Geniza Lab

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe ha-Levi b. al-Qaṭā'if to his brother Peraḥya discussing business matters, the illness and recovery of Abu al-Muna, a forwarded letter, and conveying greetings. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 239, 477, and Goitein's index cards.) The description of Abū l-Munā's illness is particularly vivid. "What he had turned out to be pure pus (? qayḥ kāmil). It ruptured (infajara), and there emerged from it what cannot be mentioned. Great pits (ajwār) developed in his thighs (or hips, awrāk). It flowed so much that his robe was changed two or three times a day. Then God willed. and the flesh began to build up, and he could walk and work again." ASE.

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan to Elazar ha-Kohen expressing sympathy at the death of his father. The writer notes that he had already sent a letter to the same effect but was afraid that it had gone astray. He excuses himself for not attending the funeral because of his poor health. Second half of the 12th century. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL)

Recto: Letter sent to al-Mahalla concerning various business matters and dealing with the sale of sugar, chewing gum (mastaka) and rice. Dated 1165. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 605-606, and Goitein's index cards). Verso: Recipes in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL).

Letter from Yeshua b. Yaʿaqov to Avraham Ibn Yiju regarding the death of Madmun b. Yefet, Dhu Jibla, 1151.

Letter from Makhlūf b. Musa ibn al-Yatim, Alexandria, to Abu Yiṣḥaq Avraham b. Yahya Fasi, Fustat. The main part of the letter is an apology that the recipient was not met and was not bidden farewell before his departure to Fustat. The intended meeting point was Bab al-Sidara, the entrance to Alexandria from the mainland. (Information from Frenkel.) Goitein adds that the recipient was Abu Yiṣḥaq Avraham b. Yahya Fasi. The writer castigated the addressee for choosing the wrong company and excused himself for not seeing him off on account of the bad weather and his toothache, which he describes in graphic detail (see Med. Soc. 5:108, 248). Makhlūf accidentally wrote part of a letter intended for another person on the verso of this letter, then crossed it out and explained what had happened underneath.

Letter from Moshe b. Yosef Yiju, in Alexandria, to his brother Perahya in Fustat. Sent to the shop of Abū l-Faḵr the perfumer b. Abraham. Written probably around June 29, 1155.

Letter from Yeshua ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov, in Dhu Jibla, Yemen, to Avraham Ibn Yiju regarding the renting of a house. Around 1150-51.

Legal document. Court records made by Abū l-Khayr and Peraḥya about a physical argument between the leader Abū l-Bahā and Abū l-Wafā in front of the Babylonian synagogue in Fusṭāṭ, during which Abū l-Wafā beat Abū l-Bahā repeatedly, tearing his clothes and uncovering his head. Attested by the notary Efrayim b. Meshullam (12th century). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yehuda ha-Levi in Toledo to Ḥalfon b. Netanel regarding a collection in the cities of Spain for the ransom of a captive woman. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a member of the Ibn Muhājir family, probably in Seville, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1128 CE. There are many expressions of longing. The substance of the letter deals with business matters. Ḥalfon had sent a letter with Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya and asked the addressee to hand over the money which Avraham al-Qalʿī (apparently also of Seville) owed to Ḥalfon. Ibn Muhājir reports that he fulfilled the request and handed over 10 'ṭari' mithqāls. The sender excuses his delay by explaining that he had to go to Labla (=Niebla) and apparently obtain some of the money owed from there. (Information from India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Legal document. Acknowledgement of debt, mentioning Mūsā al-Nufūsī and Abū Saʿīd Ḵalaf b. Isaac. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Sedaqa in Tripoli, Libya, to the physician Shemuel in Cairo, thanking him for his ransom when the sender was captured by the Normans in Jerba, Ifrīqiya. Yiṣḥaq writes Shemuel that he married the daughter of his paternal uncle and that his father sold their house in Jerba for ninety dinars as a result of famine and to cover debts. Dated October 1136. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 30, 117-118, 150; IV, p. 283)

Letter in the hand of Shabbetay b. Avraham addressed to the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya. Asking him to obtain a caliphal rescript stopping the local governor from charging the sugar cooks twice the normal price for raw sugar (qand). Dating: ca. 1150 CE. Lines 1–6 and verso are written on T-S 10J15.29; lines 7–18 on T-S 10J15.32. (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, 45–46, 531.)

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel in Alexandria to Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh. (Information from CUDL)

Letter. Memorandum from Abu Zikri Kohen to Mahruz. Alexandria, ca. 1136-1149.

Letter from Sa'dan b. Thabit al-Baghdadi from Tripoli to a colleague in Cairo asking him to take care of his son, whom he had sent abroad at the son's request, and to instruct him in commercial matters. Address on the verso gives the names: Abu al-Afrah 'Ar[us] b. Yosef and Yaʿaqov b. Nissim. Dated ca. 1130. (Information from and partial translation in Goitein, Letters, pp. 255-257)

Letter from the widow of the cantor Ben Nahman to a Gaon concerning the difficulties she is having with the son of her late husband and his sister over her right to domicile in the house to which she has a claim. Cf. T-S 13J13.6 (subsequent plea, two months later, from the same woman), also T-S Ar.18(1).107.

Letter from the judge Natan ha-Kohen b. Shelomo (in office ca. 1125-1150) to Abu al-Husayn Efrayim ha-Kohen b. Yosef the silk-merchant of Damietta. The writer wishes the sender a happy Jewish New Year and orders cloth from him. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi, head of the Palestinian yeshiva (in office ca. 1170–71 and 1173–95), in which the muqaddam of Qalyub (the handwriting is that of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi) excuses himself from appearing in person on account of his illness. He certifies that there was no civil or religious impediment to the marriage of the girl called Ama'im, daughter of Abu 'l-Ḥasan. The Gaon ordered an inquiry because the family had moved from one place to another, the girl's sister was married to a freedman, and her brother had moved from Qalyub to the Manufiyya district, where he embraced Islam. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 301, 591; III, p. 81; V, pp. 108, 110) VMR

Letter from Walad al-Nezer (i.e. Mevorakh b. Nathan b. Shemuel) to the notable Netanel b. Avraham, a physician living in the Rif (and muqaddam of al-Mahallah, see 10J20.21), recommending ha-Hazzan Abu l-Bayan Moshe b. ha-Hazzan al-Ahuv who traveled to the Rif in order to collect money for his capitation tax. The young man is recommended as one growing up among the hazzanim in the time of Sar Shalom - may his name live forever - and in our own time. Information from Goitein's note card and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:389-90, 612. EMS. ASE.