Geniza Lab

Letter from Natan b. Yehuda of Alexandria to Sasson b. Meshullam, a judge of Cairo. The letter contains many personal matters that reflect the milieu of the political elite in Alexandria and Cairo. The letter reveals important details on the life of Avraham b. Yaʿaqov Darʿī. On al-Darʿī's deathbed, he accused the writer of having sent a messenger to intercept a medical prescription and swap it with a counterfeit prescription, hence murdering him. Apparently, the person who served as the representative of Mevorakh b. Saadya (referred to in the letter as 'the rayyis Abū l-Faḍl) in Alexandria after the year 1094 died in the end of the first decade of the twelfth century due to a sudden disease. The letter quotes a lament of Shemuel ha-Nagid. (Information from Frenkel)

Fragment of a letter from Abū ʿAli b. al-Dimyāṭī to his brother Abu Saʿīd b. Hibat Allah (Ḥalfon b. Netanel). The writer mentions the silk trade, describes his joy when he learned that Ḥalfon recovered after taking a medicine, and invites him to visit him in Fustat. Transcription from Goitein’s handwritten notes.

Letter from a son to his father with detailed description of his illness and recovery. Same writer and recipient as T-S 13J21.13 (addressed to Minyat al-Qa'id) and T-S 13J21.14 and Stras. 4110/90 (see tag). His fever finally abated yesterday with the onset of diarrhea (or successful purging?), however a woman in the house is still feverish. He relates the details of the treatment that he received at the hands of Ibn Habib, which, as far as can be determined through the lacunae, involves oxymel mixed with hot water, and timing something for the fifth day and the seventh day but not during the crisis. Khatir has not yet arrived from Alexandria, as he was detained by the wedding of a relative. Join: Alan Elbaum. ASE.

Recto: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to Abū l-Faraj. Only the opening remains. Verso: Letter from Shelomo (likely Shelomo b. Eliyyahu) to his father. In Judaeo-Arabic. He writes, "I met with Ibn al-ʿAmīd, and he prescribed me herb water (? mā' baql) and chicory syrup. Every doctor prescribes herb water for me." One senses frustration. The rest is quite faded. ASE.

Letter from Ṭoviya b. ʿEli, probably in a provincial town, to his cousin Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, probably in Fustat. Dating: 1122–50, based on the addressee's dated documents. Ṭoviya opens by expressing concern for his sister who is sick (as in T-S 12.298). Either Ṭoviya or somebody else in his household was ill with a fever, and is now feeling better. Recto is devoted to an intricate tale of levirate marriage (which merits further examination). Ṭoviya seeks Natan's advice and asks him to consult a legal authority regarding the matter. He asks for a bible (muṣḥaf), a loan of a parchment scroll (גביל = גויל), and several piyyutim. He concludes (starting in v13, middle of the line) with an account of the mysterious illness of his wife, whose name may be Bahā' (although בהא is an extremely common word, "in it" or "in her" does not seem to fit here). Natan must be somewhat familiar already with the illness. Ṭoviya here describes the 'tremor' (? rajīf) of her face, and the 'fever chill' (bard ḥummā) that makes her 'shake' (nāfiḍ kathīr) from her waist to her head. Ṭoviya asks Natan to obtain a prescription from a good physician. See Bodl. MS heb. d.66/141 (which contains the most detailed description) and T-S 13J25.15 (in which she is starting to feel better) for the next two installments in the story of his wife's illness. Information in part from Goitein's index cards. ASE.

