Geniza Lab

Letter from an unknown writer, probably in Alexandria, to Abū l-Khayr (?) b. Yūsuf, in Fustat, care of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Yahūdī al-Ṣā'igh in the market of the goldsmiths. The letter is in Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. The writer is furious that the addressee traveled to Fustat, leaving behind debts in Alexandria and abandoning his wife and children, "may God not reward you," and repeatedly demands that he return immediately. The writer reports that the female slave left for al-Maḥalla 10 days ago, and a terrible rumor reached them that she is either critically ill (marīḍa ʿalā khuṭṭa) or dead. The addressee's wife is also "sick in her knee"; she had a fall, and now cannot sit up or stand up. The writer sends regards to many people including the addressee's sister and her children; Abū Naṣr and his son Salmān (?); and the old woman asks after her daughter. The addressee's other sister, Sitt Riyāḍ, his mother, and everyone in the house ask after the addressee's sister. ASE.

Trousseau list. Entries include a copper vessel, a bath tub, and a female slave named Warda born into slavery (muwalladat al-jins). (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Nearly complete letter in Arabic, written by a Muslim and/or addressed to a Muslim (concludes with prayers for the prophet Muhammad), sent to somebody close to the India trader and Nagid Maḍmūn b. al-Ḥasan (active 1131–51). Unfortunately, the beginning of the letter and the address are lost. The writer reports meeting with [Abū?] l-Faraj b. al-Surūr and learning that the addressee had directed his business (? taklīfak) to the West (bilād al-gharb) and has been left without strong connections in India (bilād al-hind). He then brings up Maḍmūn b. al-Ḥasan and (it seems) how Maḍmūn has bestowed his favor on the addressee more than on others. He then explains why he has been unable to travel: his East African slave (al-ʿabd al-zanjī) died, and the [In]dian slave who was with him in Sunkhalā (= present-day Songkhla) had already departed. . . . "and I remained cut off" (? wa-baqītu munqaṭiʿ). Despite this, he is doing well (qalbī ṭayyib), and he requests a favor from Maḍmūn. In the margin he mentions the ship-owner (nākhudhā) Abū ʿAbd al-Qahhār (? this word is uncertain) Abū l-K[...]. Merits further examination. ASE.

Popular literature. In Judaeo-Arabic. The portion of the story on this fragment opens with the appearance of a healer before a king: "...and princes and viziers and generals. As for your question about my trade: I am a wise man (ḥakīm), an exorcist (muʿazzim), a physician the son of a physician (ṭabīb bin ṭabīb), I release madmen and madwomen (al-majnūn wa-l-majnūna), the delusional (al-mutahawwis)... and epileptics (al-maṣrūʿ wa-l-maṣrūʿa). I command the jinn, both the tribes that fly in the heavens and those submerged in the earth. This is my trade and my craft, this why I roam the climes and the lands." The king is glad to hear this, because a female slave of his recently lost her wits. The healer begins to investigate with his magical methods, and the king reveals that her madness began after he tried to sexually assault her, and she began striking and tearing at the clothes of anybody who came near her.

Legal document. In Arabic script. Receipt for the purchase of a Nubian female slave named Tawfīq. It seems that the seller is Baqāʾ b. Manṣūr and the buyer is Farajallāh b. Abū l-Baqāʾ b. Abū Saʿīd al-Naṣrānī. Price: 22 wariq dirhams. Dated: 25 Rabīʿ II 630 AH, which is 9 February 1233. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Arabic script. Concerning 'the going up' of an enslaved singing woman (ṭulūʿ al-mughanniya). "I sent Luʾluʾ... with her another person from her place who enters the house with her and says that she is from her master, and if she enters the house and does not serve me(?). . . the judge. . . send the ghulām. . . Ṣāfī. . . ." Needs further examination. (the root טלע used here might be translated as as 'traveling from North to South along the Nile'. AA)

Petition from a group of people to a chief vizier (Sayyid al-Wuzarāʾ) titled "al-Kāmilī." In Arabic script. Fragment (upper half only). The petitioners complain that there is a Jewish man named Sulaymān in Fustat, the son of an Indian female slave (ibn jāriya hindiyya) who spends all his days obstructing business and frightening people in the drug/perfume market (sūq al-ʿaṭṭārīn), just like Ibn al-ʿUṣfūr used to do. (Goitein wonders if there might be a connection to T-S K25.64 and BL OR 5566B.30, which feature a troublemaker nicknamed ʿUṣfūr al-Jinn.) This man Sulaymān apparently raves about nonsense or impossible things (qawl al-muḥāl). When the Jews were resting in their houses on Shabbat, he assaulted them with "raqqāṣīn" (couriers? dancers? journeymen?) and expelled (? akhraja) their women, and frightened "us" (the pronoun slips here from "them" to "us"—an indication that the petitioners are the persecuted Jews themselves?). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) ASE

Bill of sale of a slave. In Arabic script. Location: Fustat. Dated: first decade of Ramaḍān 438 AH, which is October/November 1090 CE. Seller: Ḥanūn b. ʿAllūn, the Christian clerk (kātib) in the Dār al-Dībāj (‘residence of the viziers’). Buyer: ʿArūs b. Yosef, a wealthy cloth merchant, many of whose accounts and letters are preserved in the Geniza. The sale is for an unnamed Christian woman and for her son Qiwām. Price: 21 dinars. (Information from Khan and CUDL)

