Geniza Lab

Strong censure from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides that the addressee had left a guest recommended by him without food on Friday and Shabbat and, in addition, the addressee's son had insulted him. He summons both father and son to his court, urgently. Infromation from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Legal document likely in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. Needs further examination.

Letter in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides, it seems conveying greetings for the holidays.

Accounts, it seems a list of loans granted by a broker of the 14th century. Information from Goitein's note card.

An urgent summons to appear before the court from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides.

Settlement between a husband and his wife, Fustat, 1334.

Letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides for the bearer who is named Moshe. See Moss. II,177 for another version of the letter, this one for Shelomo.

Fragment of a letter in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides including the following bitter statement: "What is the reason of this? Don't you know the value of what I do for you? Know that if you do not close the yearly account that you owe to me, on the morning of the holiday I will send you the messengers of the house of the Ṣāḥib [al-Dīwān, the official in charge of the capitation tax]."

The beginning of a letter of recommendation from the office of Yehoshua Maimonides, for a man named Eliyyahu "who has no tongue [in Arabic] or in Hebrew." The name Ṣedaqa ha-Ḥazzan appears on verso. Bibliography: Mentioned in Goitein, "The Twilight of the House of Maimonides," Tarbiz 54 (1984), 67–104.

Letter with greetings for the holidays, likely in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. There appears to be a genealogy in a different hand occupying the top of the page. Needs further examination. ASE.

Deed of lease. Location: Cairo. Dated: Monday, 27 Tammuz 1613 Seleucid = Shawwāl 701 AH, which is June 1302 CE. The elders of the Qaraite Jews of Cairo lease the right of way (sulūka) through a doorway of the street of the synagogue (darb al-kanīs), "may it soon be reopened" (in Hebrew in an otherwise Judaeo-Arabic text), to al-Ṣafiyy Abū l-Maḥāsin b. al-Asʿad Abū l-Ḥasan, for 6 dirhems per year. During the persecutions of 1301–02, the houses of worship of Christians and Jews were closed by the Muslim authorities for about a year until the Byzantine emperor and other Christian monarches obtained their (partial) reopening (see Strauss, Mamluks, I, 86–87). Information from Goitein, Med Soc II, p. 435 (Appendix A, #173). ASE.