Geniza Lab

Fragment of a petition, two wide lines. The first line reads 'wa-ʿabd mawlānā,' then '[...] al-shāmil.'

Petition from Naṣir b. Bū l-Faraj, who converted to Islam (ihtadā) under (ʿalā yad) Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn(?) (but perhaps different from the actual Saladin?) in the district of al-Gharbiyya. The addressee is probably Saladin himself (al-maqām al-ʿālī al-malikī al-nāṣirī al-ṣalāḥī, [may God extend] his reign). The other known petitions to Saladin in the Geniza are T-S K2.96 and BL OR 5566B.12. This one has many fewer titles than the others and refers to him only as 'malik' and not 'sulṭān,' so it may date to his period as Fatimid vizier (1169–74). The petitioner introduces himself as having converted, apparently on 19 Ramaḍān 55[.] AH (corresponding to the range 1155–64 CE). The remainder of the petition is lost. Maybe he is seeking to register his exemption from the capitation tax. ASE

Petition. Dating: Late 16th or early 17th century, as it involves the well-known rabbi and judge Ḥayyim Kapūsī (1540–1631). The petitioner makes accusations against a Jewish man named Saʿd b. al-ʿAyṣī(?) who held the rights to a capitation tax farm (kāna multazim bi-muqāṭaʿat al-jawālī) but who was caught up in some sort of scandal (unkira ʿalayhi min al-amwāl al-muḥarrara ʿalayhi li-jānib al-dīwān) and had to leave Egypt for a long time. He eventually returned and attached himself to the court of Ḥayyim al-Kapūsī. Now, whenever litigants come before the court, he extorts bribes from them and hinders them from bringing cases before the Muslim courts. He infringes on people's rights, especially the poor and anyone who does not pay him enough of a bribe. The addressees are asked to send two witnesses to observe the truth of these claims and then act against the wicked man. The Hebrew script in the margin likely belongs with the accounts on verso; it does not appear to be a filing note. This document is particularly noteworthy, because the most famous hagiographical anecdote about Ḥayyim Kapūsī (also spelled Capoussi or Capousi) is that he miraculously regained his eyesight after being accused of taking bribes, thereby proving his righteousness and silencing his enemies. ASE

Mamluk or early Ottoman petition.

State petition regarding a Maghribī Jewish trader caught drinking with a Muslim woman and imprisoned. Cuts off right before the request: there arrived from the official who imprisoned them three sealed documents (khawātim khātim min qabl Munajjat al-Dawla) ... possibly to do with the jizya, a pretext for imprisoning them for moral offenses (?), suggesting that the trader was conspicuous and respectable, or his moral infractions might not have drawn attention. See also T-S NS J286, in which a man travels from Ceuta to Bijāya, Algeria, where the sāḥib al-Bijāya asks him how is related to a woman who is with him. (There is a ṣāḥib al-shūrṭa in ENA 3901.5, too.) The traveler (never described as a Maghribi trader, but a man from the Maghrib) claims she is his wife, but he has no kitāb to prove this. In T-S NS J286, they confiscate his māl and the man is put in prison with no reference to the woman. Although there is nothing about the three-day drinking binge, it’s plausible that these are the same case, and if not, they pair nicely.

Letter from Abū Manṣūr to [al-Shaykh] al-Makīn al-Ṣayrafī, in Qūṣ (here called "thaghr Qūṣ"). In Arabic script, elegantly written. The sender opens with respectful greetings and wishes to be reunited. He says that when he left Qūṣ. . . and went out onto the 'baḥr' (probably the Nile here), then mentions "in Fustat" and "al-Rayyis Dāʾūd" and "al-Rayyis Abū l-Bahā." The last line seems to refer to (someone's brother?) Abū l-Najm who is in either the army (al-jaysh) or prison (al-ḥabs). (This document may relate to the cluster of letters from Manṣūr b. Sālim, frantic about his son Abū l-Najm who ran off from home and spent time in the army and at one point was rumored to be traveling to Qūṣ.) ASE

Petition in Arabic script. There are multiple senders, one of whom may be the Jew Abū [...] (line 2). Much of the readily legible text is very formulaic. They refer to khurūj al-amr al-ʿāl ('the issuing of the elevated command').

Petition from a Jew on behalf of the Jewish community to the government. The petitioner's name appears in the lower right margin. In Arabic script. Dating: Probably Ottoman-era or possibly late Mamluk. Regarding their dispute with a group of people (jamāʿa) in lawsuits (daʿawī sharʿīyya). The petitioner requests that an official (royal?) order (al-khaṭṭ al-ʿālī) be granted to the effect that no suit against them be heard except in his august presence (al-bāb al-ʿālī).

Recto: Fragment of a petition (?), 3 fragmentary lines, containing part of an inhāʾ section (al-mamlūk yunhī anna) in which reference is made to the petitioner's unfortunate condition, involving the capitation tax (al-jawālī) and the tax collector (al-ḥāshir). Preceding the narrative is the phrase wa yamḥaq al-ribā which clearly alludes to Quran 2:276 ("God blots out usury") suggesting a possible reason for the petitioner's misfortune.

Beginning of a petition -tarjama, basmala, formulae, on the right side 4 lines diagonally- from a Jewish woman (al-mamlūka [...] Abū l-Majd Ibn al-Ḥaver). In Arabic script. She seems to be trying to fend off a man who wants to marry her but who already has a wife and children. In the margin, she quotes from the Torah "the son of my sister took my right...". The tarjama is legible but the name is hard to make out. Needs examination.

