Geniza Lab

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yiṣḥaq, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Middle of Adar (1451 Seleucid) = February 1141 CE. The letter deals with the illness of ʿAmram's wife (evidently a familly member of Ḥalfon's) and the way she was treated. She had been suffering lethargy, palpitations, and fainting spells for over a year and a half. She was treated for “the obstruction of the heart (inqifāl al-qalb) mentioned by al-Rāzī in the Manṣūrī,” but the medicine only made matters worse. Midwives were summoned to treat her for "the illness of women”—hysteria—by the application of oils and fats. When this, too, failed, she was overwhelmed by black bile (melancholia), rendering her “a piece of flesh, yearning for death but unable to attain it.” ʿAmram asks Ḥalfon to convey his wife’s medical history to the physicians of the capital, so that “perhaps she will attain relief.” (Information in part from Frenkel, and Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV—Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: safe conduct and assistance for brother. Aden, ca. 1145. (8) [I shall take care of] sending it, if someone departs this [year for] (9) Egypt, since no one arrived last year or [so far this year] (10) from Egypt, because of the [death?] (11) and epidemic prevailing there, for two years in a row.

Letter from Saʿdān b. Thābit al-Baghdādī ha-Levi, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1135 CE. Goitein identified the sender based on his handwriting (which is corroborated by the content of IV,89). Apparently, Saʿdān had sent Ḥalfon a shipment of pearls. He complains about Ḥalfon’s plan to travel to Damascus by land rather than by ship from Alexandria because Saʿdān expected them to meet there, and so Ḥalfon would pay all or part of the debt that Ḥalfon's brother Abū ʿAlī Yeḥezqel owed to Saʿdān. Ḥalfon had already described to Saʿdān the difficult illness of Yeḥezqel. According to Saʿdān, the deposit of silk which Ḥalfon had deposited with him was not sufficient to repay the debt. Goitein remarks, "The beautiful style abounding in courtesy, even as the writer complains of being harmed, is reminiscent of Spanish letters, and there is no doubt that the writing manners that Saʿdān found while in Spain stuck with him." (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; see Hebrew description below.)

Letter. Letter concerning a girl who had been regarded as being a Muslim and when she appeared before the Qāḍī, declared she was Jewish, whereupon her case was turned over by the latter to a Jewish judge for further investigation. (Information from Goitein’s index card and Goitein, “Slaves and Slavegirls in the Cairo Geniza Records,” Arabica 9 (1962), 14)

Legal query to Avraham Maimonides regarding a man who takes a 200 dinar loan and appoints his parents as guarantors, providing them with a house on his property equivalent in value to his debt. Over the course of the ten-year period of the loan, the debtor marries a woman in Egypt and then travels to India, leaving her in Egypt. When the ten-year period comes to a close and the debt has not been repaid, the creditors wish to sell the house on the property to recoup their funds. The question facing Avraham Maimonides is whether the wife who remained in Egypt has the authority to prevent the sale. Old IB number: 169. New IB number: VII, 31. (Nathaniel Moses)

Letter from Perahya Yiju to his brother Shemuel. Written probably in al-Mahalla around the seventies or eighties of the twelfth century. Perhaya copies questions on religious law and asks his brother to obtain authoritative answers for them in Fustat.

Legal document: testimony on the date of a bill of divorce written by Yaʿaqov b. Avraham, Yosef Lebdi's travel companion. The document is dated to April 5, 1095.

Business letter addressed to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen Sijilmāsī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Barakāt Ibn al-Lebdī; Hārūn b. Rajā; Efrayim b. Ismāʿīl. (Goitein's attached notes may refer to several other documents other than this one; Goitein quotes a sender who says “I cannot undertake for the third year a voyage [to Aden]," and he makes some date calculations mentioning the years 1131, 1134, and 1135.) Goitein's attached notes also contain a full transcription.

Letter from Nahray b. Natan b. Nahray, in Alexandria, to a certain Abū Saʿīd. Fragment (upper part only). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late 11th century. The sender and his father, both residents of Alexandria, are known to have exchanged letters with their relative, Nahray b. Nissim. (Gil mistakenly identified the sender as Nahray b. Nissim himself.) In this letter, Nahray b. Natan writes that he has received a letter with a list of merchandise sent to Fustat by Abū Sulaymān Dāʾūd Ibn al-Lebdī. The list of merchandise is valuable for the study of the Indian Ocean trade. The sender says that he has sent two purses of 100 dinars each with two different messengers and asks the addressee to buy several items for him. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book I.)

Letter from Yosef b. Shemuel ha-Levi known as Ibn al-Lukhtūsh, probably in Granada, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, probably staying somewhere in Spain not far from Granada. Dating: October 1138 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. See also IV,3 and IV,40, other letters with the same sender and addressee. This letter testifies to the recognition that Yosef accorded to Ḥalfon as a leader with stature in the Jewish world. The sender comments on a letter he received from Ḥalfon containing things that disturbed his peace, probably meaning Ḥalfon’s precarious health and things that prevented him from setting out and difficulties in trading. The sender hopes that business with Tilimsān has reached a successful conclusion, probably a reference to the same affairs as in IV,30 (at which time the money from Tilimsān had not yet arrived). The letter also includes information on other financial matters, including money given by the author to Ḥalfon for a copyist and cantor. A greeting is sent to Abū l-Barakāt b. Harith al-Levi, who arrived in Almeria from Alexandria in August 1138 CE. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Accounts of Avraham Ibn Yiju's workshop for bronze vessels, India 1132-1139, 1145-1149. The verso of this document is III, 21.

