Geniza Lab

Recto: End of a letter in Arabic script. With many formal blessings and phrases of deference for the addressee. Needs further examination. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic concerning a copy of a book requested by the addressee. Dating: Likely 12th or 13th century, based on handwriting. It seems that there was an error in the template, so the scribe has refrained from copying it and asks the addressee to check or acquire a different book. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter, mostly formulaic, with an unusual layout. Possibly a copy. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender beseeches the addressee to send him the remaining 35 dirhams he is owed from the sale of an animal. He repeats several times that he is only asking because the need is now urgent. Winter has come, and he is cold. His previous letters—including letters with greetings for ʿAbd al-Muḥsin and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—had remained unanswered. On verso, jottings of accounts in Judaeo-Arabic and Greek/Coptic numerals, written in a different and rudimentary hand. Mostly illegible but mentioning the name Sulaymān Kohen and 2 raṭls of something. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter to a Ḥaver from a certain Maḥfūẓ (?) relating to the trade in silk. (Information from CUDL)

Letter detailing business instructions and referring to silk. (Information from CUDL)

Letter concerning various business issues and the new agent Abū […]. Mentions a qāḍī, a widow, and a girl. Also mentions the Sar ha-Sarim and Abū l-Faḍl. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a letter from an 11th-century trader. No names are mentioned. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In a rudimentary hand. This is the second or final page of what was originally a longer letter. There is an unusual grid on both recto and verso. The letter is very difficult to understand. It seems that a woman is being reproached for abandoning her own son ("a woman who has no one in the world but her own son whom she raised, her liver, should cast him aside and not look at him or see him again? this is in the law?") as well as a girl/woman (the להא in l. 1). The sender (the son himself?) says that (s)he has been beaten and mistreated by an unspecified group of people. The sender then switches to masculine imperative verbs, apparently addressing the husband or a male relative of the unloving mother, beseeching him to treat the sender well. The sender concludes by saying "may God the exalted accept from me that which I pray for you night and day," which would be more typical for a female sender, especially a mother, than it is for a male sender or a son. But some of these ambiguities will likely be irresolvable without the first part of the letter. The expression "a son, her liver" (ולד כבדהא, if read and understood correctly) may derive from the Arabic expression "our children are our livers" (awlādunā akbādunā), which in turn derives from a poem by Ḥiṭṭān b. al-Muʿallā al-Ṭāʾī cited in Dīwān al-Ḥamāsa: وإنّـمــا أولادُنــا بيننـــا أكـبــادُنـا تمشــي علــى الأرضِ / لو هَبّتِ الريحُ على بعضهـم لامتنعتْ عيـني من الغَمْضِ. ASE

Letter from Makhlūf b. ʿIwāḍ the judge, maybe somewhere in Ifrīqiyya, to his brother Ṣedaqa b. ʿIwāḍ the judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with some interesting spellings and with the rare interjection wa-hallāhi (rare at least for Geniza documents). Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. The letter also contains greetings and messages from several additional family members. Mentions: Hārūn b. [...]; previous correspondence and the hope that every ship would bear a letter from the addressee; how prosperity has returned in the country, and maybe that the silk dealers can't even keep up with the work to be done; how the addressee should act quickly (something to do with business); how Ibn Zaqṭūn gave them good news (also something to do with business), causing Makhlūf and their sister to rejoice. This sister may be Sitt al-ʿAshīr who greets Ṣedaqa in the next line, saying, "You would not know me if you saw me..." (cf. the same expression in a similar context in T-S 12.261). Where the text resumes on verso, the letter mentions 'what we suffer,' 'the children,' and a man's paternal aunt who does not enter אלי לאש (is "Lāsh" a place? a dialect word?). Yaḥyā sends regards. Makhlūf sends his regards. The addressee's cousin (ibn ʿamm) Ḥasan sends his regards. The letter concludes with a complaint that the other Jews are sending letters, but the addressee sends none. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Fragment of a commercial letter to Abū l-Murajjā. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions appointing an agent and customs (maks). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from a sick man, complaining about illness in general and death among the population. Information from CUDL. Dated: Kislev 1528 Seleucid, which is 1216 CE. The month of Kislev began on November 13, 1216. See also T-S NS 321.93 (likely from the same period) and T-S 16.305 (March 1217), two other letters regarding the great epidemic of that year, discussed by Goitein in Med Soc V, pp. 114 and 538, notes 375 and 376. When Goitein referred to T-S Ar.54.91 as being written in Kislev 1528, he probably intended T-S 6J6.20 instead. Incidentally, the handwriting of this letter resembles that of Meir b. Yakhin (Bū l-Majd b. Thābit). ASE.

Letter from a certain Abū l-Faraj to someone titled Sayyidnā. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely Mamluk-era (i.e., after ca. 1250) based on paleographic features, position of the tarjama (recto righthand margin), and use of the abbreviation אלממ[לוך]. The sender asks for financial help, including for paying his capitation tax (jāliya). On verso there are Hebrew writing exercises (haqeṣ ʿaṣel) and maybe two names in Arabic script, one of which is Ibn al-Qābila ('son of the midwife'). (Information in part from CUDL)

Family letter informing the addressee of matters concerning Sitt Maqṣūra, also mentioning her sister Sitt Māṭruṣa (מאטרצ֗ה). Ca. 15th-17th century. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary spellings. Dating: mid-12th century or later, per CUDL. Difficult to decipher any of the content.

Verso: Accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. Lists household items or kitchenware such as ibrīq, kīzān, sikkīn, zabādī (pl. of zubdiyya). Also lists foods such as fennel (shamār), anise (yānsūn), cumin (kammūn), sumac (summāq), chickpea (ḥummuṣ), and pepper. Also cotton (quṭn). (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (bottom five lines). Faded, and difficult to understand any of the content. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The handwriting looks like one of the Mosul Nasis active in the 13th century. The sender says that he (or she?) received word suddenly that the amir is coming for some work tomorrow, which alarmed him because he has not prepared for such a visit. "By my life, if he comes, we will move our אסבת (hides? baskets?) inside, and he/it will be in the place where we are" (maybe they will give their own sleeping quarters to the amir?). He has obtained some chickens but doesn't know where to send them for them to be prepared. He asks the addressee to tell him where to send them. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The right side is very faded. Concerning business matters. Mentions that 'the broker came to me,' something to do with Jewish law, and 'I will not sell to a gentile except....' May also refer to a current or hypothetical partnership. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recipe and instructions, possibly part of a letter or instructions for medical or magical purposes. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (bottom part only). The sender complains that no one except the addressee helps them. The addressee should help ʿAmmār Ibn Shamshūrī with something. The addressee will receive "the book of dreams" (kitāb al-manāmāt) soon. Greetings to various people including Sitt Baghdād. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter, explaining how the writer and the community went to visit Abū l-Munā, who had just arrived in Damīra. Ca. 13th century. (Information from CUDL)