Geniza Lab

Court record, or deposition of witnesses. Written on cloth by Avraham ben Yiju. Location: India, perhaps Mangalore. Dating: 1132–39 or 1145–49 CE, based on ben Yiju's years in India. The record itself is almost completely effaced. It notes that a trader presented a court record/ruling (maʿase) which had been drawn up in Bharuch (Broach), the well-known port city in northwest India. On verso there are two medical prescriptions in Arabic script. (Information from Goitein and Friedman.)

Note from Hajjaj, in Messina, to Yosef Yiju, in Mazara, regarding a consignment sent to Yosef by his sons. Written around October-November 1154.

Note from a certain Ḥajjāj to Yosef Yiju, in Mazara, Sicily. In Judaeo-Arabic. Informing him about a consignment sent to him by one of his sons. Dating: October–November 1154 CE.

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham to Avraham b. Yiju reconstructed from four fragments (the last discovered after the publication of the English edition). The letter was written about a year before IB III, 1, 1136–39. Yosef had a partnership with a young man named Abu al-Faraj b. Musa/Moshe al-Baghdadi. As the investor, Yosef was supposed to receive two thirds of the profit. However, the young man tried to escape from India to Ceylon and from there to another location. Despite this, Yosef is careful not to expose the young man and is willing to provide him with funds to return to Aden, in order to preserve the young man's reputation. The letter also contains various details and instructions regarding Ibn Yiju's and Yosef's commercial dealings. (III, 4 = T-S 10J12.5 III, 5 = T-S NS J181 III, 6 = T-S AS 146.12 III, 6a = T-S AS 149.184)

Responsa in Avraham Ibn Yiju's hand: legitimacy of a manumitted female slave's marriage and status of her children, Yemen, ca. 1140.

Responsa in Avraham Ibn Yiju's hand: legitimacy of a manumitted female slave's marriage and status of her children, Yemen, ca. 1140. See also PGPID 1347.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Avraham Ibn Yiju in Jurbattan (Srikandapuram), dated August 1147. The letter contains information on their commercial transactions. The hole in lines 40-41 was already there in the time of writing.

Poem by Avraham Ben Yiju in honor of Judge Labrāṭ II (aka Labrāṭ b. Moshe b. Labrāt Ibn Sughmār. Location: Yemen. Dating: Possibly ca. 1140 CE.

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham to Avraham b. Yiju. The whereabouts of Yosef and Ibn Yiju are unclear. Goitein thought that Ibn Yiju was in Mangalore while Yosef was somewhere in India. Friedman suggests that Yosef was in Mangalore and Ibn Yiju was somewhere in Yemen. Friedman dates the letter to 1140-1144. The letter contains details of their various business dealings.

Avraham Ibn Yiju's inventory of baggage for journey from India to the west. Written in India, probably in 1140 or 1149. Elizabeth Lambourn's book Abraham's Luggage is centered on this document.

Fragment of detailed accounts written by Avraham Ibn Yiju, India, apparently 1132-1139, 1145-1149.

Legal record (#64). Trousseau list (taqwīm). Groom: Peraḥya b. Yosef Yiju. Bride: Sitt al-Dār ('Mistress of the House'), the daughter of Peraḥya's paternal uncle, Avraham Yiju. NB: Goitein referred to this document as folio 27 (Firk. II NS 1700.27) in accordance with the foliation written in pen; but the correct folio is 28, as written in pencil (the librarian with the pen gave two folios the number 8).