Geniza Lab

Fustat; 1132 This short letter was sent by Abū Zikrī Kohen, the merchant's clerk in Fustat, to Ḥalfon shortly after he left for Qūṣ, on the way to the east. Abū Zikrī Kohen served as Ḥalfon’s representative and paid a debt to Khiyyār for him. Also mentioned here were businesses that were in Halfon, in which Abū Zikrī Kohen and Khiyyār participated together. Other businesses were between Halfon and Abū Zikrī Kohen alone. Several other personalities were mentioned, some of them known from other places, some of them unknown. The small sums of a few tens of dinars mentioned are surely leftovers from accounts for larger businesses. Ḥalfon intended to stay for a certain period in Qūṣ, because Abū Zikrī Kohen knew that he would be there when the letter and the few goods he sent there reached him. From there Ḥalfon intended to go to Aden, and Abū Zikrī Kohen ordered pearls from there for his little son. The letter was written in 1132, and it is alluded to in Abū Zikrī Kohen’s letter to Ḥalfon, from Fustat to Aden, certificateח 15 , lines 7-13. Abū Zikrī Kohen asked Ḥalfon to write to him from wherever he could get to. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Probably Fustat; After Wednesday, 5 of Adar I; January 24, 1140 Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq al-Andalūsī ha-Levi writes, probably from Fustat, to his uncle Ḥalfon, who is staying in Alexandria, who is remembered as the one who 'left this place for us to have hope and a remnant'. The body of the letter usually deals with commercial matters. Avraham summarizes various business developments, many of which are also known to us from his uncle Ezekiel's letters to Ḥalfon, in which the matter of Abū Yiṣḥaq is Abū Yiṣḥaq Sijilmasi, who left for Yemen on Wednesday, the third of the month of Adar I, which is January 24, 1140, with goods and letters written by Ḥalfon in his hand. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Broach, India; 1134 This is a draft from the top of a letter that had to be sent from northwest India to Aden, to a Ramat Ma'alah personality known as רייס. As Goitein surmised, it can be assumed with certainty that the recipient was Masmun b. Hassan, the head of the Jews of Yemen and the 'official of the merchants' there. Some of the business was already arranged in Aden, 'in his seat' and in his presence. The writer stayed in India for a second year. He sends a large shipment of fabrics to Aden by Barakāt b. Mūsā al-Ḥalabi. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from R. Yaʿaqov to Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Netanʾel, Cordoba. Yaʿaqov, who is otherwise unknown, writes regarding a dispute with Ḥalfon over the sources of a halakhic ruling, whether one should refer back to the talmud directly or to the geʾonim. Also includes ad hominem attacks. Yaʿaqov sought to bring the dispute to arbitration before Ibn Migash and Yehonatan Ben Ghiyat. Faded and difficult to decipher, in addition the usual problems of vagueness on matters well-known to both sender and recipient. (Information from Friedman and Goitein, Ḥalfon [India Book vol. 4]) Probably Lucena

Letter from Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Fustat, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dated: Monday, 1 Shevaṭ 1444 Seleucid, which is 9 January 1133 CE. (Information from India Book 4; full Hebrew description below.)

