Geniza Lab

Revenue from rent in Damascus, date unknown. Leaf of a notebook, recording revenue from rent from shops and apartments belonging to the qodesh of Damascus. The reconstruction of several such shops is mentioned, carried out under the direction of the beadle Na'im b. Benyameen. One of the apartments was inhabited by people who came ffrom the Maghrib. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 229 #39)

Recto: Bottom part of a letter in Arabic script, from a man to his 'brother.' He spells والساعة as والسعا numerous times. He mentions people including Sulaymān b. al-[...]āmī and the poor man (al-faqīr) Ibn Faraḥ and sends regards to Umm Yūsuf. Needs further examination. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic letter from ʿEli b. Shelomo to his father. The writer is in terrible straits and full of regret. The issue seems to be that a group of Alexandrians have banded together to have the writer fired from his position as slaughterer, cantor, and teacher. "Woe is he who can only depend on God. I have already entered with my qumāsh (garments? furnishings? wife's dowry?)." He then mentions the diwan catching him and having to sell a garment. His intention is to come to Qalyub with his wife. His heart is preoccupied on behalf of [...]. ASE.

Letter from an emissary of the Yeshiva, in Fustat to Yosef ha-Kohen Av Bet Din b. Shelomo Gaon, in Jerusalem. Dating: August 1053 CE. The letter contains sundry reports about the Palestinian and Iraqi synagogues and dealings with the notables of Fustat. Among these, Abū ʿAlī, the caretaker of the Palestinian synagogue, has taken ill, so he has neglected his duties, and the synagogue has fallen into disrepair.

Letter from Avraham b. David b. Sighmar, Fustat, probably to Daniel b. Azarya, Jerusalem. The beginning of June 1056. After the passing of Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, there were new problems to do with kosher butchering. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 746-748, #402) VMR

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli b. Amram in Fustat.

Draft of a letter from Yefet b. Shekhanya, from Fustat, to Daniel b. Azarya, around 1053. Daniel did not reply to Yefet's requests to supervise the slaughter in the community. Yefet has heard that a rejection is already included in Daniel's letter to Avraham ha-Masos and feel like people harassing him. The community in Fustat gave Yefet the authority to be the supervisor in the markets. The letter is unfinished. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 745-746, #401) VMR

List of expenditures for a week. Here, 100 pounds of bread and its transportation cost 22 1/2 [1/4 MR Cohen] dirhams. The salaries recorded are typical. When a beadle is listed here with a salary of 4 dirhams (instead of 2, as usual), the sum certainly included arrears for the preceding week. Also, some entries of personal expenditure made by the official.' MR Cohen: Same names as in lists of Shelomo b. Zechariah from the beginning of the 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, p. 462, App. B 80)

Letter fragment by Shelomo b. Yehuda.

List of 103 people, households, or groups receiving wheat. Amounts: between 1/2 and 3 waybas (1 wayba = ca. 4 gallons). Goitein there are comments added to the list (‘died,' 'absent’). Before a comprehensive distribution of wheat, communal officials scrutinized the list from the preceding distribution and made a note. of changes in circumstance, such as deaths, changes in economic situation, and departures. The updated list was then copied and used as a basis for the current distribution. One item is followed by this remark: "Note, ruqʿa, from the rayyis: this man should not receive anything." Cohen dates this list to slightly after App. B 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, since 3 people mentioned there are listed here as having died. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, pp. 457-458, App. B 66, Goitein's index card, and from Mark Cohen)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham b. Mevasser, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1030.

List of persons, headed by R. Nahray (Nahray), on the payroll of the community. Goitein says: scholars on the payroll of the Cairene commuity. Similar to BodlC28.6 (App. B 12) and T-S K15.70 (App. B 13), both ed. Mann, Jews, II, 246-247. (Information from Mediterranean Society II, 441, App. B 14).

Official letter to a communal leader. In Judaeo-Arabic. Wide space between the lines. The writer requests a rapid answer regarding what is to be done regarding the contents of the letter the writer had previously sent. Regards to and from various people.

Letter fragment from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1020.

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, approximately 1029. Concerning the excommunication of the Karaites.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to the head of the Babylonian community in Egypt, Sahlan b. Avraham, thanking him for forwarding a donation of ten dinars destined for the poor in Jerusalem, and justifying his unwillingness to borrow a midrash on the Song of Songs (Midrash Hazita) from the 'Third' and copy bits out for Sahlan, approximately 1048. Verso: Address in Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Letter describing the wanton destruction of a community and the ransoming of captives. It talks of Palestine (אר‫ץ הצבי‬) and Byzantium (אדום). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Tyre to David b. Daniel, Fustat, probably 1092.

Letter by Israel Gaon b. Shemuel b. Hophni to an unknown community.

Two letters: one in Arabic by R. Hezkiah. Exilarch and Gaon, dated 1039/40 A.D.; the other in Hebrew, by the same R. Hezekiah to Yaʿaqov b. Amram Nagid in Qayrawan.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, concerning the prisoners taken on account of the debt of 900 dinars placed on the community of Jerusalem. He also laments his personal poverty. Approximately 1029. (Information from CUDL)