Geniza Lab

Note addressed to Abu al-Faraj, saying that Abu al-Makarim is to receive payment from the bearer, in the amount of two qirats (of a dirham) and a half fals, and apologizing for the delay in conveying the payment. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Peraḥya b. Sahlān (Alexandria), ca. 1055. Only the bottom part of the letter is preserved. Refers to a blow involving the wares of the recipient, which arrived from Tripoli (Libya) in the Maghreb and were on a ship with a Muslim named Yāsīn. After the blow, some of the wares were sold. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 547.)

Short letter from Nahray b. Nissim to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy. Around 1045. Seems that the letter is from the beginning of Nahray’s time In Egypt. He is in a place where flax for shipment are made. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #244) VMR

Mercantile letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand is very cursive and very hard to read (and seems familiar from other 11th- or 12th-century mercantile documents). Refers to people such as Abū Saʿīd, possibly Ghālib ibn al-Rayyis, Abū l-Surūr, and al-ʿAkkāwī. Mentions several ships. On verso a list, in the hand of the same scribe, of names and commodities, such as pepper, nard, arsenic, and musk items usually associated with the India trade.

Upper fragment of a letter sent by a merchant from al-Mahdiyya to Abu Zikri Yahya b. al-Majjani. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 693)

Business letter dealing with spices. In Judaeo-Arabic. The hand is likely that of Yedutun ha-Levi. (Goitein, too, flagged the script as familiar.) The letter is addressed to a 'brother' (Moshe ha-Levi?); mentions Abū Saʿd and 'your paternal uncle Bayān.' The letter is damaged but is a valuable source of information for the business of a druggist (ʿaṭṭār). Commodities mentioned include storax (mayʿa) and saffron. The writer does not know precisely the weight of the saffron; the addressee should weigh the burniyya together with the saffron in it and subtract the weight of the burniyya. The writer is suffering an attack of ophthalmia (and Isḥāq is too), but he will try to "go out" (from Fustat) if he is able to. On verso there are piyyutim (not necessarily in the same hand as recto; needs examination). ASE

Account for Nahray b. Nissim. 1058. The account includes nine shipments of flax, as well as shipments of sumac, cloths, and white silk. Several of those were sold in Ashkelon and others in Tinnis. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #837) VMR

Verso: draft of a register of shipments of goods by Barhun b. Musa al-Tahirti. Around 1050. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #353) VMR

Letter from Shelomo b. Moshe al-Safāquṣī, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat, to Salāma b. Nissim al-Barqī, in Buṣīr. Dating: ca. 1046. Asking him to acquire various items in Buṣīr, and asking him to draw a special symbol on the packages he sends. (Gil.) Also mentions saffron packed in paper. (MR.) NB: This was previously listed on PGP as T-S Ar.25.19.

Letter from a Ifrīqiyan merchant writing from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat) in which the writer outlines his problems with the capitation tax and notes that after Nahray’s intervention he paid two dinars this year, which he would not have minded, if other had been treated in the same way. Furthermore, “the tax-gatherers (ḥushshār, “ralliers”) and the director of the jaliya are not to blamed; all this is entirely the work of the Jews.” The opening formulae of the letter is preceded by the basmala in Aramaic-Hebrew form: בשמך רחמנא כתאבי אטאל אללה בקא מולאי (In Your name, O Merciful One, my letter, may God prolong the life of my master). (Nahray, 118; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:385, 611; and Esther-Miriam Wagner, “The Weakening of the Bourgeoisie,” in From a Sacred Source: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif,” ed. Ben Outhwaite and Siam Bhayro, Brill, 2010, 345-6) EMS

Recto and verso: Letter recounting how a storeroom in Alexandria belonging to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, was opened and it was discovered that the grain was spoiled (talaf); the writer asks for instructions on what to do with it. (Nahray 116; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 4:435) EMS

Letter from Barhūn b. Mūsā ha-Tahirti, in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: about 1045 (Gil). Business letter discussing trade in silk and linen, including with Byzantium.

Letter from Barhūn b. Ṣāliḥ al-Tahirti, in Barqa to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1045 CE. Barhūn writes at length and in detail about his disagreement with a person who was his business partner for trading textiles. It seems that after his stay in Alexandria, Barhūn traveled to Barqa. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #329) VMR

Letter from Maymūn b. Efrayim (Alexandria) to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal (Fustat). Contains information about the movement of wares via Alexandria and about financial matters. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 551.)

Letter from Mawhūb b. Aharon the ḥazzan to Nahray b. Nissim.

Shipping certificate from Nahray b. Nissim probably to Moshe b. Yahya al-Majani. Around 1065. Detailed the coins that were in a coin packet. Verso: Details about several dinar amounts, as well as the name b. al-Majani. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #301) VMR

Detailed account of monthly sales of products from the east in Sicily, especially spices and flax, covering the period from August 1064 to October 1065, written in late 1065 (Gil). Also contains the draft of a letter, in which Ibn al-Shāma requests from his business partner a similar account for the years 454–57/1062–65 of the goods and gold that had been sent in exchange from Sicily to Egypt. This exchange of accounts suggests that this particular business relationship that had lasted several years was hereby ended. According to Gil, the account and the letter were sent by Zakharya b. Yaʿqūb b. al-Shāma in Tripoli, Libya. Also mentions Abū Zikrī Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār, the representative of the merchants in Palermo; and refers to a load of merchandise belonging to Yūsuf b. Ibrāhīm the dayyān transported by Abū ʿAbdallah (b. al-Baʿbāʿ). (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 185, 207; Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, p. 222; Ben-Sasson, Yehudei Sitzilya, p. 330)

Fragment of a letter from Farah b. Isma’il to Nahray b. Nissim. Regarding money exchange and shipments of linen. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #508) VMR

Fragment of a letter from Farah b. Yosef b. Farah. Around 1070. Mentions selling linen and other goods including tamarisk seeds and nuts. The writer declares that he is not a merchant who participates in tenders for work like others, but stays next to his shop. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #525) VMR