Geniza Lab

Letter, fragmentary, to Judge Eliyyahu, mentioning issues in connection with the Muslim authorities: writer mentions fatwa to the Nagid, wants a tawqi from the Sultan.

Letter from Judge Eliyyahu to his colleague David ha-Kohen in Bilbays addressing a query; asks whether one Bushr, daughter of Asad, had formally dissolved a previous engagement and is free to remarry.

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt Umm Daʾūd, asking for her daughter Sitt al-Yumn in marriage and enquiring about the dowry. Dated Tammuz 1530 of the Seleucid Era (= 1219 CE). In the margins of verso and recto are drafts of a release form in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, concerning the claims between two sisters and Thanāʾ, the mother the late Manṣūr concerning the inheritance of the late Ibn Abū l-Majd the dyer Ibn al-Nāʾila. Abū l-Maḥāsin guarantees his mother ʿIbād’s release for her sister Ḥasab and Thanāʾ bt. Sayyid al-Ahl. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Judge Eliyyahu to his two sons Abu Zikri and Shelomo. He wants them to come back from Jerusalem. 13th century.

Letter from an unknown writer in Bilbays to Judge Eliyyahu, dated 1237. The writer complains about the meagre salary of public officials there.

Recto: Statute for tenants of the Qodesh. Dating: ca. 1215 (according to Gil, but his handwriting comparison may not be sound, and this document could be as late as ca. 1300). The document preserves a number of conditions imposed upon the lessees of the qodesh. It proclaims 1) a ban (herem) against anyone who defaults on the monthly payment, for any reason whatsoever. Therefore, exactly as one would beg money for food, one should do so, if necessary, in order to pay rent. 2) The ban will also operate also on anyone who does not accept the amount of the rent as established by three Jews, the muqawwimin. 3) The lessee is obliged to present his deeds of lease whenever asked to do so in the name of the waqf. 4) The ban will also be applied to anybody making use of a Muslim's intervention in order to obtain a lodging in the houses of the qodesh or a reduction of rent imposed on him. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 411 #112.) On verso there is a Hebrew poem in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī (d. after 1298).

Letter of holiday greetings from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt. 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Umm Makīn, the wife of al-Sadīd, in Bilbays, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. The writer inquires from Eliyyahu about her son who was left under the judge's supervision, and requests release of money left to her other children. She is also concerned about the son's capitation tax.

Letter from Eliyahu b. Nissim, in Alexandria, to Shela b. Isḥāq, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably early 13th century. The sender, a foreigner, asks why he has been neglected. He states that he is in Alexandria and cannot come to Cairo without an invitation. The sender is worried because he has not heard from anyone for four months and because a disease had spread in Fustat. The letter opens with a biblical quotation (Proverbs 13:12). (Information in part from CUDL, from Goitein, Med Soc III, 47, 437, and from Goitein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Umm Dawud to her nephew Abu Zikri describing the wedding of her daughter (c. first half of the 13th century).

Letter from Abū l-Faraj and his son Abū l-Majd in Bilbays to Eliyyahu the Judge (who is the cousin, ibn khāl, of Abū l-Faraj). They have been in Bilbays only a brief time, since 17 Iyyar, seeking a living there because of difficult economic conditions in Alexandria. But this project has not worked out, and so they are planning to return to Alexandria. The main purpose of the letter is to ask Eliyyahu to rebuke another Abū l-Faraj, who owes the writer 18 dinars, and force him to pay. The writer had deposited the money (and other goods) with this Abū l-Faraj on the night before he traveled; this was witnessed by another cousin (ibn khāla) of Eliyyahu, Manṣūr b. Sahlān. The writer told Abū l-Faraj to draw up a contract for the deposit/loan, but he never did so. (Probably he is now denying that he owes anything.) "If I had known that the matter would turn out like this, {I} wouldn't have given him a penny. . . . My greatest need from you is to rebuke Abū l-Faraj, for he is a heretic [zindīq]. My only salvation from him will be through God and through you. I am shocked at how he treated my son. . . . I am now a piece of flesh: I lack money, sight, and a living." He mentions his weak vision earlier in the letter, too, when explaining the "delay of my raḥl (merchandise? travel?)." Also of interest in the letter is what Abū l-Faraj conveys about his hospitality for Eliyyahu's son, the physician Abū Zikrī, who returned from Jerusalem the previous year. Initially, Abū Zikrī stayed with Abū l-Faraj the son of the Parnas. But after Yom Kippur, the writer said, "He should stay with me instead of with strangers." And thus they lived together, "head to head"—apparently an expression of his great hospitality. When the writer and his son, along with Asad and Abū l-Munā, started preparing to travel (to Fustat?), they urged Abū Zikrī to come with them, citing the wishes of Eliyyahu, but he refused. Asad ended up advancing him 17 dirhams for the capitation tax. Abū Zikrī has no intention of coming, but rather is staying in the house of the writer, along with Sulaymān the Yemeni (perhaps the father of Avraham b. Shelomo the Yemeni, who lived with Abū Zikrī in Jerusalem, and who had family in Bilbays, see T-S 8J16.3 and T-S 13J21.5). Abū Zikrī's motivations seem in part financial—he says he will not come until his father sends him 10 dinars. The letter is full of idiosyncratic spellings, many probably reflecting colloquial pronunciation. ASE.

