Geniza Lab

Mevorakh (inference) explaining the circumstances surrounding the sale, at less than their value, of some items in an estate belonging to the heirs. T-S 10J9.33

Letter of business from Yisrael b. Yosef b. Banuka to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. The letter was written when Nissim, Nahray's father, was still alive. The letter is about a deal that was made to sell beads. Circa 1040 (Gil estimate). VMR

Letter segment concerning some legal issues with the signature of Shemarya. The first concerns Nissim al-Iskandarani who has entered into a business partnership with an unnamed woman. Mention is also made of Shemarya’s school. Greetings are sent at the end to Yosef b. Salim. (Information from CUDL)

Partnership agreement dated Sivan 1735 CE (5495), to last for eight years, it seems for a business venture dealing in etrogim. The six partners are (1) Yaʿaqov Bonsenyor (whose signature is preserved at the bottom), (2) Yeshuʿa al-Ḥāmī, (3) Avraham [...], (4) David Mizraḥī known as Nawwār (?), and (5) the youth Avraham Rozanes known as Ghazzāwī, and (6) Avraham's father, Shemuel al-Ghazzāwī. (There are a few missing words so it is not certain that Shemuel al-Ghazzāwī is the 6th partner.) An interesting detail mentioned is that Yaʿaqov Bonsenyor is about to set forth for a sheliḥut in Hebron and in Yemen. ASE.

Letter from Muslim to his son ʿIwaḍ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning sugar cane molasses (quṭāra) and wine. "Stop occupying yourself with marriage plans and such idle things," writes a father, reminding his son, a fledgling physician, that he had not yet made enough money for such ventures. (wa-tukhalli ʿannak al-ishtighāl bil-jīza (=zija) wa-l-umūr al-hadhayāniyya. First Goitein took bljyzh as bil-ijāza (with Imāla) in the sense of tazkiya (certificate of good conduct for a physician), see Med. Soc, II, 250. But the reading suggested here seems to be preferable. Later in the letter the father says: anta muḥārif, "you are a poor man." (Information from Goitein, Med Soc III, p. 245 and 480 note 158).

Letter from Abū l-Manṣūr b. Ṭāhir al-Kohen, in Alexandria, to the Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr b. Yiṣḥaq al-Dimashqī, in Fustat. Dating: 1170s CE. The addressee was just then beginning his commercial career. The letter reports on an decree of Saladin that was proclaimed in Alexandria, halving the customs dues (maks) that had been incumbent on local and foreign Jews and Christians. The ṣāḥib al-dīwān authenticated and registered the decree (athbatahū), and the amir Fakhr al-Dīn ordered for it to be implemented. The local Jews took out the Torah scroll and prostrated themselves and prayed for the government. Also mentions various business dealings, including in sugar, and people including Hibatallāh the trader from Tripoli and Abū l-ʿIzz b. Bishr. (Information in part from CUDL and Frenkel.)

Letter to Abu al-Fadl al-Murid ('the supplier' of gold and silver to the Mint) b. Tamim refering to acute shortages in the market, late 12th-early 13th century.

Business accounts. Notes of receipts etc. Seven instructions to a (Goitein: "?") to meet with different persons and to arrange matter with them. (Information from Goitein's index card). VMR

Letter addressed to Makhlūf al-Maghribi in Jerusalem, in the 'house of Natan,' about various commercial matters. Yehuda al-Ashkenazi and Abu Khalifa are also mentioned. EMS

Witness statement concerning a young man named Sedaqa the Meshorer b. Semah, an agent in a business venture in pharmaceutical plants, olive oil and gallnuts, amounting to the considerable sum of 90-91 dinars, who asks for witnesses on a Sabbath, because of the urgency of the matter. The witnesses accompany him to the house of a dying man, Abu al-Ma'ali al-Dhahabi Shelomo b. Yakhin, with whom he had a loan regarding some commodity Abu al-Ma'ali confirms that the sum mentioned was indeed all due to Sedaqa and declares that he is his trusted agent. Dated Kislev 1438/1126. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 136, 543)

Legal document. Court proceeding. Location: Fustat. Dated: February 1160. Ḥiyya b. Yiṣḥaq (the son of Isaac b. Samuel ha-Sefardī) invested 65 dinars with Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn Ṭibān Tobijah ha-Levi al-Tājir b. Abū Sa‘d Samuel ha-Levi al-Tājir as a commenda, with profits to be split evenly between the two. Trading losses reduced the capital to 39 dinars, and Ḥiyya retained Abū al-Rabī‘ Suleymān Solomon ha-Kohen al-‘Aṭṭār b. Judah ha-Kohen to collect the remaining proceeds from Tobijah. Solomon received 30 of the 39 dinars he expected, the same amount which Solomon seems to have advanced Ḥiyya prior to Solomon’s departure. Abū al-Tājir Adōnīm Nānū collects an additional 10 dinars, which he had also advanced Ḥiyya. The document does not specify any initial partnership stipulations in terms of losses, but the court seems to have ruled that Abū al-Ḥasan was liable for one-third of the losses of 26 dinars (eight and two-thirds dinars). Having already repaid 40 dinars, he still owes seven and two-thirds dinars. For this balance, Abū al-Ḥasan wrote a debt document. Abū al-Ḥasan was then free of any obligation to Ḥiyya, and Solomon handed over the document that obligated Abū al-Ḥasan in the portion of the commenda assets, though he was clear that Abū al-Ḥasan was still subject to the "oath of partners", indicating that Abū al-Ḥasan would be liable for mishandling of the commenda assets. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 238)

