Geniza Lab

Legal document from the time of Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) regarding a debt of 96 dirhams. Written by Shlomo b. Eliyyahu. AA

Letter to Avraham Maimuni from Yehuda Melammed b. Aharon ha-Rofe.

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

Testimony made by unknown members of the Jewish community (the signatures are either cut off or were never added). Location: Fustat. Dated: First decade of Iyyar 1540 Seleucid, which is 1229 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides (called 'adon' and 'gaʾon' but not 'nagid'). T-S NS J66 (mainly Hebrew) and T-S 8.161 (mainly Judaeo-Arabic) are versions of the same document. The undersigned say that when they lived in Jerusalem, Yeshuʿa b. Shelomo ha-Levi regularly went up to the Torah for the Levi blessings when no other Levi was present. Moreover, they confirmed this from asking the people of his country. This document was drawn up for him to carry with him as support for his claim to be a Levi. Goitein summarizes it as follows: "How even the poorest of the poor would jealously guard his rights in these matters [participation in prayer] may be seen from a document certifying that a certain young "Levi" was called up in Jerusalem to read a part of the Scripture lection, when no other local or foreign "Levi" was present. This rather comical testimony was given to him "so that he might not be put to shame" (Med Soc II, p. 161). (Information in part from Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, p. 336–37.) VMR. ASE.

Instruction by Avraham Maimonides to a scribe to make out a declaration that the court of Fustat had acceded to a ban pronounced against Evyatar al-Kohen al-Amidi in another country.

Court record concerning financial matters between Munajjā and Abū l-Surūr. Dated 49[..] of the Era of Creation and [..]25 Era of documents. so it is 1214 CE. AA Information from CUDL. (Previous description, referring to an unknown shelfmark: Verso: draft of poetry, with a citation from Psalms 33:11. VMR)

Autographed Responsum by Avraham Maimonides regarding the estate of a freed female slave. Written by MOshe b. Perahya, who was the muqaddam of MInyat Ghmar. AA

Letter. Strongly-worded admonition to a Muqaddam to deal with the estate of a widow and her daughter, in accordance with instructions by the Nagid. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS Verso: Biblical citations from Leviticus 8:26-27 and 30-31. (Information from CUDL)

Record of testimony. Fragment (upper left corner). Location: Fustat. Dated: End of Sivan 152[.] Seleucid, which is 1209–18 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. Involves [...] b. Abū l-Yumn (ZL) and [...] al-Ṣabbāgh b. Abū l-Surūr. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterannean Society, 3:327, 500.) EMS. Same scribe: T-S 8J6.1, T-S 8J6.2, T-S 8J11.6, and probably T-S 16.341.

Legal deed. Location: Qūṣ. Dated: Shevaṭ 1527 Seleucid, which is 1216 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. In which the physician Abū l-Manṣūr Elʿazar b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi gifts the entire contents of his late wife’s dowry, “consisting of gold, silver, copper, and other items worth 200 Egyptian dinars,” to his two minor daughters, Nasab and Kufūʾ (or Kufāʾ?). The declaration was made in the house of Abū Saʿd Seʿadya, in the presence of his son Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Yehuda ha-Talmid ("the scholar"). (Information from Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 34; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:278–79, 489) EMS

Legal document. Dated: 1529 Seleucid, which is 1217/18 CE, under the reshut of Avraham Maimonides. In which Abū al-Barakāt/Berakhot al-Sukkarī releases his maternal aunt Sitt al-Khibāʾ bt. Moshe ha-Kohen from any claims resulting from the inheritance of Moshe ha-Kohen (i.e., his grandfather and her mother.) This document was left unfinished. (Information from Goitein's index card) EMS

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to a certain Abū l-Surūr (probably an elder relative, since he is addressed as "father"). In Judaeo-Arabic. Faded and damaged, and only the upper part is preserved. Verso: Draft of a generic legal document—a "trial of style," according to Goitein. Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 29 Tammuz 1536 Seleucid, which is 1225 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. Probably written by Judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya (AA). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS.