Acknowledgment of debt, unfinished. Debtor: Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen b. Yehuda ha-Kohen. Creditor: Abu Naṣr Yehuda ha-Levi b. Yeshuʿa the minister (ha-sar). Town of al-Banhā,, Sunday, 3rd of Tishri 1556 sel., (1244, the day of the week does not match the date. MY) (Information from Goitein's index card) Followed by post-classical rhymed seliḥot for the ten days of repentance on recto and verso, with an alphabetic acrostic. (Information from CUDL)

Account (draft) of the Qodesh ca. 1213. This account is written on the verso and also on the remaining space of the recto of a document concerning the sale of a female slave to a certain Elazar ha-Kohen. Different kidns of revenue and expenditures are recorded together. There are items of charity, for the local poor and for foreigners, and repairs to buildings of the qodesh, and also to the synagogues of Fustat and Dammuh. Several sums that were emoluments for scholars are included as well. Some revenue from rent is listed, as it is also income from collections for charity, among them one "light" dinar paid by Rayyis, i.e. the Nagid, Avraham Maimuni, the son of Maimonides. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 403 #109)

Letter concering the apperance of a prophet, and inauguration of the messianic age in 1226 with the appearance of Elijah, of the messiah in 1233, and of the kingdom of God in 1240 (5000 of the creation). Original letter was sent from Marseilles to Qabes; this copy went to Alexandria. The letter mentions that Elazar of Worms believed in this prophet. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from a certain Binyamin to a certain Ḥayyim, perhaps the son of Ḥananel b. Shemuel. Dating: Middle of the 13th century, during the time of David I Maimonides. "We are fortunate to possess a letter from the mid-thirteenth century describing a more extended version of the solitary retreat (khalwa). The letter, composed by one Benjamin to his friend, Ḥayyim, apparently the son of Ḥananel b. Samuel, sought to calm the worried son’s mind over the “journey” undertaken by his father. Eliyahu Ashtor, who published the letter, interpreted this journey as a lengthy business trip. More recently, Paul Fenton has conclusively argued in favor of a pietist interpretation of the letter. The letter is the only direct confirmation that the pietists of Egypt practiced the forty-day retreat known among contemporary Sufis." The complete letter, including the full valediction, was translated into French by Fenton, Deux Traités, pp.63–65. (Information from Russ-Fishbane, Judaism, Sufism, and the Pietists of Medieval Egypt, pp.115–18.)

Draft of a legal document. Dating: 13th century. Abū l-Karam b. Ḥananyahu the Judge buys from Abū l-Ḥasan Yefet ha-Levi one quarter of a flour mill (ṭāḥūn) in the Mamṣūṣa quarter of Fustat, in the portico of Ibn Khīra, for his unmarried daughter, Sitt al-Khafar. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 327, and from Goitein's index cards)

Elazar b. Yefet sells to Shelomo b. Sadaqa his female slave named Ṭā'ūs ('Peacock') and her 10 year old son, named Mubārak ('The Blessed') for 40 dinars. Dated Elul 1552/ August-September 1241. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 138, 434) On verso is a draft halakhic text on the laws of levirate marriage, in the same hand as the document on recto. (Information from CUDL)

A physician Shemuel grants a loan of four hundred cut-up dirhams to Abu al-Faraj, a simsar (broker) in Misr (Fustat) and Cairo, to be paid back at the end of Tishri 1537/end Ramadan-beginning of Shawwal 622/October 1225. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 385) Unfortunately for Shemuel, cut up dirhams would be taken out of circulation one month after the loan was due to be repaid. The deed also states that Shemuel had previously sold Abu l-Faraj sugar and sugar molasses. Signed by ʿAmram b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi and Shelomo b. Natan ha-Levi. Possibly in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Abu al-Makarim gives eight pieces of clothing to Abu al-Mufaddal as collateral for 4 dinars. Dated Elul 1525/August 1213. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 413) Verso: Note relating to a marriage. (Information from CUDL)

Two deeds of sale of houses, Fustat 1261. Written by Emanuel b. Yehiel. AA