Two accounts of Ibn Yiju about transactions with the Nakhuda Abu Abd Allah Ibn al-Kataib, Aden, 1140-1145. This is the verso of III, 19.

Letter from David Maimonides, in ʿAydhāb, to his brother Moses Maimonides, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1170 CE. This is the last letter David wrote before he died at sea en route to India. Maimonides had ordered him to travel as far as ʿAydhāb, the Sudanese port, and not to embark on the pasage to India. But David, who had just successfully completed a daring feat, namely, crossing the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea after being separated from his caravan, accompanied only by a fellow Jew, and who did not find in ʿAydhāb goods worthwhile buying, was bent on traveling to India in order to make his voyage profitable. Information from Goitein.

Mercantile letter sent possibly from Aden to India. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower part of recto). The sender received a basket (zanbīl) of pepper which he did not want. He wanted betel nut (fawfal) or cardamom instead. He humorously complains that the pepper won't fetch any money for him to be able to eat or drink. He also did not want the 15 עיטוריה(?) dinars that the addressee sent with Mūsā b. Yūsuf. He wishes that the addressee had used the money to buy him betel nut or cardamom. In a postscript on verso he adds, "whatever you buy for me, please do not put it under my name but rather under your name." (Information in part from Goitein’s attached notes.)

Recto: Official-looking document. In Arabic script. Dated: 19 Shawwāl 517 AH, which is December 1123 CE. Documenting the receipt of 350 irdabbs of wheat from ʿAlī b. Saʿīd from al-Gharbiyya for something. Needs further examination.

Verso: Order of payment by Abū Zikrī Kohen. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Hod should give the bearer 3 ounces of lemon-rose syrup and an ounce of chewy candy (ʿaqīd).

Letter from Shemarya b. David to a prominent Egyptian Jew. Aden, late twelfth century.

Letter from ʿAmram b. Yosef to Netanel b. Yefet regarding goods sent by Ḥasan b. Bundār. Location: Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97 CE. ʿAmram mentions his ophthalmia ('it seems as if I have found slight relief') and the wretched woman (ʿaguna for ʿaguma, as in CUL Or.1080 J24) who suffers pain in the joints of her hands and feet (this woman and her arthritis also appear in T-S 13J23.10). ʿAmram excuses himself from paying his respects to the Nagid on account of his ophthalmia, so he asks Netanel to represent him. ʿAmram makes the same request of Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy in Halper 394 and of Nahray b. Nissim in Bodl. MS heb. d.75/19. ASE. See Med. Society II, 478, Section 18. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender is probably Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov, an India trader and shipowner (nākhudā) known from documents dating from 1131/32 to c.1150 CE. (This identification was made by Amir Ashur and Mordechai Akiva Friedman.) The sender was previously in Qūṣ and is now in some town in the Egyptian Rīf or the Levant, as he asks for news about shipments for him from Aden. On this fragment, the lower part of recto and the upper part of verso are preserved. The sender complains about how the wālī squeezed money out of him this year for paying half of Hiba's capitation tax. He reports that a Maghribī arrived from Damascus, and the community contracted with him to teach their children and lead their prayers for one year, and they will pay him 9 qirṭāses(?) and two fulūs monthly and perhaps 2 dirhams toward his capitation tax. The sender quotes Avot 4:9 ('whoever fulfills the Torah in poverty will ultimately fulfill it in prosperity'). The sender is very pleased about the addressee's apology and gift (of 20 dirhams?) and reiterates that he didn't have to do that. The sender is abashed to send letters to his cousins (abnā' khāla) because he doesn't have any gifts to send them. In the margin of recto there is a request for something (קרכה?) made of white flax (here there seems to be a Judaeo-Persian word, bābat, used in a similar context as in T-S 8J19.28 -- see Shaked's article on Persian-Arabic Bilingualism in From a Sacred Source). The bulk of the text on verso is taken up with the shipment of cloves that never reached the sender. This may be the fault of a certain Sulaymān and the sender seems intimidated by him ('no one sues him except God'?). It may be deposited with the untrustworthy children of Abū Saʿd. The addressee is asked to help. The sender complains that no one will lend him money or borrow money from him. He asks the addressee to put in a good word with the latter's cousin (ibn ʿamm), 'who knows the Levant well.' The sender claims that he can turn dirhams into dinars. He asks for a scroll on parchment (gevil) and the laws of slaughter in Arabic (as the addressee had promised), and he wants the addressee to sell a volume of the Torah for him. The last preserved line of the letter (verso margin) mentions the Levant and yarn and sal ammoniac and "the saliva of m[...]." ASE

Panegyric in Honor of Madmun II Cairo, after 1186.