Geniza Lab

Letter from a sick man to a physician. In Arabic script. The verso is written at 90 degrees to the recto, which is unusual, but appears to be the same handwriting and the same letter. Mentions: "on Sunday... you wrote us a copy/prescription (nuskha)... my mother(?), another time to you, and compound for her... she/I entered the bath after two days... by your religion, prescribe me a medicine that will benefit me... I have / she has perished, we are all prostrated, I have no one to go out and bring me anything, and (your) kindness will not be lost on God the exalted. They said to me that it/he is a piece of flesh (qiṭʿat laḥm = a common phrase for describing a wretched sick person)... obtain(?) for me from the hospital (al-maristān) palm ointment (marham nakhlī, cf. T-S 8J20.26 and Yevr.-Arab. I 1700.22), and if I recover / she recovers... {your} kindness will not be lost on me. I salute/greet you (qaraʾtu ʿalayka al-salām)." ASE

Letter from a man in Minyat Ghamr to his brother Maḥfūẓ in Fustat. In Arabic script. The writer has been ill, and people tell him he must go to Fustat to recover. He has sent multiple letters asking the addressee to rent him a room in Fustat; no answer. Information from Goitein's note cards.

Letter fragment to an unidentified physician. In Judaeo-Arabic. The format is notable: written in a narrow column, with the width of the margin almost equal to the width of the text. The writer mentions that he has heard that the addressee will be coming into Fustat 'for the treatment of a patient.' Needs further examination.

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan ha-Ḥaver (judge in Fustat, 1150–81) to Shabbetay b. Avraham (judge in Minyat Zifta, 1135–78). Concerning (1) a muqaddam who has been causing trouble and making light of notables; (2) a question submitted to the physicians in the capital by Shabbetay's son Abu Saʿd: all the physicians reply that they must see the patient, hear his words, and see his (urine) flask before prescribing an effectve remedy; (3) a recommendation for the bearer, a brother of the late Judge Menaḥem. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter to a doctor with his reply (CUDL). "Medical enquiry to a doctor with his reply. This document type is a responsa type dealing with a few questions sent by a man to his physician; the verso is the practitioner’s answer. The patient does not describe his medical problem, but asks about food (the amount of bread he can eat), drink and if he can go bathing. Most probably the doctor knew the patient and his medical problem, since he gave precise answers without asking for the symptoms. The doctor ends his reply with the phrase ‘ve-rofe holim yerape’kha’ (‘May He who heals the sick heal you!’) This short letter is informal, lacking honorary titles and names of both the sender and the recipient, as opposed to the previous document. Therefore this document can be considered a medical responsum between patient and physician. The drink that was recommended by the physician is, in fact, a recipe for medicine." Information from Amir Ashur and Efraim Lev. The handwriting of the physician looks like that of Yedutun ha-Levi (cf. L-G Misc. 99, T-S NS 305.115, and CUL Or.1080 J117v for evidence that Yedutun was a physician). ASE

Letter in which a patient reports to his physician, describing his illness and asking for a prescription. Full translation by Goitein, Mediterranean Society, V, 105. "I[n Your name, O] M[erciful]. My lord, the chief physician Abu Rida. May your Excellency take notice that cold and heat have shaken me from Sunday until this hour. I cannot taste anything edible. Yesterday I rolled bread crumbs into two little balls, but after having eaten about a quarter ounce of bread, I hiccupped until midnight, and believed the hiccup would never stop. Then my soul desired a bit of fried cheese, but.... For three days more [the call of] nature has not come to me. Fever, headache, weakness, and shaking do not leave me all day long. Moreover, I cannot taste anything, not even lemon with sugar. I am also unable to give myself an enema. So, what do you prescribe for me? I drink very much water. May your well-being increase and never decrease. And Peace."