Petition to Sitt al-Mulk from Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥasan complaining that a local amir has confiscated his grain, 411–14/1021–24. See under PGPID 19304 for explanation of the join. Note that the main Arabic-script documents on ENA 3974.3 and Bodl. MS heb. b. 18/23 do not join with each other.

Petition draft. From Manṣūr b. Salāma (or rather Ṣadaqa?) to the Fatimid caliph al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh (1101–30 CE). In Arabic script. The petitioner lives in Sindiyūn (on the east bank of the Rashīd arm of the Nile, between Fuwa and Rashīd) in the province of al-Muzāḥamiyya. His father may have been a tax farmer (though Khan reads the word as ṣāmitan rather than ḍāminan) in an unidentified location called Maḥallat Salīm ibn Sahl. The petitioner's mother died, and he has been living in her house enclosure (dār). Manṣūr asks for a rescript (tawqīʿ) to be written on the back of his petition instructing the judge of al-Maḥalla to register the house enclosure as his property. He also asks for a copy for his own records. Information from Khan's edition.

Petition for assitance due to poverty to Netanel ha-Levi (putting us in the secnd half of the 12th century). On the back there is a draft of a piyyut.

Petition to Shelomo ha-Nasi from a man whose name is missing, reporting that a pesiqa (pledge drive) in his favor had brought a substantial sum, but more than a month had passed without his getting the money. Dating: Probably ca. 1230s, if this is the Shelomo ha-Nasi known to have been in Egypt at that time. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 106, 544, n. 13 and from Goitein's index cards) On verso, part of a book list mentioning responsa, as well as a couple lines of accounts in Arabic script.

The widow of Hiyya, a well known Fustat judge active 1129-1160s, wrote this expressive Hebrew petition to the Jewish congregation of Fustat. Her father was Shelomo,”the great prince',” i.e. someone with a position in the state administration. She informs the community of her difficult financial circumstances in explicitly gendered language: "(I write to) your honor due to the pressing times and their vicissitudes (even) on the rich who know well in their wisdom how to manage their wealth so that it will not decrease and dwindle. How much more (difficult are these times) on she who is hidden in the belly of the earth and is dependent on all." She also mentions that she has instructed a certain Menahem to speak on her behalf and collect money for her. On the back of the Hebrew petition are some 14 lines in Arabic script. They are directly related to the Hebrew petition as the second Arabic line mentions ”the daughter of the rayyis Salāma” and the fourth line mentions the same Menahem from the Hebrew petition. (Information from Oded Zinger)

Copy of a petition to the caliph al-Ẓāhir (matn only) against acknowledgement of the Iraqi authority in Palestine. Dating: original document ca. 1030, but this copy may be several decades later. Discussed in Khan, JRAS, p53; Rustow, Heresy and elsewhere; Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 347. Previous description (Goitein's?): Shelomo b. Yehuda to al-Mustansir defending his position against Yūsuf al-Sijilmasi, the Iraqi leader in Palestine. In the same hand as ENA NS 13.15 and T-S K25.244.

Fragment of a draft (?) of a petition opening with the taqbīl clause repeated twice (once in isolation) and followed by the caliphal honorific titles: amām al-maqām al-nabawī al-ṭāhirī al-muʿaẓẓam al-sharīf. The actual addressee seems to be a vizier whose titles follow after wa bi-l majlis al-sāmī; al-Sayyīdī al-Ajallī al-ʿĀlī al-Jūyūshī al-Sayfī al-Nāṣirī al-Kāmilī. Probably dates from the late Fatimid period. The petition also has a marāḥim formula "ilā l-marāḥim al-ʿamīma wa l-faḍāʾl al-karīma" (For details on this formula see: Khan, ALAD, pg.396). Further investigation is required to determine the identities of the caliph and addressee in question. On verso there is a single line with a ḥamdala and ṣalwala in Arabic script (perhaps originally from the bottom of the petition? Or from another document that has gotten glued on here.) And there is a cryptic text in Judaeo-Arabic with diagrams of dots and sticks, maybe some kind of technical/magical instructions.

Petition, late Fatimid period given the blessings on a vizier, from a certain Ibn Mūsā (no forename given) concerning a Jew named (2) Bū l-Faraj who took another Jew named (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq to court repeatedly over a debt. The unstated request seems to be that vizier to whom the petition is addressed should either (a) pay (3) Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq’s debt or (b) apply force or (c) imprison him until he pays. The (1) petitioner goes on to state that if a (a-prime) different guarantor (ḍāmin) steps in to pay (3) Ibrāhīm’s debt, or if local officials step in to (c) seize his property, the vizier will be informed. If a (a) guarantor steps in, (3) Ibrāhīm will presumably have to pay more. If (a) the vizier pays on his behalf, it would not cost the debtor more; so de facto the vizier must decide whether to pay or apply force. But if the situation changes — if a guarantor steps in to pay the debt, or the treasury (al-māl, short for bayt al-māl) steps in to seize the debtor's assets, the petitioner will inform the vizier. Perhaps the petitioner is a Jewish communal official who has run out of enforcement options, so now seeks help from the state in resolving the situation as expeditiously as possible. MR

Letter of request for help, probably sent to Abu al-Wahsh. The letter begins with words of praise.

Letter of complaint to the caliph in Arabic script concerning the tax that the Tiberias Jews need to pay. It seems like the second request. The Jews are complaining about the intention to increase their capitation tax (jizya). In the past, some have paid 5 dirhams, some have paid 10, and some have been exempt as Khaybarī Jews. The speaker of the Jews is Sibāʿ b. Faraj (maybe this is Hillel b. Yeshuʿa). This document is the middle part of three sheets that were attached. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 453–54, #249). VMR