Letter written by a sick man who asks the recipient to buy him a female slave, for "I have no one to give me medicine," and the children are sick (maṭrūḥīn) as well. Someone in the past told him not to buy a female slave, but now this person tells him to buy one. However, he has no way of accessing his money. Abū l-Faḍl has not been helpful in this matter. He urges the recipient (possibly his brother, since he invokes "my master's upbringing" of the recipient) to do his utmost to get hold of the 5 dinars belonging to the writer, and to go to the Rayyis Abū l-Najm and purchase a female slave with the money. At the bottom appears the signaure Shelomo ha-Levi b. Moshe ha-Shishi, but this name is not completely legible and may not belong to the letter. The handwriting of this signature may be consistent with that of Shelomo ha-Levi b. Moshe ha-Sheviʿi, who appears in T-S 16.356, a legal document dated 1120 CE. If the two are the same person (one before and one after his promotion), this letter was composed some time after 1120 CE. Verso contains several of the same phrases from recto. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from Avraham Ibn Miṣbāḥ, in Alexandria to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Written in the hand of Avraham ha-Melammed b. Yefet. "I arrived in Alexandria with Manṣūr b. Simḥa ha-Kohen and found all the {orphan} children sick (marḍā tālifīn). They had taken on my account one dinar (?), and Manṣūr paid me 5 dinars." For some reason the money for the orphans has come out of the writer's account. The writer himself is in difficult straits; a judge wept when he heard the tale. He brought with him a letter of recommendation to show to Abū Surūr al-Kohen and somebody else, but they did not give him a response to the letter. Avraham reports that the orphans are praying on behalf of Eliyyahu that he will be rewarded for his good deeds with them. He does not have anything left of the 5 dinars, because he bought two thawbs and a blanket and the rest went to syrups (probably for the sick orphans). Eliyyahu is his patron; he repeatedly praises his generosity and reports how he praised him to various people in Alexandria. The writer has been waiting around in Alexandria for various officials to help him, and in the interim receives bread from the public distribution. He wants Eliyyahu to read this very letter to somebody else who will hopefully come to his aid. Some parts of the letter are quite difficult; merits further examination. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a family member in Fustat, dealing with sundry small business matters. He orders walnuts, sugar, and Sinnārī cheese (this last to be sent with Salāma). Ibn al-Nuʿmān is to be paid 42 dirhams. Ibn al-Dajānī will receive some as well. Moshe refers to the pressing of the grapes. He is anxious to know about the capitation tax and how much remains to be paid so that he can send some money to help. Abū Khalaf is mentioned in the margin. Verso is more faded and difficult to understand. He writes that Farruj's name is Furrayj b. Ishaq (?), and the agent's name is Ma'ani b. Abu l-Khayr. He asks for medicine and/or medical advice regarding the boy who was circumcised on Friday and who 'chafed' his 'leg' and has a bit of blood at the opening. In a postscript Moshe says he has sent with the bearer a copper vessel (qumqum) that is either filled with or to be filled with rose water. Mentioned in Ashtor, Histoire des prix, 1969, p. 136. ASE.

Letter from an unidentified writer to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer conveys condolences for a death in the family of Eliyyahu (r6–9). He says that the blow is even harder to bear than his own trials with the sick woman (al-ṣaghīra) in his household. The rest of the letter is about this woman. (Motzkin identifies her with Eliyyahu's daughter-in-law Sitt Ghazāl, but he does not explain why.) The writer asks Eliyyahu to obtain a medical consultation with the Rayyis (Avraham Maimonides?) concerning the patient. The writer provides a detailed, albeit cryptic, account of her problems (r15–v1). First she withdrew from mingling with people (inʿazalat ʿan al-khalṭa—unless this refers to a khilṭ/humor) and remained either silent (sākita) or with some altered mental status (sābita). Those around her attributed this to the wakham (bad air/epidemic) and to her pregnancy. But in the fifth month of her pregnancy, she was afflicted with "dullness of mind (balādat khāṭir), irritability (ḍajar), confusion (taḥayyur), and disorientation (taghayyub)." The family members refrained from giving her any medicine to drink on account of the pregnancy. Finally, God had mercy and she gave birth. (Motzkin understood this as a miscarriage, but the letter does not. She could just as well have carried the fetus to term and given birth to a live child.) But, the writer continues, her situation is still unstable, and they anxiously await Eliyyahu's response with the Rayyis's advice. ASE

