Geniza Lab

Letter to Abū l-Faḍl in the Fayyum, reports very low prices of wheat in Cairo and a story of unsold bread. Thirteenth century. VMR (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 238, 436-437) There are also jottings on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Note to Umm Bū Zikrī. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer tells her to pack her belongings and to come immediately with the bearer of the letter to the house of Mūsā. She should also bring the book (muṣḥaf) from the house of Sitt al-Jamāl and a specified bunch of papers. Whatever she needs (of money?) she should take from R. Yosef or the bearer of the letter. She should bring Umm Ḥayyūn the wife of the ʿAjamī with her, "because her children have left." (Information in part from Goitein's index card and CUDL.) VMR, ASE.

Letter from Yosef b. ʿIwāḍ to Hananel b. Shemuel. Alexandria, probably 1214-1215.

Letter addressed to Najīb al-Siqillī, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: Probably no earlier than 13th century. Mentions "our friends in (New) Cairo." (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yosef b. Nadiv the cantor, in Bilbays, to Eliyyahu b. Zekharya the Judge in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mostly about business in wheat. The sender explains that he did not travel to Fustat in person on account of his capitation tax and that of his son Makārim. However, if 'Rabbenu' wishes him to sit around unemployed, he will come to Fustat and do so and will study under him Ḥullin and Qiddushin and Giṭṭin. The sender prays for the Nagid Avraham Maimonides every Shabbat when he lifts up the the Torah scroll. Greetings to Berakhot (=probably Shelomo, Eliyyahu's son) and various other people.

Letter from Manṣūr Kohen to Eliyyahu the Judge (Abū l-Faraj b. al-Rayyis). In Judaeo-Arabic. There are several letters by this writer: see tag. This letter mentions al-Ra'īs al-Ḥakīm Abū Zikrī and al-Rashīd Abū l-Ḥasan. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of appeal addressed to Shelomo ha-Nasi. The writer asks for assistance after having been arrested. He suffers severe poverty and illness and bedbugs (al-baqq). "May God spare you such a trial, and may God place all whom you hate in my situation."

Letter to Eliyyahu the judge from a female relative in Alexandria, complaining about his treatment of her family. Early 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Testimony fragment of a loan from 1224 in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu.

Letter in which Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) recommeds to the judge Perahia and his sons a man who wishes to marry the judge's daughter.

Letter from Joseph b. Jacob Kohen in Bilbays to Elijah the judge, complains about economic conditions there. Early 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Draft of sale contract for 12 out of 20 shares (the whole house constituted 24 shares) in the Qadi Badr alley of the al-Mamsusa quarter, at a price of 1000 wariq (silver) dirhams (exchange rate of 1:40). Dated ca. 1230. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 278)

Letter from Yosef b. Yishaq Yerushalmi to Ya'aqov ha-Talmid b. Binyamin. He asks him to receive a bashful needy man well and take care of his capitation tax. Dated 1211 (1400+122, assuming that the Seleucid calendar is meant.) Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter addressed to Nasi Yoshiyahu. The writer has many debts. Abu Sa'd and the son of al-Rayyis Sulayman are mentioned. In the last lines, the writer asks to know with whom the commentary on the Prophets had been pawned. Likely from ca. 1230s, as Yoshiyahu and al-Rayyis Sulayman are mentioned in the correspondence of Jalal al-Dawlah and Shelomo b. Yishai. ASE.

Certification of ritual purity of a cheese shipment is signed by Judge Eliyyahu in 1241.

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla, in Cairo, to Shelomo b. Yishai the Mosul Nasi, in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1240 CE. The writer had sent a pair of red woolen children's shoes with Muʿammar al-Dimashqī intended for the addressee's son Yishai. He devotes much of the letter to a vivid description of his illnesses. “As for my state, I inform the masters that I came down with diarrhea, and I endured it. When it increased and multiplied, it became an illness. A physician was treating me, al-Rayyis Sulaymān al-Ḥakīm al-Fāḍil of the family of Rabbenu Menaḥem (ZL). They concocted the medicine in the house of Rabbenu (ZL): every day, roasted seeds and the like, and a pullet, and he visited me frequently. And R. Eliyya the Judge was also generous. When I recovered after some days… [I came down] with what was worse than it… ophthalmia in my eye on the night of Shabbat Shoftim… a painful scream, against my will, all night…. May God afflict my enemies [with what I was afflicted with]. The illness became public. What I suffered cannot be [described].” In the continuation, he sends regards to the judge Peraḥya and praises him as the most learned and powerful judge in the country. He concludes, "As for my eye, fog and darkness were upon it." There is a postscript in the same hand but in the third person (perhaps meaning that a secretary wrote this letter for Jalāl al-Dawla or that somebody later copied it): "After he wrote this letter, he entered the bathhouse (meaning, he was fully recovered) on the 26th of Elul, so be glad of heart." ASE

Bill of divorce signed in 1222 by Eliyyahu ha-dayyan.

The brother of a dead husband grants his paternal first cousin, a childless widow, a release from the obligation of Levirate marriage. Dated 1513/1202.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father-in-law Abu'l-Faraj, asking him to write a letter to correct his daughter’s (Shelomo’s wife’s) behaviour, since Shelomo is losing his patience with her. Early 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to Judge Elijah from his brother-in-law Abu-l-Fadl of Alexandria (13th century).