Geniza Lab

Letter/petition/recommendation to a Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender asks him to help the bearer, Ibrāhīm b. Abū Dāʾūd al-Ashqar al-Bilbaysī, who betrothed (amlaka) a woman in Bilbays years ago. Everyone in Bilbays knows that he has continued to send gifts to her and her family. However, when her brothers learned that he had suffered financial losses, they tried to cancel the betrothal. Mentions a specific person who came and spread this rumor, and mentions the arrival of R. Yeḥezqel. The Nagid mentioned might be Avraham Maimonides, but there is no clear evidence. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 445.)

Letter of request in which the widow of Abu Sa'id b. Shalom, writing to a Nagid, expresses a cry for help on behalf of her children, who are lacking food and clothing, since their father's death. She is suffering from ophthalmia. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 304)

Letter from Sheʾerit to the Jewish community (qahal) of Fustat. His children were taken captive, and the community has only redeemed some of them so far. In the margin, there is an autograph note from one of the later Maimonidean Nagids ordering the cantor to read it in public. Dating: No earlier than 13th century. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 107.)

Account, dated 1516 (ttqkb = 922, i.e. 1516 CE), in Hebrew, mentioning a khizana, treasury, seemingly a box in which all revenue was deposited and from which all expenditure was made. Nothing like this appears in documents from the classical Geniza period, which, Goitein writes, reflects 'the cumbersome system of financing the social services [which] had its source partly in the general technical imperfections of medieval administrations. The accumulation of public funds in one treasury was to some extent avoided in order to preserve them from the overreaching of rapacious government officials.' Written in the Hebrew language, and the writer, although using that Arabic word and dating according to Muslim months, apparently was a European, to judge from his spelling of Arabic names. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 101 [date given on p. 543]). Perhaps better explained by the non-corporate nature of the community in those centuries, at least. This late document may reflect the custom of Jews from Europe, who were used to a more corporate form of organization. One side: assets (=left in the khizana); other side, payments (=I gave to), with recorded total of one thousand 186 dr. (dirhams) (Information from Cohen)

Three columns of contributors, giving fidda, 'silver' (a late equivalent for 'dirham'). Characteristic names: Somekh (assistant cantor, Heb.) Furaykh ('Little Chick,' twice), Frjlh (also twice, an abbreviation of Faraj Allah, 'God had helped'). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 501, App. C 100)

Late list of wealthy contributors, about 30 per week (Information from Goitein index cards.) Verso: There are also several lines of Arabic script.

An almost entirely 'egalitarian' list of contributors from the first half of the eleventh century' (Goitein) Forty-four persons pledge 1/2 (dirham), nine parties, of whom six consist of two or more numbers, 1, and only one pledges 2 (dirhams). Almost all the names appear in abbreviated form: Abu Kathir is Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian congregation of Fustat (1007-1055), Sahlan (b. Avraham), the head of the Babylonians. Hillel hpns, that is, ha-parnas.. Others are referred to simply by nickname: 'Son of the Mule,'The Philosopher.' Dated to ca. 1035 recto has a letter from the orphans (girls) of Dosa, seeking help claiming their inheritance Ed. Gil, Eres yisrael, II, pp. 402-403; trans Mediterranean Society, II, p. 324. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 121).

Complaint of the daughters of the Dosa family who were deprived of their rights to the community, perhaps from Jerusalem or another place in Palestine.

Letter from the office of Yehoshuaʿ Nagid (d. 1355) seeking to bring peace to the community and also urging them to be charitable and especially urging them not to resort to Muslim courts without permission of bet din shel mutahaddithin. (Information from Cohen)

Account for building operations, ca. 1155-56. Very damaged fragment of a leaf, in which several entries in an accounting of building operations are preserved. An otherwise known compound, Dar al-Kaziruni, is mentioned. Data about plastering, building, and carpentry work are included. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 285 #58)

Letter concerning the dispatch of gold from the congregation in Bilbays, to be delivered in Jerusalem to 'the synagogue of the Yemenite' and to 'the rabbis,' 1214. The margins and verso are filled with accounts in Arabic script.

Sheet folded so as to form a booklet of 4 pages. But only one page, headed by the superscription 'In your name' (which indicates the list started there), contains writing. List of 20 notables, solicited for a special drive, eight already having made their pledges, ranging from five dinars, contributed by a jahbadh (money-changer, tax cashier, or possibly a banker), to one dinar each from two glassmakers and a convert to Judaism named Abū l-Khayr (Goitein: "Mr. Good the Proselyte"). Among the others: Tiban; Shemuel b. Nahum, the father-in-law of Yequtiel b. Moshe, known as al-Hakim. Ca. 1090. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 124)