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

Detailed business and personal letter from Alexandria to Fustat. The letter narrates the difficult situation in Alexandria during a siege, probably al-Afdal's siege of 1094, when Nizar took refuge in Alexandria after the death of the caliph al-Mustansir. The writer was very sick for six months and bed-bound for four months. He describes the regimen he was prescribed, and says that people had given up on him. Frenkel suggests that the writer describes an epidemic, which is known from other letters, but here there seems to be no sign of an epidemic (the reading of the last word of line 7 as al-nās is tentative and does not completely fit the context). He reports that no pepper, cinnamon or ginger were available in Alexandria, and asks the recipient to keep these commodities for the Byzantines, saying that all Byzantines are set to leave for Fustat as soon as two ships from Constantinople arrive. Information from Frenkel and from Goitein, Med. Soc. 1:44 and 5:104. ASE.

Letter from the judge Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (dated documents 1125-50), in Fustat, to his cousin Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli, in a provincial town. In Judaeo-Arabic. He opens with a description of the illness of his wife (Ṭoviyya's sister). She is still very sick. She can lie down and sit up by herself, and she can walk 10 steps with great effort if she is assisted. They are sparing no efforts and giving her all the medicines that are prescribed her. "As for other matters": Natan asks Ṭoviyya to assist a man from a good family from ʿAkkā who had lived in the Egyptian countryside but was 'deported' to Fustat. Being without subsistence there, he tried again to go out to the Rīf, and he asked Natan to write to Ṭoviyya on his behalf. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Letter from an army doctor, in Ashmūm Ṭannāḥ (present-day Ashmūn al-Rummān), to his son, in an unknown location. The purpose of the letter is to excuse himself for failing to attend his wife's confinement, for he has no choice but to obey the amir's orders. He urges his son to buy her anything she wishes. He relates that the amir first sent him to Salmūn where he stayed treating a Mamlūk until he recovered on Monday. The doctor was then sent to Damietta, and returned to Ashmūm on Tuesday after suffering terribly from the riding. His son's letter informing him of his wife's labor, and her anger at his absence, reached him on Wednesday with al-Kohen (the same day he is writing the present letter). The writer does not anticipate being able to leave before Monday, as the amir will want to take his medicine on Sunday. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 380, 610. ASE.

Page from a letter sent by Abū Naṣr b. Avraham from Alexandria to Ḥalfon b. Netanel in Cairo on the 23 of October 1140. The letter includes a report on the social uproar caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s visit in Alexandria when everybody was eager to invite him. The letter contains a request for Ḥalfon to come to Alexandria to settle the disputes caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s presence in the city. The letter also refers to business matters arising from the India trade, in which both the addressee and the writer were involved. Abū Naṣr complains about his eye illness: "I only wrote these few letters as I was housebound with a flare of ophthalmia that came over me." At the end of recto and beginning of verso, this proves relevant: "The account is in the shop and I am at home, so I do not have the precise details to inform you." Finally, in the last few lines, "Please extend forgiveness, God knows that I wrote this with the kerchief (khirqa) draped (musabala) over my eyes." The use of a dark kerchief to protect the inflamed eyes from light was part of the standard treatment for ophthalmia (see the tag "khirqa" and the chapter on ramad in Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn). (Information in part from Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, p. 523; Goitein, Friedman, India Book 4, p. 417). ASE Alexandria; 10 of Marcheshvan; October 23, 1140

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Yaʿqūb to an unknown recipient. Written in a good hand and pleasant style. This letter implores the addressee to help the writer buy medicine (?) and 2 ounces of sugar for his ill infant child, assuring him that he and his wife didn't have enough money even for a pound of bread. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 188; Goitein index cards.) Specifically, the writer requests the price of a qirṭās (probably meaning a bag) of nuqūʿ (which can mean infusion, as of a medicine, but also dried apricots, which would more easily go in a bag). The writer's son has a terrible cold (nazla ʿaẓīma). Verso: The beginnings of seven lines of a letter or petition in Arabic script, with wide space between the lines. In between the lines and at 180 degrees, there are a few more lines in small Arabic script, possibly the address of the letter on recto. The name Abū l-Ṭāhir can be read. ASE.

