Geniza Lab

Letter from Menashshe, in Damsīs, to Abū Hārūn Akhlābū ha-Kohen b. Hārūn, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: January 1, 1063. Regarding a purchase of shoes for Abu Nasr, the writer’ son. In addition, the writer mentions that he expects to receive letters from the Maghreb. Mentions the death of al-Muʿizz b. Badīs, the ruler of Ifrīqiyya. Menashshe has heard that Akhlābū has traveled to Fustat, and he conveys his worry and prayers because of what he has heard about the epidemic (amrāḍ) currently in Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #758) VMR. ASE.

Recto: Beginning of a letter/petition addressed to a judge named Peraḥya. In Judaeo-Arabic, with three Hebrew biblical citations at the top. The sender has sent this letter with his son Yosef, who is in difficult circumstances—something happened that made it impossible for him to live in Fustat, let alone earn a living there. It seems that Yosef wants to travel to al-Shām now. In the missing continuation, the sender presumably asks Peraḥya to help him. Verso: Beginning of a letter from 'your paternal uncle' to a younger man named Efrayim. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender reports that he came down with a stomachache (tukhma) and nearly died and everyone despaired of his health—but now he is better.

Informal note addressed to a certain Abū ʿAlī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Verso is a draft of recto. The addressee is asked to go to the sender's mother and collect the 1 5/8 dirhams that are with her. He should purchase 3 fat pullets for 1.5 dirhams, lime (laymūn akhḍar) for 1/8, and throw in a bit of saffron. The text is damaged and there are slight discrepancies between recto and verso, so these quantities are not certain. The mother is probably sick and all this is intended medicinally.

Letter to the judge Peraḥya (b. Yosef?). In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender (also a judge?) woke up sick, so instead of coming to work he sends this detailed report on an ongoing court case. Needs further examination for content.

Note by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu addressed to Abū l-Rabīʿ (in the note) or Abū l-Barakāt (in the address on verso). Accompanying payment for rose marmalade. Shelomo apologizes and says he has been ill and is writing the note while lying down (or "(half-)asleep). (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter from a Jewish shipowner from Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1212 CE. He provides an exciting story about traveling to Cyprus but being diverted by a storm to Tarsus (then the capital of Lesser Armenia, a Christian kingdom ruled by Leon II (1187–1219)). The shipowner was afraid that the king would force him to take up his residence in Tarsus instead of Alexandria. But a Christian business friend, probably himself a native of Egypt, helpfully secured a strong letter of safe-conduct. The writer had a good time in Tarsus and would have remained longer, had not illness forced him to hurry back to Alexandria. The second part of the letter reports the successful treatment of the writer and mentions the name of four physicians. In the third section the writer alludees to an illustrious person of Sicily, Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham, who had been forced to leave his home. The community in Alexandria was unable to take care of him for at the same time a large company had arrived from France, and the cost of their stay in the town and the expenses for their travel (to the Holy Land) put a heavy strain on public charity. Information from Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (attached). The handwriting looks like that of Berakhot b. Shemuel (which, if correct, may simply mean that he was hired as scribe by the sender). ASE

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Shemuel to an unknown addressee. In Judaeo-Arabic. He reports that Sitt ʿAnbar is very sick, and she has developed a delusion (takhayyul fāsid) regarding the addressee, namely, that he must be sick as well. Yeḥezqel asks him to come back or write back quickly with news of his health to alleviate her suffering. He also wants the addressee to ask Abū l-Majd the son of the judge whether Abū l-ʿIzz left the writer's copy of the commentary on the Mishna (of Maimonides?) with him, and if so, to obtain it and return it to him. ASE

Letter from Dā'ūd b. Shuqayr, probably in the Levant, to his son Shemuel b. Dā'ūd b. Shuqayr, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Catalogued as 15th century. The letter mainly deals with business matters and greetings. The currency cited is the ashrafī. The addressee's mother has had some sort of pain in her breast (mawjūʿa bi-buzzihā. . . nazala lahā shay' fī buzzihā) for the last two months, ever since she gave birth, "and she is with the barber (muzayyin)," (for treatment?). Needs further examination.

