Geniza Lab

Recto: fragment of a recommendation letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli ha-Ḥaver b. Amram, Fustat. The name of the person who is recommended is unknown but it seems he belonged to one of the Palestinian Gaon families. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 688-689, Doc. #372) . VMR

Letter from Abū l-Majd, in Qūṣ, to Abū l-Mufaḍḍal the judge, in Fustat. Mentions Egypt, Abū l-Riḍā, Ibn Ibrahim al-ʿArīf, Abū l-ʿAlā b. Ḥassūn, Abū l-Ḥasan and Abū l-Khayr. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Tammuz (1400+)145 = 1545 Seleucid, which is 21 June 1234 CE. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter dated 15 Sivan 1208 from Yehuda b. Aharon b. al-'Ammani (Alexandria) to Abu l-Majd Meir b. Yakhin (Fustat). The first part (r.6-17) deals with exchanges of piyyutim between the two cantors. “You mention that the dirges have arrived and that you have everything. That is impossible. Had you said 'I have one out of ten,' all right; but that you have all of them is impossible, for some of them were composed [meaning recently] by my uncle Zadok—may his Rock keep him" (Med Soc V, 179, 556). Yehuda also conveys the news that Abu l-Majd's brother Sa'id was very ill but has now recovered, while Abu l-Majd's mother and his brother Hilal are well. The remainder of the original letter (r.18-v.12) is a recommendation for the bearer, the Maghrebi Moshe b. Khalifa who arrived in Alexandria at least a year and a half prior and who was blinded by an eye disease and a failed operation. For two months after the operation, he suffered elevated pulse (? צרבאן) and "saw dreadful things in his soul" (? אבצר אלעטאים פי רוחה), and today he remains like a dumb stone. He has dependents including a wife, a virgin daughter, and a 6-month old son. The community has supported them for a year and a half, but the pesiqah no longer suffices, and his own relatives in Alexandria are unable to provide for him. Moshe carries another letter with signatures from "the Judge"; Sadoq the cantor; Bu Sa'id b. Alqash; Bu 'Umar al-Levi b. al-Baghdadi; Yehuda himself; Bu 'Imran b. Ghulayb; R. Simha ha-Kohen; and Eliyyahu the Judge. There is a postscript (v.16-20) written two days after the original letter, when Yehuda heard that Abu l-Majd's wife is dangerously ill. He prays that he will hear of her recovery soon. There is a second postscript (v.21-24) noting that Moshe cannot travel at the present moment because he would be required to pay the capitation tax twice, but that Abu l-Majd should take care of him whenever he does arrive. Ashtor misread the date as 1400+168 by the Seleucid calendar (1257 CE), while it is in fact 4800+168=4968 since Creation (1208 CE). The same is true for T-S 13J21.25 which Yehuda wrote one week after this letter. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter of recommendation. Avraham Maimonides recommends the Nasi ʿOvadya to the community of Bilbays ('to honor him and give him hospitality') after having given special instructions to its dayyan Perahya. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 490, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Benveniste (possibly from Narbonne, France), Dimyāṭ (Damietta), to Yehoshuaʿ b. Dosa asking for letters of recommendation to the government in order to be able to continue traveling. Mentions the Fatimid vizier al-Malik al-Afḍal (r. 1094–1121), Tripoli, Jabla, and the lands of Ishmael and Edom (possibly Byzantium), to which Yiṣḥaq was hoping to travel. Address in Judaeo-Arabic on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Letter of recommendation concerning one of the chief people in Sunbat, who had to flee because he could not afford to pay his own and his son's capitation tax. (Mentioned by N. Golb in Journal of Near Eastern Studies 33 [1974], p. 142)

Fragment of a 'magnificent' letter of recommendation. In Hebrew. Refers to the bearer's release from prison, and how he is appropriately abashed. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter, possibly from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides, recommending a man who is “poor but from a good family.” The community of Fustat is asked to help by taking up a collection in the synagogue, referred to as a ‘pesiqa.’ (Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages: An Anthology of Documents from the Cairo Geniza, Princeton University Press, 2005, 197) EMS. Bibliography: Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Letter of recommendation from Daniel b. Azarya to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yitzhak b. Furat. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 672, #360). VMR

Fragment of a letter (right margin, top and bottom cut off). First part discusses the plight of a 'humble' cantor and teacher of small children (in a kuttāb) who has spent all his money and needs assistance, which the writer requests on his behalf from the addressee. Next matter: writer asks the addressee to help the bearer of this letter, who is 'from a good family' (mi-benei tovim), and who arrived 'in this country' from another place after great effort, apparently escaping something untoward, only to find himself in another kind of difficulty, including an illness. (Information from Mark Cohen)

Recommendation letter describing the letter-bearer as an 'excellent person.'