Alexandria (?); 15 of Iyar; April 17, 1139 Saʿdān b. Thābit Levi al-Baghdādī, a resident of Alexandria who is known to us from two letters he wrote to Ḥalfon (document ח85, ח88) and is also mentioned in document ח89, writes to Avraham b. Muʿṭī, a man from Tlemcen. Even though the addressee's father's name is missing, there is no doubt about his identity, because the writer addresses not only him, but his friend Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef, Yosef b. Ezra. The main part of the letter deals with the writer's great disappointment that the two mentioned merchants did not arrive in Alexandria on the ship in which Ḥalfon was traveling, and especially that they did not send with Ḥalfon the goods that Saʿdān ordered from them, and did not even send him a letter (as Ḥalfon thought they did). The letter was written in the middle of the month of Iyar, and it is possible to learn from this the time of Ḥalfon’s return from Spain. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Halachic question by Ḥalfon on Yibbum matters It is possible to identify the writer as a copycat by his handwriting. While he was standing on the dock, he hastily wrote down this question, which was appended to a larger question (which did not survive or was not identified), and sent it to the sage who does not mention his name but calls him 'the greatest rabbi of the one and only generation... '. The question deals with a complicated case or two complicated cases in Yibbum law, in a woman who heard from the rumor that her husband was killed and that she did not agree to be married, and died, and the doubts about the inheritance of money her address had already collected part of it (fifty dinars), and Yibbum demanded that her heirs return it to him. Also discussed is the wording of 'loyalty' in her ketubah, which exempts her from an oath in collecting the ketubah, and its relation to the Talmudic sources. In the hinted halachic questions, a dispute between the 'disciples' was discovered and unwanted phenomena accompanied it. Ḥalfon asked the sage to rule on the law and explain his answer well, in order to eliminate the dispute. The connection of the possibility to Ḥalfon’s answer regarding Yibbum and Chalitzah mentioned in Khalaf's letter (document ח11) and the presumed identity of the alluded sage was discussed in the introduction. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Legal testimony. Location: Aden. Dating: Ca. summer 1131 CE. Concerns the controversy caused by a Persian Jew, the nephew of the exilarch in Baghdad, who came to Aden and opposed the invocation of the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon in the qaddish prayer. Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq supported Maṣliaḥ and was the only one willing to set the controversy down in writing; the other Jews of Aden were too afraid to do so. This document may be written in the hand of the North African trader Yosef Ibn ʿEzra, a partner of Ḥalfon. The Egyptian members of the congregation, by contrast, saw Maṣliaḥ as their authority. (Information from Goitein, The Yemenites, pp. 57–61, and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Deed of release. Written and signed by Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. Location: Probably Bharuch, India. Dating: First third of Ṭevet 1445 Seleucid, which is 29 November–8 December 1133 CE. Isḥāq b. Makhlūf al-Nafūsī acknowledges that he received money and goods (pearls and coral) from Barakāt b. Mūsā al-Ḥalabī. Witnesses: Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi; Avraham b. Shemuel. The validation (qiyyum) is written on a piece of paper pasted on top of the original piece, and it is not signed. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English to come)

Letter of Abu Ali Yehezqel b. Netanel, Alexandria, to his brother Ḥalfon, 1140, written on a fragment of a Fatimid decree (see separate record). Egypt, probably Qalyūb; Adar II; February 21 - March 20, 1140

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq, in Aden, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dating: October 20, 1137 CE (Heshvan 3, 1449 Seleucid). Long letter in which Khalaf writes about an unfortunate turn in his business affairs. Khalaf had sent goods with Abū l-Yumn al-Maḥallī and Abū Zikrī al-Ṣā'igh to Egypt for Abū ʿImrān Ibn Nufayʿ and at that time had asked Ḥalfon to help Abū ʿImrān with the sales and purchases (r17–23). But Abū ʿImrān died, and Ḥalfon traveled to the West, and the two messengers suppressed Khalaf's letters and acted as if the merchandise belonged to them (r23–27). Abū l-Yumn was going to return to Aden, but he fell ill in Qūṣ and had to return to Fustat, and Khalaf does not know his current condition. Abū Zikrī al-Ṣā'igh is planning to travel on to the West. He had with him a container (mikḥala) of musk that was destined for Ḥalfon, but the head of the Jews, Maẓliāh Gaon, took the container from him before he traveled (r27–38). Khalaf has already asked Abū Zikrī Kohen, the representative of the merchants, to go to the courts with the purpose of recouping the value of the goods Khalaf has lost and sending the money back to Aden. In this letter, Khalaf asks Ḥalfon to assist Abū Zikri Kohen in this (r38–53). The letter continues with other business matters, including an update on the shipment of nard (sunbul) for Ḥalfon and his partner Mubārak al-Māliqī (i.e., from Malaga) that was detained in al-Qaṣṣ, evidently a location in NW India (r53–v3). Khalaf concludes with regards for Maṣliaḥ Gaon; for Ḥalfon's brother ʿEli Nezer ha-Maskilim; and for "the congregations." Khalaf is preoccupied that he has received no letters from Ḥalfon (v4–10). Information from Goitein and Friedman. ASE.

