Geniza Lab

Letter from Faraj, the “freed” of Barhun (ha-Tahirti?) from the Maghreb, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal and his sons, Fustat; ca. 1015. Regards a purchase of pearls. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #167) VMR.

Business letter from Abū al-Surūr b. David (al-Mahdiyya) to his cousin Abū al-Afrāḥ ʿArūs b. Yosef (Fustat), ca. 1095. The writer sent to the recipient 100 Murābiṭī dinars, worth 267 less 1/3 dinars in the currency of al-Mahdiyya, and now gives instructions to buy jewellery. His other purchase requests from Fustat are for indigo, blue and green “fayyūmī clothes, pearls and more. The letter also mentions Abū al-Surūr’s purchases in al-Mahdiyya, including that of lapiz lazuli for which he was unable to find a buyer and intended to send it to Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 312.)

Letter from Simḥūn b. Dāwūd ibn al-Siqillī (Qayrawān) to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal (Fustat). The letter deals with a conflict between the sender and the recipient over a consignment of brazilwood, which Simḥūn b. Daʿūd sent to Spain against the instructions of Yosef b. ʿAwkal. This caused a delay in payments and a break of contact between the two. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 644.)

Letter addressed to a woman. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter contains instructions about money to be received and/or paid; mentions the army (al-ʿaskar); mentions Abū l-Maḥāsin and Abū Isḥāq. Toward the end of verso, the writer explains that he (or she?) will travel with another man and the little girl (al-ṣughayyira), while the addressee(s) should remain in Egypt. Then: "If you wish to marry your daughter to al-Raḍiyy and stay in Egypt--then stay! And if you do not wish, do not marry her to anyone." This reading is not certain, as the letter is quite damaged. ASE.

Letter (lower fragment) by Nahray b. Nissim containing instructions about merchandise and payments. Dated ca. 1055. (Information from Gil)

Letter from Mūsā b. Abī al-Ḥayy, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1057. Regarding sending goods in leather sacks. Musa returned from the Maghreb. He is planning to travel to Tripoli. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #454) VMR

Business letter dealing with shipments of textiles within Egypt. The name Abu al-Ḥasan is mentioned. addresed to Barakāt b. Khulayf.

Business letter from 1094, addressed by Avraham b. Natan Av (former judge in Ramla and later Cairo) to Nahray b. Nissim, when the latter was already the “eminent member” of the Jerusalem yeshiva. Avraham b. Natan expresses regret for the mistakes he committed during communal strife in Tyre, and additionally notes that there were only three Qaraites still left in that city. The writer complains about his fate with the remark, “I am in immediate danger and my future is in jeopardy. I have not acquired a portion in the World to Come, or a good reputation here, or material gains... Had God guided me, when I first arrived among them, my religion and my honor would have remained untainted.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:204, 327, 564, 596; Marina Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, 330, note 20) EMS See also Goitein's index card.

Letter, fragmentary, sent by Avraham b. Natan Av to Nahray b. Nissim, in which the writer apologizes for his behavior. Dated ca. 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 418, 624 and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq Nīsābūrī, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, presumably in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1045–1096. Yiṣḥaq arrived in Alexandria on Tuesday 6 Tevet and found that the markets were slow (kāsira). Only lac sold. He asks the recipient to act with regard to a ḥerem stam (Med Soc II, 602, n. 40). Mentions al-Mahdiyya. Yiṣḥaq's son Simḥa greets Nahray's son Abū Saʿd. Verso: Account in difficult Arabic script. Information from Goitein's note card.

Legal document. Partnership agreement. Location: Cairo. Dating: 1204-1237. Partnership agreement in cloth trade between Pinhas b. Elazar ha-Kohen and Moshe ha-Levi. Both partners seem to be active. Profits are to be split evenly, and each of the partners is to be trusted (that is, without requiring the testimony of witnesses) as to partnership accounting, suggesting that the partners did not spend their time together in a single location. The term of the partnership is also specified, though not preserved. The date has not been preserved, but the incomplete titles on lines 23-24 suggest that it falls during the headship of Avraham Maimuni (active between 1204-1237). (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 47-49)

Business letter mentioning a silk-merchant and a fuller/bleacher. The writer mentions that when he travels away again, he will not forget the recipient's goodness and benevolence and his family. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Names: Yiṣḥaq, Mufaddal, Bu al-Khayr, Bu Mansur b. Baqa, Abi al-Barakat, Abu Sa'd wife, the son of Sitt Ziara al-Qazaz. Place: Rashid

Letter, detailed, about the pressing of grapes and the making of wine in which the writer informs his relative that for his three dinars, thirty jars of wine were produced.