Exact account of expenses for a distinguished, sick foreigner, showing also how these expenses were covered. Written by Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen (active in Fustat 1125–50 CE). "Various medical prescriptions conclude with the note: "Meal—cooked chickens." How this worked out in practice is seen in the daily accounts listing the sums expended for a sick foreigner and the sums showing how they were collected, as summarized here. The list is in the unmistakable hand of the judge Nathan b. Solomon ha-Kohen, who was active in the Egyptian capital in the years 1125 - 1150, but who signed (as first signatory) a document in Tyre, Lebanon, as early as 1102. (Tyre was conquered by the Cru­ saders in 1124.) At the writing of this account he seems to have been an old man and was probably retired.4 9 The account refers to the first twelve days of the month Shevat (Jan.-Feb.). The sums refer to the silver coin dirhem. Expenditures: Daily: Bread—3/4; on Saturday a larger amount: 7/8 or 1. A chicken—2 1/8, or (mostly) 2 1/2. (Medical) potion—1. Weekly: Hot oil —1. Listed only once: Rose water—3/4. Creme—1/2. Honey—1/2. Lentils—1/4. Saffron—1/4. Nile water—1/4. Larger sums were spent on bandages, cotton, laundry, and a new cloak. The patient was probably treated gratuitously by a physician of the community. The expenditure was covered by (a) income from a house belong­ ing to the community; (b) six donations, in one case a husband and his wife—referred to as "his house"—contributed separately; (c) a collection made in the two rabbinical synagogues of Fustat (which brought only 7 dirhems); (d) 1 dinar less 1/24 (qirat), worth at that time 35 1/2 dirhems, donated by "our lord," meaning the Head of the Jewish community, probably the court physician Samuel b. Hananiah (1140-1159)." Mediterranean Society, II, p. 458; IV, pp. 232, 233.

Letter from Ṣāliḥ b. Dā'ūd, in Tinnīs, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1055 CE. Regarding the debt and goods belonging to the late Abū l-Faraj Yaʿaqov b. Avraham b. ʿAllān. The money and goods belong to Mevasser, the writer’s brother. Also mentions clothes that the writer probably deals with their manufacture. Ṣāliḥ would have liked to come to Fustat and help with finding the will and accounts of the deceased, but he was prevented by the death of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Mawhūb and by his own illnesses. "As to the illnesses that have befallen me and their permanence, I ask God to accept my sufferings as an atonement and to grant me pardon. While writing these lines, I am unable to . . . the doctor comes to see me every day. I ask God to give me good health and to have mercy on me out of regard for the little ones with whom he has blessed me" (r19–22). Information from Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 345, and Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #783. VMR. ASE.

Legal document, it seems a power of attorney. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Netanʾel/Hibatallāh al-Mawṣilī appoints Abū l-Bishr as his agent. The case concerns [...] b. Yisraʾel, a dinar, [Bera?]khot ha-Rofeʾ b. [...], and "[the device] called 'catheter'" (qāthāṭīr/קאתאטיר/ قاثاطير/καθετήρ) (used for treating urinary retention and for the removal or dislodging of stones, mentioned by al-Rāzī and Avicenna among others). "If he does not return it to me, I will make...." On the term qāthāṭīr, see Marwan Ibn Janah, On the Nomenclature of Medicinal Drugs, ed. Gerrit Bos et al, p. 1030 (entry 898). ASE

Letter describing two meetings with physicians. At least part of the letter is addressed to the sender's mother. The first meeting was a visit to Maimonides, who discussed medical topics with the writer, who intends to being a course of study in medicine as soon he sorts out an issue with his brother and maternal aunt. The second was with another physician who visited the writer, checked his pulse, examined a flask of his urine, and prescribed barley water (kashk shaʿīr). Mention is made of a trip to Alexandria. The fragment mentions others and their wealth and very large debts: Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Maḥāsin, Rīḍā al-Dawla, Ibn Hillel. It also mentions several distinguished physicians apart from Maimonides. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. "Your friend, my brother Abū Bishr Al-Ṭabīb (the physician) sends his regards and asks you to honor him with whatever you need. If you [...], and inform him about your illness [...] and go see him, so that he can treat your eye." The writer goes on to mention flax and the village and the Sultan ('may God prolong his days'). Verso has many greetings. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. One side deals with routine business matters. The other side reads, ". . . out of your favor (inʿāmak), prescribe for me. . . I have been sick with a sneeze (ʿaṭsa, spelled ʿatsa). . . in the fever. The doctor attended me with a syrup (sharāb) and almond oil (duhn al-lawz). I arose from the illness for a period. . . from my place, and I remained for a period. It became. . . . " ASE.