Letter probably from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, probably in Fustat, to Yehuda ha-Levi. Dating: September 1140 CE. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English to come).

India Book 4 A letter from Ibn al-Fakhar to Halfon b. Nethanel Halevi, asking for assistance and sending regards to R. Yosef Ibn Migash and relatives. Probably Granada summer 1138-spring 1139. AA

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Alexandria, to his brother Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, probably in Qalyūb. Dating: Prior to 21 February 1140 CE. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Maybe Lucena; July 1, 1138 A section from the middle of another partnership deed between the two, in which Yosef agrees to hand over the profits by Passover of the year 1139. If he violates the agreement, Yosef must pay twenty mitkals 'to the poor of Almeria and the captives'. Apparently, the passage is from the beginning of the note. The deed was written by a professional scribe, but the truncated addition at the end of the 12th is by Ḥalfon himself. Just as document 826 opens with the statement of the active partner, Yūsuf b. Shuʿayb Ibn al-Naghira, who received money from Ḥalfon to trade in, so it is told at the beginning of this page that Ḥalfon gave money to Yosef to trade in. If so, we have before us two partnership deeds that were written in the West between Ḥalfon, the investor, and a 'dealer' named Yosef, and it turns out that this refers to the same partner. Since it was agreed that if Yosef broke the agreement, he will give twenty mitkals 'to the poor of Almeria and to the captives', it turns out that certificate ח29 was written in Spain, and there was presumably at the time when Ibn Al-Naghira visited Ḥalfon, presumably in Lucena, at the beginning of July 1138. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from Yusuf b. al-Lukhtūsh, probably from Granada, to Ḥalfon, after leaving Granada. After October 1138. The writer writes about his willingness to see Ḥalfon again and to receive a letter from him and mentions some business matters with Yehuda b. Ghiyat. (Information from Goitein and Friedman "Ḥalfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar (India Book 4), pp: 210-213) VMR Probably Granada; After October 1138

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. ʿEzra to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dating: ca. 1128 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Almeria; Monday, 29 of Av, 4898; August 8, 1138 This is a short letter written by Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh, certainly from Almeria, to Ḥalfon, who was apparently staying in Lucena, and hinted that the subject of the letter was Abū l-Rabīʿ al-Lusani, that is, a man of Lucena. The writer sent sixty Mitkal, through three different messengers, 'by Rabbi Yehuda b. Giyat', referring to the sixty out of the hundred that, according to certificate ח30, were received from Tilimsān and which b. Giyat had to deliver to Yehuda ha-Levi. One of the two ships that sailed from Alexandria, mentioned in certificate ה30, arrived at Almeria. One of the passengers was Abū l-Barakāt b. Harith, who said that peace be upon Ḥalfon’s brother, he is Eli the Judge. Abū l-Barakāt did not see the letters Ḥalfon sent to Egypt before he left Egypt. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Maybe Alexandria; End of 1139 - middle of 1140 Ḥalfon writes to Yūsuf Ibn al-Khāzin, one of the dignitaries of Almeria, Spain, and asks for his help in delivering a dispatch sent by the Egyptian judge Rabbi Elʿazar b. al-Kasabi to his brother in Lucena. This note, which was apparently attached to a letter already written by Ḥalfon to the addressee, is one of three notes dealing with the same matter, which he wrote to different people in Almeria. See certificate ה61, which is also one of the three. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter previously thought to be from Abū Yaʿqūb Ibn al-Najera, somewhere in Spain, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, likely in Lucena. Dating: likely August 1138 CE. Identifications and datings are based on comparison with the preceding document, T-S 12.285. [However, T-S AS 149.119 is a letter from Ibn al-Najera and does not resemble this one.] This letter recounts the writer's visit to a woman who owed him 10 mithqāls, but he found her sick. He now asks Ḥalfon to advance him a certain sum, probably the same 10 mithqāls, for the purpose of his travel to Almeria. Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book 4 (Hebrew description below) = Goitein and Friedman, Ḥalfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar (India Book 4), pp: 182-183. VMR. ASE.