Letter of recommendation. In Arabic script. Sent from Damascus to two high-placed addressees (al-majlisayn al-sāmīyayn) presumably in Cairo, al-Majlis al-[...] and al-Majlis al-Nūrī. Dating: Perhaps Ayyubid or Mamluk era. The letter opens with two lines of poetry. The sender then reports that the bearer, al-Ḥājj Aḥmad from the city of [...] has been living for some time in Damascus. He traveled to the Ḥijāz with Ibn Shādī Bedouins but apparently lost a sum of money and has petitioned the government for help. The addressees are asked to assist him. A ḥadīth is quoted: الخلق كلهم عيال الله واحب الخلق الى الله انفعهم لعياله نفع الله بمعروفه يوم يحتاج الناس الى معروفهم. The honorific "Sayyidnā" is used for multiple people including the addressee(s). Regards to various people, including Najm al-Dīn al-Bahnasī and Ayyūb. The Qāḍī Fakhr al-Dīn b. Abī l-Manāqib(?) was present at the time of the writing of the letter. Needs further examination. ASE

Letter/petition/recommendation from Ṭalḥa (Nabaṭī?) to a dignitary. In Arabic script. Dating: Probably Ayyubid-era or later, based on hand and formulary. Not addressed to the caliph (as Baker and Polliack suggest) but merely to a dignitary. The addressee is asked to look after the bearer ʿUthmān al-[...] and his companions. On verso, there are jottings and possibly a draft of another petition. Needs further examination. (Information in part from Baker & Polliack Catalogue.)

Circular letter written by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic Dating: Summer 1229 CE. Letter of recommendation for the bearer Ibrāhīm b. Ḥasan, a poor man from Baghdad in need of charity. Endorsed on verso by the judge Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim from Aleppo (see Med Soc II, App. D, sec. 30). Information from Med Soc II, App. C, sec. 140.

Letter of recommendation for charity, probably. Describing an unfortunate man. "... in this city... in all places, because... his condition... he was robbed (nuhiba) of all that he owned... there followed the matter of Ibn Rabbi [...]... the coast and Gaza(?)..."

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan ha-Ḥaver (judge in Fustat, 1150–81) to Shabbetay b. Avraham (judge in Minyat Zifta, 1135–78). Concerning (1) a muqaddam who has been causing trouble and making light of notables; (2) a question submitted to the physicians in the capital by Shabbetay's son Abu Saʿd: all the physicians reply that they must see the patient, hear his words, and see his (urine) flask before prescribing an effectve remedy; (3) a recommendation for the bearer, a brother of the late Judge Menaḥem. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter addressed to Avraham ha-Dayyan (called ha-Sar ha-Nikhbad). In Judaeo-Arabic. This is a letter of recommendation for charity for the bearer. He was one of the notables of al-Maḥalla but fell into poverty. He owes money (200 dinars?) to the government. No one will accept his promissory notes (this part is tricky to understand, ll. 4–5). The addressee and the congregation and the elders are asked to help him. Greetings to the addressee's son, Abū ʿAlī ha-Talmid. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter of recommendation for a needy widow with two children from Damascus who, on recommendation of a letter from the muqaddam of Ascalon, had received what the community of Bilbays was able to come up with. Now she and her two orphans are recommended to Yiṣḥaq b. Sasson, the Cairene member of Maimonides' court, for more help. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 503)

Letter addressed to Shelomo b. al-Gazi(?). In Hebrew. Dating: Late, based on handwriting. This is a letter of recommendation for the bearer (המוביל), who is named Yosef Reʾuven, apparently a scholar and an orphan whose father is dead. Concerning something (a sum of money?) to be deposited or which is already deposited in Ṣefat (Safed).

Recto: Letter addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is a letter of recommendation for the bearer, a Persian man (ʿajamī), who is suffering for various reasons (ḥamas/oppression and cold weather are mentioned) and who needs a riding animal to travel to Syria (al-Shām).