Letter from an unknown sender to Eliyyahu the Judge (called Abū l-Faraj al-Dayyān), in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script ("[to be delivered to] Ibn al-ʿAjamī who should give it to the judge Abū l-Faraj"). The sender complains about a female slave (al-jāriya) and says that he only went to the trouble of bringing her to Fustat because it was Eliyyahu's idea. He asks Eliyyahu to take possession of her from Abū l-Makārim and pass her on to Abū l-Munā b. Ṣāʿid ("I heard that he is a (slave?) broker, and he is my friend, and he will do his best with her in accordance with his manliness and nobility and benefaction...."). He repeats the instruction to obtain the slave from Abū l-Makārim and to thank him. Possibly mentions a woman (קמטה?) who gave birth (but this is not at all clear), and then urges Eliyyahu to help him "for God's sake." He reports that Eliyyahu's sons—Abū Zikrī the physician and Abū l-Barakāt—and Eliyyahu's wife (ahl baytak) are well. The reason Abū Zikrī has not yet come in person is that he has "a touch of ophthalmia" (ramad yasīr). Join: Alan Elbaum.

Court record fragment of the sale of a European slave by a mother to her son. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 331, and Goitein's index cards)

Letter from an India trader in Quṣ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably end of 11th or early 12th century, based on Goitein's assessment. The writer departed when sick (wajiʿ) and arrived healthy in Qūṣ after a Nile voyage of 14 days. He reports that a tremendous Fatimid treasure had been commandeered by al-Bulyanī (perhaps the head of the tribe which commanded the Qūṣ-ʿAydhāb route). The treasure included 70 slave women, each with a eunuch and jewels and a chest of textiles. See Goitein's attached transcription and correspondence with Claude Cahen.

Legal document(s) in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Both sides contain formulary for documents relating to the sale of a female slave (שחרורה... אלש]רוט אלמשתרטה פי ביע הדה אלגא[ריה...).

Legal document. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli (1066–1108). Rough draft of an agreement between spouses, detailing the conditions that the husband must obey when he takes a second wife. It is implied that the first wife is barren. Among other things, the husband undertakes to leave the female slave to his first wife when he dies. On verso there is a distinct document, also in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli, dealing with a business partnership between Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Ṭībān, Abū l-Ḥasan Yūsuf, and ʿUlla.

Letter from Abū l-Munā b. Yaʿaqov, unknown location, to an unidentified addressee, presumably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Same writer as T-S AS 167.24; may be an indirect join. The sender says that he is unable to leave the children for some reason. He reports that the Zanzibari ship (אלמרכב אלזנגברי) has not yet arrived. Mufaḍḍal is on that ship. The sender suspects that it might be in Mirbāṭ (in present-day Oman). The sender offers to receive and hold on to any letters intended for Muḥsin. "As for the female slave (al-waṣīfa), we have not found anything"—it is not clear if they are looking to purchase a slave or if they are looking for one who has run away. Mentions someone named Munajjā in the margin. Very little of the text is preserved on verso. Mentions tar (qiṭrān). Greetings to the addressee's son Sulaymān. The final two lines are a complaint about the sender's condition (loneliness and ḍīq al-ṣadr ('constriction of the chest')). AA. ASE.

Letter from Abū l-Faḍl, in Alexandria, to his son Ismāʿīl al-Fāṣid al-Yahūdī, in Aden. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dated: Iyyar of the year 571 AH, which is 1175/76 CE. Awaits more detailed summary. See Goitein notes linked below.

Records of obtaining and releasing a female slave. Bahiyya bt. Yusuf b. Awkal gives her slave, Nuja’im, to her husband’s cousin, and he releases her. Nuja’im was probably from Byzantium. The document also mentions the names of her former owners. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #224) VMR

Bill of emancipation of a slave (גט שחרור). Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 25 Iyyar 1396 Seleucid, which is 1085 CE. Owner: Mudallala bt. Shelomo. Freedman: Makhlūf. Witnesses: Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq; Shelomo b. Mevorakh ha-Ḥaver; Ṣadaqa b. [...]el, Avraham b. Shalom, and Meshullam b. Yefet. (Information in part from Moshe Yagur via FGP.)

Marriage contract for two enslaved people, both born into slavery (muwallad(at) al-jins), Muwaffaq and Dhahab. In Arabic script. Excerpt: ...انه زوج مملوكه موفق المولد الجنس لمملوكته ذهب المولدة الجنس ايضا... مبلغه ربع دينار دفعه هذا المولا.... On verso reused for the Passover Haggada. Needs further examination. ASE

Bill of sale for a female slave. Location: Fustat. Dated: 1461 Seleucid, which is 1149/50 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The parties: the banker [...] b. Natan ha-Kohen; the judge Zakkay b. Moshe. The price: 13 dinars. The slave is known as both Bidʿa and Ghazāl. The first two lines of a separate legal document have been glued to the top of the fragment to create more space for the piyyuṭ on verso. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Drafts or records of legal documents. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli? Dating: The document on recto refers to a period of time beginning in Av 139[.], which corresponds to 1079–88 CE, which means this was written no later than 1088 CE. The lower document on verso is intriguing. Moshe ha-Kohen b. [...] appears before the court. His wife may be the daughter of the late [...]l ha-Levi, whose name is followed by the abbreviation בסנ גדו (meaning בסנהדרין גדולה). He says that they fought about something, then refers to "isolation" or "private quarters" (? maʿzil), and perhaps to his earnings and his house. Then: "...[that] I would/should buy her a female slave..."