Private letter from Raqqa to Moses Maimonides (?). Letter from Raqqah (Syria) to Fustat. May 1197. The writer stayed in Fustat in the past. He laments the lack of intellectual life in Raqqa, and is determined to return to Fustat once his business in Raqqa has furnished sufficient profit. Halakhic questions had been addressed to Yosef, and then to Shemuel and Avraham in Aleppo, and Shemuel had come to Raqqa with a commentary on Berakot. Various business matters are also discussed, involving ʿEli, and also Abu l-Zuhd in Damascus, as well as the recipient. He sends his greetings to Maimonides and several other people in the city. It seems like he is a poet and a person who copies books. Mentions his desire to return to Fustat but because of his work he cannot. He was expecting to receive several books from Aleppo and other places but only one of them arrived. The writer is a clothing merchant as well and has contacts with the people in Aleppo and Damascus. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #90 and CUDL) VMR

Letter from Abū l-Bayān either to his father or to a distinguished elder. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The father is titled "rayyis" (in the address). The rayyis Abū l-Bayān is mentioned in ll.6-7 and may be identical with the sender, which would mean that a scribe is writing on his behalf. The letter is very long and mentions numerous family and business matters. Sitt Ihtimām is still in the same state as when the addressee departed: one week sick, the next week healthy. Another woman ('sittnā') had a brief case of colic (qawlanj). Abū l-Riḍā is still "in the same state" (presumably sick). A woman called ṣāḥibat al-dār sent him 30 dirhams for 2 weeks, and some olive oil, then paid for another 2 weeks (this sentence is not clear). Abū l-Mufaḍḍal is doing something (mutaṣarrif fī nafsih) in the same way that he used to do. The people of Damietta and Tinnīs were apparently clamoring for the addressee's presence—the sender tries to dissuade him by asking if it is right for him to exhaust himself on the nights of holidays and sabbaths just to satisfy others and sicken himself. But Abū l-Mʿālī Ibn al-Qasqās came and reported that the addressee's arrival in Tinnīs and Damietta was a great success. There are repeated references to the addressee's factotum and slave (ʿabd, khādim) Abū l-Ḥusayn. When the addressee's letter arrived about obtaining a (tax?) receipt (wuṣūl), Abū l-Ḥusayn went to the son of the Ṣāḥib al-Dīwān, gave him the ruqʿa, and obtained the receipt, "and later, we will give it to the ḍāmin of the quarter." The sender paid 8 2/3 dinars to Abū Naṣr al-Kohen on that day. There follow detailed and lengthy reports on business transactions. People mentioned: Abū l-Riḍā, al-Ḥayawānī, Ismāʿīl, Kātib Ibn al-Saqīl(?), the sister of Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Mufaḍḍal, Abū l-Munā, the brother of the craftsman (al-ṣāniʿ), Masʿūd, the wife of Saʿd al-Rakkābī(?), Abū Saʿd al-Ṣāʾigh, Ibn Futūḥ, Benaya, Dhakhīrat al-Mulk, and Sharaf al-Dawla. Some of the commodities (there are also many more which are difficult to read): household furnishings, sugar, clothing, honey, raisins, something which was locked up with an iron lock, something that needs to be weighed properly, maybe hemp, sheep (khirāf), and a packsaddle (bardhaʿa). Then he conveys regards from various people ("in both households"), Abū Isḥāq b. Pinḥas, Abū Ṭāhir, and the slave Abū l-Ḥusayn. There follows a report involving Dhakhīrat al-Mulk and Sharaf al-Dawla, at least in part about a Jewish baker from Jerusalem and his son, working in the market of Ḥabs Bunān in Fustat, who were cheating their customers with bad weights (arṭāl), and who were discovered and arrested. It seems that Abū l-Ḥusayn the addressee's slave interceded with Sharaf al-Dawla and used the addressee's influence to have them freed—but now the Jews are worried that this will tarnish their reputation among the gentiles. The sender reports that Abū l-Bayān has not ridden the mules; that he has purchased a new saddle for his donkey; and refers to the arrival of 'al-Shams.' There are three more postscripts in the upper margin, discussing further business matters, mentioning Cairo and Ibn al-Qāḍī, and saying that the khādim Abū l-Ḥasan has gone to Tinnīs with a power of attorney. ASE.

Letter to a father from his son, reporting business troubles he is having with his brother. The son requests a small loan from his father. Also mentions Abu'l-Tana. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL)

Letter regarding business from Mūsā b. Nissim b. Surrī to Abū ʿImrān. On verso another, unidentified text is written. May have been sent from Qayrawān, as the writer mentions Funduq al-Maṭmūrī, also known from T-S 13J25.1. Information in part from CUDL.

Letter written on recto and verso, requesting something from the addressee and mentioning five dinars.

Recto: Letter in which the writer discusses a visit to the qadi and business matters; mentions Ibn Abu al-‘Aysh. Verso: Letter discussing business matters concerning perfumes, mentioning cassia, rose, almond, and oil. Ibn Abu al-‘Aysh and Abu al-Dajjaja are also referenced. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Letter requesting to buy through “Ibrahim, the slave merchant” a female slave for the Nezer (Diadem [an honorifc]). (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:452; and Goiten’s index cards) EMS

Letter from Abu Mansur al-Kohen b. Yefet ha-Kohen Abu Qasasa with orders for ‘mahmuda’ (scammony plant) and camphor. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS On the verso is a postscript from Abu l-Ḥusayn (Abu l-Ḥasan is written above in the margin) concerning the silk trade. He also sends greeting to the addressee’s brother Abu l-Faraj. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment of a letter in which the writer describes a business affair in which he was under threat (taḥta al-tahdīd) and also involved the sultan. (Information from Goiten's notes) EMS