Geniza Lab

Letter in the hand of Abraham Maimonides. Mentions a certain Elijah - probably Elijah b. Zekharya. AA

Draft of a legal query addressed to Avraham Maimuni .(AA)

Legal query to Muslim jurisconsults regarding the practice of prostration (sujūd) and genuflection (rukūʿ), during the synagogue liturgy. The said practice was customary for the previous 20 years, and there are concerns regarding its recent abrogation. Dating: ca. 638 AH, which is 1240/41 CE. This was written after the death of Avraham Maimonides, who had innovated these practices. Writing exercises are found on the upper margin of recto and on verso. (Information from CUDL)

A short note written by Avraham Maimonides. Ordering Eliyyahu the judge to pay capitation tax to R. Zakkay the teacher and Ibrāhīm the beadle. AA

Query to Avraham Maimonides.

List of around sixty "houses" (bayt) and of eight male individuals, each followed by Coptic numerals. Includes an entry for "the house of the rayyis, the house of our lord R. Avraham (Maimonides)," which Cohen takes as proof that this is a donor list rather than an alms list. Goitein speculates that this might be "a collection arranged by women to which also a few gentlemen contributed." Cohen, however, takes "house" to mean not "wife" but "household," and when a married woman appears on the list, she is mentioned using the term imraʾa (col. 3, line 17). Likewise, in the entry "the bayt of ʿAziza," a woman's name, bayt can only mean "househo1d" (col. 3, line 12). Entries are crossed out when people paid their pledges. (Information from Cohen, Voice of the Poor, 182)

The genealogical tree of the family of Avraham Maimonides' mother - a family of pious persons. Probably a different branch of the family.

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. The cantor Abū l-Majd is to give 5 dirhams to a certain Kohen, apparently as reimbursement for what was paid to the blind cantor. The next word has been transcribed as תספיר (bookbinding?) and a previous description said that the 5 dirhams were for travel (ספר) expenses, but it's not clear this word has been read correctly. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220.)

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Abū l-Majd is to give the bearer, a builder, 3.5 (dirhams?) for work on the lane of the Jerusalemites (darb al-Maqādisa). T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Court decision in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Sulayman ha-Kohen al-Naqqad suspected the trustworthiness of al-Rasuy in matters of money, and the latter gave oath to the former. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 341)

Public letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237 CE). The cantors of Fustat are instructed to read it aloud in the synagogue on Monday, Thursday, and Monday, as well as Saturday morning. A ban of excommunication is declared against the women who continue dyeing silk privately ('in the houses'), because the tax farmer who had the license for silk dyeing had complained to the dīwān that he was losing revenue. Information in part from Goitein's note card. The CUDL description identifies the hand as belonging to Joshua b. Abraham Maimonides (active 1310-1355 CE), but Amir Ashur, who wrote that description, has now revised his view and identifies this hand as belonging to Avraham (I) Maimonides.

Piyyut by Gamliel b. Moshe on the occasion of Avraham Maimonides's recovery from illness. Goitein: "As was customary at such banquets, poems in honor of the event were recited. We have one in the Geniza written on the occasion of the recovery of Abraham Maimonides from a grave illness (the Geniza contains several references to his poor health). The poem is jubilant, and praises, of course, also Abraham's illustrious late father, other ancestors, his two sons (who must have been mere boys at that time), and the happy community, for which he had been spared" Med Soc V, 111.

Probably a copy of a letter to leaders of a community, from Avraham Maimuni or one of his contemporaries. The scribe is known from two other copies of such letter, ENA 3200.3, ENA 2875.40. AA

Draft of a letter written either by Avraham Maimuni or his son David b. Avraham Maimuni (their hands are almost identical). Addressed to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa Hibat[allāh b. Abū] l-Faraj.The draft is repeated on verso. AA

A short note written by Abraham Maimuni to al-Sheikh al-Rasuy, asking him to take care for the oil, probably for lighting the synagogue. AA

Unfinished bill of release from 1525 Era of documents (= 1214) under the authority of Avraham Maimuni. Abu al-Hasan al-Dala[ti] ans Abu al-Baha are released by Abu Imran Moshe Hakohen from any claim. AA

Beginning of a letter to Avraham Maimuni

Opening of a letter from Ya'aqov b. Elazar al-Dijwar (דגואר) to Avraham Maimuni. Same person also appears in TS 8J23.2- a letter from Perahya b. Yosef. AA

Account of the qodesh, ca. 1220. A double leaf of a notebook. The list contains mainly expenditures, mostly for the synagogues and for scholars and officials. Among them are beadles, including the beadle of the synagogue of Dammuh. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 423 #126). Four pages of drafts of communal accounts, all crossed out [vertical and diagonal strokes], which was usually done after a clean copy was made. Page one is almost entirely identical with the T-S NS J251. The other pages are highly interesting for they contain many instructions by the Nagid Abraham Maimonides showing administrative practices in times of severe hardship. For instance, a collection, totaling 30 dirhems had been promised to a young Maghrebi, for which a notable had stood security and paid to the foreigner. When only 17 dirhems came in, the Nagid ordered 13 dirhems taken from a collection for a man from Damira, Egypt, and turned over to that notable. The situation probably was that the traveler from the Maghreb had to leave, while the man from Damira could wait, and people who had stood security should get their money back immediately, otherwise no one would be found in the future to undertake that task about which we read so much in court records.

Informal note/petition addressed to Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks when Avraham will spend Shabbat in Cairo and when the writer can see him. Information from Goitein's index card.