kislev 1528 Seleucid, which is 1216 CE. The month of Kislev began on November 13, 1216. See also T-S NS 321.93 (likely from the same period) and T-S 16.305 (March 1217), two other letters regarding the great epidemic of that year, discussed by Goitein in Med Soc V, pp. 114 and 538, notes 375 and 376. When Goitein referred to T-S Ar.54.91 as being written in Kislev 1528, he probably intended T-S 6J6.20 instead. Incidentally, the handwriting of this letter resembles that of Meir b. Yakhin (Bū l-Majd b. Thābit). ASE.

Letter from Abū Saʿīd to his son. In Judaeo-Arabic. The son was ill. The letter concerns the forwarding of responsa. The writer is also in difficult straits. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237) or his son David asking a cantor to arrange a collection in the synagogue on a Thursday morning for two chickens and bread for a poor, old, sick man. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 463, and from Amir Ashur; cf. T-S Misc.8.18, written in a similar hand and layout.) Dating: 13th century

Letter from the muqaddam of Malij, congratulating R. Aharon ha-Qarawi (or: "who is called") Abu l-Ḥasan on God's miracles and Aharon's deliverance from wicked people. Contains at least 10 lines of wishes for the recovery of Aharon's son Yefet from his illness, citing numerous biblical verses. In the address on verso, al-Rayyis Rabbenu Avraham is mentioned. "Magnificent script and Hebrew style of 29 lines, then in (Judaeo-)Arabic 8 lines." Information from Goitein's note cards.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a certain Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ḥassūn. The writer recounts the legal proceedings following somebody's death and various people bearing false testimony. The writer toook a vow and paid a certain woman what was her due. "In the course of this, a severe illness came over me (wa-ḥadatha li-ʿabdihā fī ghuḍūn hādha maraḍ ṣaʿb), so I was forced to leave the [elders] and return to my family (wife), fearing that it would get worse (khawf an yashtadd [bihi?] al-amr)." The writer is mentioning this as a justification for failing to continue to be there in person (wa-kān ʿadhr ʿabdihā fī dhālika wāḍiḥ). He asks for forgiveness from 'ḥaḍrat sayyidinā', and if the latter orders him to return in person, he will do so. ASE.

Letter by a Karaite woman to three different family members. The language is opaque in many places. (1) To her mother, she opens with her sadness at her mother's departure. "Your love did not overcome [your desire to leave]." She then lists all the people who have died (mātū yā ummī māt. . .): the elderly Dāwudiyya (female descendant of David); the wife of al-Kāzarūnī who was the paternal aunt of the wife of Yehuda; the son of Ibrahim the Deaf—no one has been able to bury him for two days, "they say he is ḥashrī," probably meaning "without heirs" rather than "verminous" (see Lecker, "Customs Dues at the Time of Muhammad," al-Qantara, XXII, 2001, p. 33). (Unless the concentration of deaths means it was plague time, and some corpses were regarded as hazardous?) As for the writer's own news, she swears by the Sabbath day that she has had financial trouble with her landlord, who seems to have given her a loan and to have come on Friday to demand a payment. She had to pawn her daughter's ring. "Do not ask what trouble I had with Maʿānī yesterday. Tell him (the landlord?), 'He (Maʿānī?) is not hiding. It is just that he has had ophthalmia (ramad) for 20 days. Be patient. He will soon work and repay you in installments just like he took (the loan) in installments.'" The bottom of the letter may be missing. On verso, she addresses (2) Abū Manṣūr, and exhorts him, "Be diligent in your work, and everything will turn out well for you (yajīk kull shay' mustawī)." She makes some cryptic statements, which may mean, "As for what Umm Yehuda said, pay no mind. I have told you that the Rabbanite should pay the debt of the Samaritan on your behalf. This would be good luck and an end to the setbacks." (It is from this line that Goitein deduced that the writer was a Karaite.) She says she is working as hard as she can for the sake of "the dowry" (? al-mahr) and has already paid ʿUbayd a qadaḥ and a half of flour and some honey and two pieces of firewood and a qadaḥ of vetch (julubbān) and lye (? ghāsūl). She mentions an underfilled (? muṭaffafa) clay vessel (burniyya) and asks the addressees to send it back to her properly filled (lā tuṭaffūhā). Finally, she addresses (3) her brother Abū Thābit. "I have no counsel for you except that they are your guests. Do not be heartsick on your brother's account. Do not spurn (? tufqir) my advice, and you will overcome much misfortune (?). Do good deeds. He who digs the hole (al-zūbīya) falls in it. Do not lay a hand on him. . . You will regret it very much and say, 'That old woman (al-qaḥba) my sister was right.'" ASE.

Letter fragment in the hand of Yiṣḥaq ha-Levi Nisaburi about his cost in an affair concerning Abu Sa‘id Makhlūf al-Nafusi. (Information from Goitein's index cards; and Mediterranean Society, 4:413.) EMS. The writer also wants more bibles sent and warns him of any more business with Makhlūf. He mentions further matters regarding Abu l-Faraj and Abū Tahir, and sends greeting to a number of people, including Abu Sahl, Abu l-Rida and Abū l-ʿAla who are admonished for not writing for a long time. (Information from CUDL.) He also describes a prolonged illness (60 days) this winter and asks Abū l-Munā to try to obtain a drug called Abū Zīdān for him; the physicians tell him there is no alternative. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter/petition. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 12th century, during the tenure of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The sender asks the addressee to assist him with ‘tadbīr’ (management, regimen) so that he can petition or something similar. He offers blessings for the recovery of the Nagid Shemuel. (Goitein’s index cards). EMS

Letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Ḥisday ha-Nasi (a Qaraite communal leader) concerning a husband who wishes to divorce the wife he had been coerced into marrying in Alexandria. The husband demands to pay the marriage gift in installments (i.e., never completely) after all that he had suffered from her bad character (al-tarbut raʿa). He has been with her for three years, but it feels like twenty. He is perishing from his illness (maraḍ) and poverty and bad wife. If his request is refused, he threatens to flee the country and leave her an ʿaguna. Shelomo is probably not writing on his own behalf, as it is unlikely that he would consult a Qaraite Nasi for a legal opinion. Contains elements of both a petition and responsum. There is a provocative (mis)quotation of Leviticus 14:45 on verso: "I have broken (should be: he shall break) down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, etc." With this the husband is comparing his wife (referred to as one's 'house' in Judaeo-Arabic) with a house stricken with ẓaraʿat. (Information from CUDL and Oded Zinger, Women, Gender and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 87, 149, 180, 220, 260.) EMS. ASE.

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

Letter from a woman, unknown location, to her brother Yūsuf b. Makārim the cantor and dyer, in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: Likely 15th or 16th century, per Goitein. Contents: The writer is ill, possibly with ophthalmia. She asks for instructions concerning various matters, many having to do with their house. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and CUDL.) EMS. ASE.