Geniza Lab

Opening of a letter from the yeshiva, probably fall 1053.

Account of the Qodesh: revenue from rent, ca.1040. The upper part of a leaf, writtten by Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 181 #14)

Payroll [similar to T-S K15.9] in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, for the seventh and eighth weeks of the liturgical calendar. Mostly same names and sums as that list. The entries for the eighth week are in Arabic script. Some payments of arrears from the sixth week are also noted. This is a full report. The numerals are not defined. In the first 15 lines they represent dirhams, in the remaining 20, loaves of bread. Another difficulty: Here, bread costs 32 dirhams (and the distribution is 126 pounds = loaves); elsewhere, about 10 pounds cost about 1 dirham (150 pounds of bread cost 15 d. in App. B 42 and 13 1/3 in App. B 47). Goitein's solution: 'There still were two distributions every week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, as had been the practice a hundred and more years before. Our list notes the number of loaves allocated to each household for one distribution (habitual in all lists of the poor), but registers the total spent on bread during one week (by the distributor concerned). The comparatively rare occurrence of the item '2 loaves for one person' catches the eye, especially if compared with the lists from the early eleventh and twelfth centuries.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 450-451, App. B 41 [dated 1210-1225])

List of recipients of charity (bread) along with the khuddām al-kanīs (the list begins with three parnasim). This list fills three pages of the bifolium. One page has a Hebrew poem, preceded by the glyph, possibly in the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi.

Account: revenue from rent in Damascus.

Part of a booklet, with section beginning, like a title page, 'List of the Poor of Fustat--may God in his mercy make them rich and help them in his grace and kindness' (in K 15.5). Date is preserved here, on fol. 39, as, 11th of Marheshvan, October 30, 1107 (in App. B 21 Goitein wrote Tuesday, Marheshvan 18 [Nov. 5], but dated is correctly in Mediterranean Society, I, p. 56). The date is written in such a way that it could be tyt or tnt, 1107 or 1147, but the reading 1107 is made sure not only by the handwriting of the clerk [=Hillel ben Eli] but also by the names of various people listed, who are known from other Geniza papers. see ibid, I, p. 405 note 89. '490 pounds, amounting to 539 (loaves of bread), from the baker Ma'ali. Ten (pounds) were added, making a total of 500, namely ten loaves of old bread.' Other leaves from this notebook = fols. 5, 15, and 50. Notice the conspicuous presence of the Rum, Jews probably from Byzantium. In several places the names of the baker Ma'ali and that of another baker, Sadaqa, appear, interrupting the list of names of beneficiaries. The handwriting is that of Avraham b. Aharon, who also wrote App. B 23, 24. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 443, App. B 21, and from Cohen).

List of contributors to charity, preserving only 26 names, many identical with T-S K15.106. First two, including again the representative of the merchants al-Hakim, give 1/8 dinar, approx 5 dirhams. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 477, App. C 17 [dating from late 11th or early 12th century])

Accounts of the Jewish community. Location: Cairo. Dated: 18 Elul 1809 Seleucid, which is 1498 CE (not 1495 as Ashtor thought). Expenses include a lot of construction work and materials, wax and sweets for 'the orphans,' money for 'the captives,' and others.

Fragment, middle part of orderly accounts in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In addition to items known from previous accounts, many new ones appear, for example, 'myrtles [for the Sukkot Feast]--2 1/2 dirhams; a shoe for the halisa...--1 1/2; to the Muezzin...who lives near the synagogue of the Palestinians as per a memo by R. Ḥalfon--2; from the Yemenite for Dammuh--6.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 452, App. B 46 [dated 1210-1225])

List of daily building operations/expenditures, ca. probably 1092. Three days are accounted for, in one week of Elul, from Monday the 11th, to Friday the 15th. The parnas who recorded the list probably advanced money of his own, or even resorted to loans, since he lists the sum collected each day and the deficit, which is called salaf (also dawn). 52 dirhams are due on the first, 21 on the second, and 21 on the third day. Then the total weekly deficit of 94 dir. is listed. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 224 #37)

List of payments made by tenants of the Qodesh, ca. 1059. Revenue from rent written in the awkward hand of the parnas Eli ha-Kohen b. Yahya-Hayim. A hajj, i.e. a Muslim who has performed the pilgrimmage to Mecca, is among the tenants. The document is a double sheet taken from a notebook, written only on recto. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 222 #36)

List of recipients of charity (bread) in the same hand, headed 'Friday the 4th (week of the liturgical year), 550 Pounds,' specifying about 140 households receiving approximately 600 loaves of bread. Most of the names in the list T-S NS J41 (= Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, no. 58) recur in this one, as well as in App. B 19-24 (= Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, nos. 60-65), but from which group it is separated by many different names.' Ca. 1100. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 442, App. B 18)

Three, much damaged columns, seemingly in the hand of the scribe of App. C 1, 2, containing about sixty names of male persons, recipients of alms. The first four are styled 'elder'; among the others: 4 dealers in olive oil, zayyat, 2 dyers, 2 packers, a cook, a gravedigger, a ghulam, servant or employee, of the (senior) Tustari brothers, all people of low professions. The list, which contains no numbers, was drawn up in connection with the payment of the capitation tax (Goitein) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 453, App. B 53 [dated 1040-1080]).

Letter fragment concerning disbursement of funds to members of the Yeshiva.

Colophon in the handwriting of Evyatar Ha-Kohen b. Eliyyahu Gaon.

Letter from the Yeshiva in Pumbedita addressed to two people from Qayrawan, around 850. The Yeshiva members complain about the economic support that they get from the west, which is much lower than the support for The Yeshiva in Sura. The writer was probably Hai, who became a Gaon later. (Information from Gil, Kingdom. Vol. 2, #4) VMR

Copy of a the opening of a letter from the head of the Gola (Rosh ha-Gola), ca. 915. Mentions the Gaon of Sura’s Yeshiva, Ya’aqov b. Natronai, and the Yeshiva judge (Av Beit-Din) Semah b. Kafnai. The letter might contain details about David b. Zakai’s appointing and the head of the Pumbedita Yeshiva’s refusal to acknowledge it. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #10) VMR

Document that tells the story of Aharon ha-Levi and Ḥalfon, who collected money on behalf of the Rambam (Maimonides) for ransom of captives. They sent the Rambam a list of names and amounts of money which people agreed to pay, from the Jewish community in al-Mahalla. One of the community members sold his female slave and gave nine dinars of the payment to the Rambam's messenger. On the other side Moses Maimonides declares that he received the money. Av-Elul 1170. (Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 316-318) VMR

Letter from Shemuel b. Eli gaʾon, Baghdad, addressing community members and asking them to welcome Shemuel b. Shelomo ha-Kohen from Ashkenaz, who was forced to leave his home and needs their help. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #83) VMR

Letter from the office of the Nagid Yehoshuaʿ Maimonides (d. 1355) in which the cantor Faraj Allāh is ordered to arrange a collection for a traveler. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 494)