Letter from Dāʾūd [...], possibly in Jerusalem, to his 'brother' Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov the physician (Samawʾal b. Yaʿqūb al-Mutaṭabbib), in New Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic, with an introduction in Hebrew and the address in Arabic script. Dating: Late, probably 16th or 17th century. The sender excuses himself for failing to write by citing a problem he had in the brain (al-dimāgh) which descended to his chest, and which required 7 or 8 months of purging. He is tired of the dressings and ointments, and is is scared of the barbers (muzayyinīn) of Jerusalem, because he has no experience with them. One barber diagnosed him with a fistula (nāsūr) and treated both him and the husband of his daughter Raḥel. The sender went somewhere else (Tyre?) for one month to convalesce. Greetings to and from numerous people in the family. Mentions ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, the beadle ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Ḥakīm, al-shaykh al-sadīd, al-shaykh al-saniyy Farajallāh Ibn al-Nushuww, the sender's maternal aunt Raḥel, Mūsā Ibn Khaṭīr, ʿAbdallāh al-Qayyim, Ibn Juwayhira, and many others. Resembles Yevr.-Arab. II 1457 and its associated letters in terms of the vivid medical details found in it.

Letter from a woman named Harja (הרגה), somewhere in Syria, to her mother, the wife of Mūsā Ibn Fayrūz, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter is a remarkable account of Harja's months-long illness. "My heart flared up until I nearly died. I received an enema three times a day, but it did not relieve me. I remained anxious about how I would pass the fast. When the fast came, I let loose (my bowels) like one who has been loosened (in his bowels). I thought it was colic and considered that it was due to a discharge from my brain that settled in my stomach and felt like the colic. I did not sleep during the night of the fast, but I managed to last until midday, and from midday onward, it began to subside. I remained three or four days after the fast as it subsided(?) from me (or: gave me strength?). And when it subsided from me, I remained troubled on account of my eyes, for I could not see the light of the world with them. After that, the pain in my heart returned, and whenever it flared up the basin was not taken away from under my mouth, for whatever went down into my stomach came back up, and my stomach churned from all the vomit. But for now, it has abated, thanks to God for all things. I never imagined I would be carried to Syria sick and blind. I had taken the sickness into account, but not the blindness. I am afraid to have my eye treated, due to the season (i.e., season of illnesses) in Syria, and I am afraid that something else might come over me. I await a sign from God to illuminate my eyes. When you tell me that I am behaving recklessly as is my wont, I have never been more patient in all my life than I have been in these days. Someone who has not seen the light of the world for four months should not feel defeated? Whenever I awake and see the black obscurity of the morning and do not perceive the evening, my only remaining desire is to end my life. When they took me out into the sun, I didn't even see gloom, I saw only blackness." The margin and verso contain mostly greetings. See tag for more of her letters. ASE.

Letter from David Ḥazzan, in Jerusalem, to Eliyya Levi, in Fustat/Cairo. Written in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer describes the difficult financial state of himself and of the Qaraites in Jerusalem, and how "we are in the fire from [the Rabbanites'] oppression." He mentions that he got sick and nearly died, recovered, relapsed and nearly died, and recovered again. Also mentions Gaza. Needs examination.

Magical fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dated: Wednesday, 16 Adar 5005 AM, which is 1245 CE. Gives a spell for annulling other spells, warding off umm al-ṣibyān (infant colic or epilepsy), and exorcising the spirits of the jinn from one who is afflicted (muṣāb). It should be concealed from ignoramuses. The formula is copied out, following a basmala, in both unconnected Arabic script and in Judaeo-Arabic. The Judaeo-Arabic portion concludes with Q10:81, "Moses said, 'What you have brought is [only] magic. Indeed, Allah wille expose its worthlessness. Indeed, Allah does not amend the work of corrupters.'"