Geniza Lab

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Bū ʿUmar, in Upper Egypt, to his family (his son Abū l-Maḥāsin and his wife), probably in Fustat. In Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1167 CE. The sender is also known from ENA 1822A.75. In this letter he praises Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn (here called Khalaf b. Maḍmūn) for his help after the sender had been stripped of everything by the Ghuzz (a Seljuk contingent) and for an invitation to Aden, from which he would proceed to India. Ḥalfon also took care of a young woman of the sender's family, who had been divorced by her husband in Aden. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book II.)

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq, in Aden, to Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Netanel, in Bharuch, India (v14). Dating: ca. 1134 CE. Damaged and missing the ends of the lines. The letter mainly deals with business, much of it in pepper and textiles. It mentions that a ship capsized at the entrance to the city [in fact, the join clarifies that it was a man named Yarbaḥ who drowned] (r15); that Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan did not send any merchandise to Egypt this year [in fact, that he did not sell any pepper this year] (r17–18); various Jewish merchants who reached Aden from Egypt this year, including Abū l-Ḥasan Ibn al-ʿAkkāwī, the son of Ibn al-ʿAfṣī, the son of Sibāʿ, [...] al-Mahdawī, and Ismāʿīl al-Maghribī, who brought good news about relations with the sultan (or government, r22–25); the arrival of two ships from India (r32); and Khalaf's six-month illness, from Tevet to Sivan (v8–10). Greetings are extended to colleagues in al-Qaṣṣ and Bharuch. Information in part from Goitein and Friedman. (Goitein initially identified the addressee as Avraham ben Yijū.) Join by Amir Ashur. ASE. Aden; 1134

Letter to a merchant away in the Far East, whose interests were protected by the 'Nagid David'. Aden, ca. 1180.

Bill of sale for the purchase of a house by Maḥrūz. Constructed from three fragments: T-S NS 184 52, T-S NS 184 55 and T-S NS 184 56. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1131–32 CE.

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Madmun to Saadya b. Avraham, an Egyptian teacher. Aden, 1154.

India Book II, 21–24 (synoptic edition). Letter from Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan, in Aden, to Avraham Ibn Yiju. Dating: ca. 1135 CE. Altogether, six fragments of (at least) three copies of the letter have been identified, as follows: Copy 1: II,22 (T-S NS J240) = a small section of the original written by Maḍmūn. Ibn Yiju reused verso for writing accounts (cf II,23v = PGPID 5537). II,22a (Moss. IV,21.1) II,23 (T-S 20.137), the main part of the original written by Maḍmūn. Copy 2: II,24 (T-S NS J1), the clean copy of the clerk, with two postscripts added by Maḍmūn Copy 3: II,21 (T-S NS J241), another clean copy of the clerk, on whose reverse side he added the postscripts of the master II,21a (JRL Series B 4089), in the hand of the same clerk who wrote II,21 and perhaps a fragment of the same copy. The text on verso (PGPID 5232) corresponds to II,23 lines 32–43. The text on recto (PGPID 5233) is not paralleled in the other surviving fragments.

India Book III, 18: Five accounts written by Ibn Yiju in India, 1136-1139, 1145-1149. These accounts are written on the other side of a letter from Madmun from Aden to India (see II, 23, PGPID 5479).

Quittance by the rabbinical court of Fustat for money sent to Madmun II. Fustat, probably 1214.