Letter of thanks addressed to the Nagid making reference to recommendations granted. The writer uses the phrase “the Mordechai of the age,” a common designation for communal leaders and court physicians. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:491, 642; and Elisha Russ-Fishbane, Judaism, Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt: A Study of Avraham Maimonides and His times, Oxford University Press: 2015, 18 ) EMS Written by a person named Daud, who is well attested during this period. AA

Draft of a court record dated 623 (1226) written on a very small piece of paper (4 x 2.5 in) regarding the testimony of Abū Saʿīd al-Levi b. Abū l-Maʿānī that Abu ʾl-Faḍl b. Mukhtār al-Iskandarī had died while in Kalah (Goitein: on the west coast of present-day Malaysia). The document establishes that India traders ventured to Southeast Asia. Goitein didn't supply a reading for the place-name after Kalah ("the lands of ..."); Marina Rustow and Michael Laffan (March 2021) read "Java" (al-jāwa). The document gives dates according to the Jewish (Seleucid) calendar and the hijrī calendar. Old IB Number: 322. New IB Number: VII, 32. In the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Dating: 10 Tammuz 1537 (Seleucid)

Legal query addressed to a Muslim jurisconsult concerning the changes in synagogue ritual introduced by Avraham Maimonides. The senders of the query object to the innovations and hope that the Muslim government will also disapprove. See also AIU XI.258, one of the draft versions of this query. On verso there is a Hebrew liturgical text, possibly in the hand of Yedutun ha-Levi (compare Bodl. MS heb. b 13/41, written in his hand, one of the key documents of the prayer reform controversy). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card and Khan.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely Tammuz 1232 CE, and almost definitely 1232–37 CE. See below for explanation. Writer and addressee are unidentified. The writer dictated the letter to his son. They were evidently affluent merchants and suppliers to the army. The letter is mainly about the controversy over the prayer reforms of the Nagid Avraham Maimonides. The sons of the Sixth (the family members of the previous dynasty of Nagids) submitted a petition against Avraham to the Sultan al-Malik al-ʿĀdil, to which Avraham responded with a counter-petition signed by almost 200 people from the community, testifying that he had not forced his prayer reforms on anybody. The writer maintains that all those who signed in favor of Avraham testified falsely and deserve to be punished by the shaving of their beards, for he claims that Avraham certainly did force his prayer reforms on the community in their synagogues. The writer goes on to report on recent deaths, including that of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu (who predeceased his father) and Yūsuf b. al-Kharrāz (who ate dinner and went to sleep and died; in the morning, his face was "black as ink"). There is a section on the prices of various commodities, a section on relations with the military officer Kātib al-ʿArab, and greetings. As for the justification for the dating: Avraham Maimonides died in 1237. There were two sultans named al-Malik al-ʿĀdil. The first was the brother of Saladin and reigned 1200–18. The second was the grandson of the first (the son of al-Malik al-Kāmil) and reigned 1238–40, after the death of Avraham Maimonides. However, during the years 1232–38 when al-Malik al-Kāmil lived in Syria, al-Malik al-ʿĀdil the Younger sometimes represented his father in Egypt. Goitein determined that the reference must be to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil the First, which would date the document to 1204–18. But the plot thickens, because Shelomo b. Eliyyhau—whose death is reported in this document—was still alive in the month of Av in 1231 CE (Med Soc II, 575 n. 60) and Heshvan 1231 CE (Freer F 1908.44H). The present letter is dated Sunday 5 Tammuz. This narrows the window to 1232–37 CE. The trouble is that the 5th of Tammuz can never fall on a Sunday.... so either the scribe was off by a day or meant to write 15th of Tammuz. The latter option is supported by the phrase "may its sadness be turned to joy," which might refer to the upcoming 17th of Tammuz fast. (Information mainly from Friedman's article on this document; see also Mediterranean Society, I, p. 141; II, p. 485).

Letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides in which he instructs Fakhr al-Dawla regarding a sum of money, nine dinars, still owed, and what to tell Abu al-'Ala about it. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides, mentioning Yosef. Verso: Letter by Moshe b. Peraḥya, the muqaddam of Minyat Ghamr, concerned with a legal dispute over an inheritance, mentioning Ibn Kamāl from Bilbays and Minyat Ghamr. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein's index cards. Joins by Mordechai Akiva Friedman. (AA)

End of a responsum of Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) dated 1236.

Draft of a note or draft in the hand of Avraham b. Moshe b. Maymūn (Abraham Maimonides) addressed to Yehuda Hakohen (b. Tuviahu) who was the muqqdam of Bilbays (1170's - 1218), including the Arabic phrase muqaddam al-yahūd Bilbays. AA