Letter from Ibn Ibrāhīm b. Ṭībān to his brother-in-law Abū l-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: late 11th century. Shortly after these two parted ways, Abū l-Afrāḥ had sent a boy to the writer requesting a medicinal syrup, as he felt ill (mutakassil). The writer returned to the camp site the next day, but Abū l-Afrāḥ had already departed. The writer traveled as far as Būsīs but did not catch up with him. In this letter, he apologizes, explains himself, and requests that Abū l-Afrāḥ inform him about his health before he travels. ASE

Letter from Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef (active 990s–1030s CE), in Qayrawān, to his brother-in-law ʿAyyāsh b. Nissim. The sender reports that the addressee's son is doing well, reports on the success of another relative (Abū l-Surūr), discusses business transactions, and asks for medication for his eyes (something Indian, "the white kind . . . ostrich eggs, and the green kind, because I need to use it on my eyes"; line 15). Information in part from Gil. ASE

Letter from Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf to the brothers Abū l-Makārim and Abū Yaʿqub ha-Kohen. The writer describes in detail the severe fever and dysentery (zaḥīr) of the addressees' brother Abū l-Riḍā, "as if you were present." There is no expert physician in the town from which he writes, and there are no medical ingredients. He therefore asks the addressees to approach a physician, to procure medication with the four dirhams attached to the letter, and to send it back with the courier. Initially there was a "cold" fever for 50 days, followed by a "hot" fever for 8 days. The patient was then afflicted with terror (wahul) and dysentery. There follows a detailed description of his bowel movements. At first there were 'filings' but no blood, and there were solid BMs along with the filings which had a terrible smell. Then the BMs became soft, without the terrible smell. His tongue is [tied? loosened?] but he is overcome by silence (? al-sukūna) all night long. "This is the description of his illness as if you were present." (Information in part from Med Soc, V, pp. 193, 194, and from Goitein's index cards.) Postscript on verso: "Obtain a prescription for what his diet should be. If he prescribes [...] Levantine sour grapes, obtain them, for we have none here [...] and exchange them for something else." The prescription is written at the bottom of the letter in Arabic script. ASE

Letter from Simḥa ha-Kohen (in Alexandria) to his parents-in-law Eliyyahu the Judge and Sitt Rayḥān (in Fustat). In Judaeo-Arabic. Simḥa describes in moving terms the illness and death of his female slave (jāriya). Goitein and Motzkin understood this to refer to his daughter, however it probably means slave here, because Simḥa cites as condolence the formula from Berakhot 16b, "המ ימלא חצרונכם" (noted by Eve Krakowski, 07/2022). The physician Abū l-Thanāʾ had been caring for her in his home, and ultimately told Simḥa to take her back when her illness became hopeless. Simḥa (briefly) rejoiced because no one had expected her to walk again. A porter carried her home in a basket. She then died at home despite their hopes for her recovery. Simḥa's wife–the daughter of Eliyyahu and Sitt Rayḥān—is now in a deep depression ("the world closed itself to her") and sees nobody except Sitt Rayḥān when she visits. Simha now begs her to visit again soon. See also T-S 18J4.10. Discussed in Goitein, Med Soc II, 251.

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: March 1062 CE. Among other matters, Yisrael reports that he is in bad shape: he was sick with congestion (nazla), a cough (suʿāl), and eye pain (wajaʿ al-ʿaynayn), although now he is feeling somewhat better. He asks Nahray to obtain bitumen (qifār) from Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa, and send it to him, "for this is the most helpful (drug) for me." ASE