Geniza Lab

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda Gaʾon (in the hand of his son Avraham) to Egypt. Mentions oppressive laws and heavy taxes and punishments and requests aid. (Information from CUDL)

Letter of recommendation for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks the addressee to arrange a collection (jibāya) to raise funds for the letter-bearer, the cantor Elʿazar b. Yoshiyya. The congregation should also solicit from people who are absent from the synagogue. Ends with the motto "Yeshuʿa."

Letter from al-Sharīf Ḥasan to the qāḍī Ṣanīʿat al-Mulk. In Arabic script, with diacritics and vowels, calligraphic. Dating: Perhaps 13th to 15th century, on paleographic grounds. This is a letter of recommendation for charity for six 'cut-off' women (nisā' munqaṭiʿāt) who have no husbands (lā azwāj la-hunna) or anybody else to provide for them: Umm Bū Muḥammad and her daughter; the midwife or wet nurse (dāya) and her daughter; and Umm Qays and her daughter. The addressee is described as a "cave (=shelter) for the cut-off and a refuge for those who ask/beg of him" (standard epithets for important and charitable people: see e.g. AIU V.B.48 and on it Cohen, Poverty and Charity, p. 48 n. 36). ASE

Letter from a European Jew whose ship sank en route on his way to fulfill a vow to visit Jerusalem, and lost all his belongings by jettisoning. The writer’s appeal to the congregation, written in Hebrew on a piece of vellum, describes his multi-faceted journeys: first to Alexandria, where the Muslims tried to collect the capitation tax from him, and secondly, to (likely) Fustat after being rescued by a Jew and where he was currently hiding out after being harassed by the tax collector and fearing imprisonment. (Mark Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, 120; and S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1:323, 483) EMS

List of recipients of public charity in four columns. "What was distributed on Monday, with seven days remaining in Nisan." There are a few words in Arabic above the header. ASE.

Petition from Yefet ha-Melammed the schoolmaster to Avraham Maimonides; the latter's answer is on verso, lines 18–26. Yefet writes that he is ill and losing his vision, and consequently has been unable to pay his rent (?) which has accumulated in arrears of six dirhams. Avraham grants him the money. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 37, 529, and Goitein's index cards.) Many of the specifics of the writer's financial situation are lost. There is an ambiguity as to whether "ujra" here means rent or wage/tuition. In "Side Lights on Jewish Education" (p. 96), Goitein prefers the latter: "The community paid for [the tuition of] the sons of those who were impeded by any reason to go after their usual professions (munqaṭiʿ)," referring to recto, lines 9–11. In this reading, the word munqaṭīʿ refers not to the writer of the letter but to the parents of his pupils who have been unable to pay him. "[This] teacher receives 1 dirham per pupil and week, probably for special reasons," referring to recto, lines 13–14 and 17–19. Yefet has evidently continued to work despite his condition, but has not received the wages officially due to him from the community. He thus writes with a description of his current plight (shidda) to expedite the payments. ASE

Badly effaced letter to a business friend describing his dire situation and lack of wheat and asking the addressee for assistance. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Upper part of list, in the hand of judge Shemuel b. Saadya (see Bodl. f56.43c), on the reverse side of a document issued on the authority of Maimonides in spring 1172 (and copied by Mevorakh b. Natan). The contributions are partly in dinars (one-fourth - two, the latter sum appearing four times), partly in dirhams. Practically all the names recur in contemporary lists of donors to charity, but because of the dilapidated state of the manuscript no general conclusions are possible. Of the 16 persons whose names are discernible in the left column, four give together with their partners. Dated to last third of twelfth century (see Mediterranean Society, II, App. C 116, Bodl. f56.52, where Goitein speculates that this and other stray lists might have formed part of one booklet). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 485, App. C 35)

Note in the hand of Daniel b. Azarya to Eli, the parnas of Fustat, concerning aid for a poor man, Wahb of the city of Raqqa, ca. 1051-1062.