Strongly formulated note by the prominent judge Natan b. Shemuel to a prominent member of the community, urging the man to send him money for the sick people while staying in his house. EMS. On verso there is a probably-unrelated name in Arabic script, perhaps from a chancery document: ʿabduhā al-Kāmilī Masʿūd.

Informal note addressed to a certain Abū ʿAlī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Verso is a draft of recto. The addressee is asked to go to the sender's mother and collect the 1 5/8 dirhams that are with her. He should purchase 3 fat pullets for 1.5 dirhams, lime (laymūn akhḍar) for 1/8, and throw in a bit of saffron. The text is damaged and there are slight discrepancies between recto and verso, so these quantities are not certain. The mother is probably sick and all this is intended medicinally.

Letter from a Jewish shipowner from Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1212 CE. He provides an exciting story about traveling to Cyprus but being diverted by a storm to Tarsus (then the capital of Lesser Armenia, a Christian kingdom ruled by Leon II (1187–1219)). The shipowner was afraid that the king would force him to take up his residence in Tarsus instead of Alexandria. But a Christian business friend, probably himself a native of Egypt, helpfully secured a strong letter of safe-conduct. The writer had a good time in Tarsus and would have remained longer, had not illness forced him to hurry back to Alexandria. The second part of the letter reports the successful treatment of the writer and mentions the name of four physicians. In the third section the writer alludees to an illustrious person of Sicily, Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham, who had been forced to leave his home. The community in Alexandria was unable to take care of him for at the same time a large company had arrived from France, and the cost of their stay in the town and the expenses for their travel (to the Holy Land) put a heavy strain on public charity. Information from Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (attached). The handwriting looks like that of Berakhot b. Shemuel (which, if correct, may simply mean that he was hired as scribe by the sender). ASE

Letter from a woman named Harja (הרגה), somewhere in Syria, to her mother, the wife of Mūsā Ibn Fayrūz, in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late, probably no earlier than 14th century. The letter is a remarkable account of Harja's months-long illness. "My heart flared up until I nearly died. I received an enema three times a day, but it did not relieve me. I remained anxious about how I would pass the fast. When the fast came, I let loose (my bowels) like one who has been loosened (in his bowels). I thought it was colic and considered that it was due to a discharge from my brain that settled in my stomach and felt like the colic. I did not sleep during the night of the fast, but I managed to last until midday, and from midday onward, it began to subside. I remained three or four days after the fast as it subsided(?) from me (or: gave me strength?). And when it subsided from me, I remained troubled on account of my eyes, for I could not see the light of the world with them. After that, the pain in my heart returned, and whenever it flared up the basin was not taken away from under my mouth, for whatever went down into my stomach came back up, and my stomach churned from all the vomit. But for now, it has abated, thanks to God for all things. I never imagined I would be carried to Syria sick and blind. I had taken the sickness into account, but not the blindness. I am afraid to have my eye treated, due to the season (i.e., season of illnesses) in Syria, and I am afraid that something else might come over me. I await a sign from God to illuminate my eyes. When you tell me that I am behaving recklessly as is my wont, I have never been more patient in all my life than I have been in these days. Someone who has not seen the light of the world for four months should not feel defeated? Whenever I awake and see the black obscurity of the morning and do not perceive the evening, my only remaining desire is to end my life. When they took me out into the sun, I didn't even see gloom, I saw only blackness." The margin and verso contain mostly greetings. See tag for more of her letters. ASE.