Accounts. Perhaps in the hand of one of Ben Yijū’s workers, but not his handwriting. Similar to India Book III 19 (shelfmark CUL Or.1080 J95). The account was clearly written in India, as the prices are given in Indian coinage, Kūlamī fīlīs, i.e., from the famous port city Quilon on the Malabar Coast, and fanam. The writer's anonymous associate, whose account is registered here, was charged for the receipt of various commodities, including both Indian products and items usually imported for personal use from Yemen and the West. He must have been a Yemeni or from elsewhere in the West, who was staying in India. Commodities: civet, cinnabar, a copper pot, glass vessels, raisins, a lamp (or Indian horse chestnut? what is written is "qandalī"), sugar, honey, myrrh, storax, and Egyptian sugar. One of the important pieces of information to emerge from this document (assuming the merchant was careful with his sums) is that the fanam was not precisely a quarter of a fīlī but rather slightly less: the ratio is 0.236 in this document. (Information from India Book and Goitein’s index card.) Not edited in the India Book: an additional list of accounts on verso, written in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals and headed by the glyph. One of the items on that list is zabada (civet), indicating that it is probably connected to the Judaeo-Arabic account. The word "fīlī" in Arabic script may also appear at bottom left.

Letter from Yosef b. Farah, Fustat, to his brother Farah b. Ismail in Busir, December 1055 (Gil), or to his nephew Ibn al-Surur Farah b. Ismail b. Farah before 1058 (Ben Sasson). The letter discusses commercial matters (i.e., exchanging checks and coins) and the departure of ships containing goods to Sicily. (Information from Gil and Ben Sasson)

Letter, very faded. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably no earlier than 14th century, based on handwriting and abbreviations. The letter mentions various sums of money.

Account in the hand of Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1061.

Letter from an unidentified sender, in India, to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 12th century. This fragment begins cryptically: "...and he prays to God day and night to deliver him from you (pl.). His character is not unknown to you—that he does not like anybody to rely on him—for you brought him up and know him best, and he is fair in his dealings. He commutes (yatarakkaḍ) from Malabar to Ceylon and his goods are in Aden every year. His aim is to exchange(?), hopefully, and leave, but there is no escaping failures (ijāḥāt). This is not unknown to you. If you can be patient until such time that he leaves, then good, and if you want your goods (sooner), simply send him a letter in your hand, and he will give them to whomever you tell him. The slave (= I) asks from your beneficence to send the account...." When the letter resumes in the margin, it refers to a quantity of several thousand buhārs (likely the total number of bales carried in the Kārim fleet at the time of the writing of the letter); something which is not readily found in India; and mace (basbās). The letter continues on verso with a "ḥasbī Allāh"; a report on the price of clove; the sender says he didn't go out to Aden this year, but rather sent a bit of lac with Yūsuf b. Abū l-Munā. (This could also mean that he *only* went out to Aden this year with a bit of lac with Yūsuf but that makes less sense.) If Yūsuf is now in Fustat, the addressee should help him send the sender's goods, "for I know that you are good to foreigners." Regards to various people, including Ibrāhīm. Information in part from Goitein's description in his notes to India Book VI, 50 (unpublished). OZ, AA, ASE

Letter, fragmentary, from Isma’il b. Barhun ha-Tahirti from al-Mahdiyya, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal from Fustat. Mentions some information about the Sultan interfering in trade matters. Mentions Yosef b. Brahya and the Nagid – Avraham b. Ata. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #119) VMR

Calligraphic letter by Mubarak b. Hillel to Abu Sa`id ibn al-`Afsi al-`Attar, dealing with business matters.