Accounting for five months, ca. 1230. Two leaves, the first of which has writing on both sides. The first part is an estimate of the expected monthly revenue from rent. A comparison of the sum expected for five months with the actual revenue follows. Then there are three columns of details concerning the sums paid and owed by different tenants. The order in which the columns are to be read is not the usual one. The estimated budget is divided into six main sections, according to the location of the apartments: The lane of the synagogue, the funduq, its vicinity, the "great bazaar," the Khabisa lane, and the Tujib quarter. There are 36 tenants in all. The arrearss come to baout 11.5% of the panned revenue (162 as against 1337 dir.). (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 444-445 #134)

List of weekly emoluments, preceded by the collection made for the purpose. Superscription: 'Statement about the revenue from the collection for the weekly payments, jibayat al-mujama'a, for the week of Naso' (Numbers 4:21-7:89, read mostly in May or June); 'our Master' (Moses Maimonides) 8 dirhams, 'the Trustworthy' (title of Maimonides' father-in-law) 12 dirhams, three others 10 dirhams, one, three, and five other 6, 5, and 4 dirhams respectively; Several items are lost. On the reverse side (as the manuscript is bound, it is recto) the Trustworthy and others give additional sums. Still, only 124 dirhams were collected, while another 31 were required. Besides communal officials (R. Anatoli, 8 dirhams; R. Jephthah, 6; the cantor Abu Sahl, 6; and others), payments to women and for the capitation tax are included. R. Anatoli's monthly salary of 52 dirhams, which was covered by income from houses, probably was simultaneous with this weekly emolument, which was paid from a collection. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 465-466, App. B 102)

Fragment of a list of recipients of bread (twelve out of 22 receive 2 loaves each). Ca. 1107 (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 465, App. B 101) | Four fragments in this shelfmark. Upper right: a literary text in square hand involving inheritance. Upper left: faded text, perhaps a part of a piyyut. Lower right: a list of names and sums - probably dispribution of bread for charity. Lower left: faded text , hard to read.

List of contributions, calligraphically written, 32 names preserved, of the type common among Jews at the end of the Middle Ages, such as Nasr Allah (twice), Abd al-Karim, Khadir, Abd al-Aziz, Abd al-Wahid. Coptic numerals. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 505-506, App. C 130)

List in monumental cursive, contemporary with ENA 2591.1, several names being identical. Six contributing two (dinars it seems); five contributing one; twelve contributing one-half; Total, indicated in the list: 23 dinars. The sum was probably needed for a special and urgent purpose, such as the travel expenses of a foreigner who was about to leave. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 125)

Letter from Alexandria, the writer is a person from Ramla (who lived for twenty years in Baghdad). He writes to Mevorakh b. Se’adya ha-Nagid or one of his closest people. Around 1095. The writer refers to himself as Mevorakh’s servant. He asks Mevorakh to help his daughter who is in Fustat while he is in Alexandria. Mentions several details about the Jews in Iraq as well as the head of the Eretz Yisraeli Yeshiva, Evyatar ha-Kohen b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #86, where the shelfmark is incorrectly listed as ENA NS 9.15). By the same writer as T-S 12.780. VMR.

List. Fragment (in the same script and arrangement as T-S 24.76, T-S 20.112), containing the names of 51 households, at least 15 of which are identical with T-S 24.76. Legible items: 17 receive 10 (dirham=dirhams), total 85; 17 receive 10 (dirh), total 170; 9 receive 15 (dirh), total 135; 4 receive 20 (dirh), total 80; 1 receive 25 (dirh), total 25, 1 receive 30 (dirh), total 30; a total of 49 receive a total of 525 dirh. The basic unit allotted to one person clearly was 5 dirhams, as evident from such items as 'the man from Malij and his mother-10,' 'the daughter of Nissim and his mother-10,' 'the two women from Ramla-10' (see T-S K15.97; T-S J1.34). In several lists the number 1 or 2 is written after the amounts of 10, 15, 20. The number could hardly mean a simple additional payment (since then the writer would have changed the number 15 to 16 or 17, respectively); it must have had some other meaning. Had the sheet been preserved to the length of the contemporary T-S 24.76 (also only a fragment) and the sums distributed on the lost part of approximately the same size, the communal expenditure on this charity (presumably doles for a holiday) would have approximated 1,500 dirhams. Even assuming the lowest value of the dirham at this period (Mediterranean Society, I, p. 371, sec. 8) this sum would correspond to about 37 dinars, twice as much as the distribution of bread in T-S Misc.8.25 during one month. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 439, App. B 2b, dated 1020-1040)

List of contributors, pledging 1, 2, or 3 dinars, mostly from the well known families Ibn Shay'a, Ibn Saghir, and Bahudi, or prominent notables such as Abu Zikri Hayyim b. (Ammar) Madini (of Palermo) and Abu Zikri (Yahya) b. Menashshe (see Bodl. d79.35). The donations were probably for helping the poor with their capitation tax (see T-SK15.94v). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 476,. App C, sec. 12)