Recto: Letter from Yosef al-ʿAdanī al-Mamsawī (i.e., originally from Aden and now a resident of Mamsa, Morocco) to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic, with some Hebrew and some Arabic script. Containing a request for charity. This letter was sent to Ḥalfon during his stay in Spain or North Africa. The sender was a prosperous trader who lost all his possessions after a shipwreck. There is some question whether Yosef al-ʿAdanī wrote this letter in his own hand, as the script is sefaradi. Goitein at one time believed that Yiṣḥaq Ibn ʿEzra wrote the letter on his behalf, and Gil and Fleischer agreed; but Goitein evidently rejected this identification later on, and Friedman rejects it in strong terms. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book 4.)

Letter from the wife of Shemuel, a poor woman from al-Maḥalla, addressed to the Gaon Maṣliaḥ. She asks for assistance for herself and for her blind son, particularly for paying the capitation tax. She had already been in Fustat one month without relying on anyone for charity. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Treatise on charity in two columns, fragmentary. (Information from Goitein's note card)

In this appeal, typically addressed to the community ('your excellencies, my masters, the illustrious lordly judges, and...the elders of Israel'), a widow and mother of four, weighed down by debt, asks for 'something to conceal myself (astur bihi nafs) and the fo[ur] who are with me. She thus voices the common plaint of the master, the 'concealed,' who strives to maintain him/herself economically without having to 'uncover his/her face, especially by resorting to the public dole. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from Cohen)

Legal document. Transfer of money to the poor of Jerusalem, ca. 1085. Shelomo b. Hayyim, one of the leaders of the Palestinian Jews, had forwarded 20 dinars to the Rabbanite Jews of Jerusalem. He attests having gotten his money back from those in charge of the compound known as Dar al-maqadisa in Fustat, dedicated to the poor of Jerusalem. The money was returned out of the rent collected from the tenants of the compound. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 212 #32)

Fragment of a list of beneficiaries of charity similar to T-S K15.93, App. B 6, and in the same hand. Much effaced. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 441, App. B 7, dated 1040-1060)

List of donors to charity on the back of piece of vellum (fragment of an ancient marriage contract), headed by Avraham 'The Cherished,' al-sagul. This is an abbreviation, used also on letter CUL Or.1080 J265, ll. 6, 16. of the unique title 'The most cherished and esteemed of the People of Fustat,' borne by the notable Avraham b. Mevasser (dated docs. 1028-1-45), see Mann, Jews, II. pp. 98-100). Avraham al-Tahirti could stand for any of 4 cousins (usually called Barhun) from Qayrawan, all of whom frequented Egypt. Avraham Tahtahi is probably from Ifrīqiya, since tahtaha = 'open space,' probably a place name, is Ifrīqiyan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 475, App. C 9)

Remains of 28 lines of a list of beneficiaries of charity, each containing the names of 3 or 4 households in receipt of 2, 4, 6, 8 or more (loaves). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 453, App. B 52)

List of receivers of loaves of bread, similar to List T-S 24.76 (S.D Goitein, Mediterranean Society, II, App. B 1), in the same hand having many names and figures in common with it. Much damaged and effaced. It represents partly the left and partly the lower part of App. B, 52 (T-S 18J2.4). Together, the two pieces comprise 42 lines. Still, the original manuscript was longer, for there is clearly a scissors cut through the last line. Dated 1020-1040. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society, 2:439, 453, App. B 2a and B 52) EMS

Verso: List of beneficiaries of donations, similar to ENA 2713.26; T-S 20.112; T-S 24.76, on vellum, the majority of the names legible belonging to community officials and women. The recto contains a legal document (a release) dated 1049. It seems, however, that the list is older than the document. The beadles of three synagogues and at least two cantors are listed here. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 439-440, App. B 3, dated 1020-1040)

Letter from Yaʿaqov ha-Meshorer b. Yiṣḥaq b. David Maʿaravi, in Hebron, to Yehoshuaʿ, descendant of the Negidim. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Possibly Mamluk era. The letter opens with four short biblical quotations; extensive rhymed blessings follow. Yaʿaqov describes his devastation upon the death of ʿOvadya, descendant of the Negidim. He goes on to describe the poverty of the community of Hebron, and especially his own poverty. He receives 8 dirhams a month from Yeshuʿa al-Ḥakīm b. Menaḥem of Damascus, bu this hardly suffices (he cites the Talmudic idiom "a handful does not sate a lion"). He asks for charity from the addressee. (Information in part from CUDL.)