Geniza Lab

Panegyric in Honor of Madmun II Cairo, after 1186.

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: mutual assistance. Aden, ca. 1136.

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.

List written by Abu Zikri Kohen, metioning names and amount of money, probably debts or payments. On verso a list in Arabic script.

Letter from Yeshua ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov in Dhu Jibla, Yemen, to Avraham Ibn Yiju, then in Aden, 1150.

Letter, India book VII66 (unpublished). Letter from South Arabia to Egypt giving order on a large gift to Maimonides. On verso an Arabic account of goods recieved from Yemen

Letter from Perahya b. Yosef Ibn Yiju (which he wrote in his and his brother Moshe's name) in Messina to his father Yosef Ibn Yiju (the brother of Avraham) in Mazara, ca. 1153. He has by now married his cousin, the daugther of Avraham Ibn Yiju, and fled the Norman invasion of Ifriqiya in 1148 for Mazara, then Palermo, then Messina, en route to Egypt. This letter describes the journey along the coast of Sicily. Peraḥya also sends a medical prescription for his mother's illness: a mithqāl (slightly over 4g) of sagapenum (sakbīnaj) every three days and a cumin stomachic (jawārish kammūn). He also tells the addressees not to afflict themselves with fasting and weeping on his behalf, because his heart and liver are wounded if he hears about such excessive behavior (istifḥāl]).

Recto: Legal document. Last will of Abū al-Barakāt b. Abū al-Riḍā Yosef Lebdi. This deathbed declaration was made in the presence of his sons and of the partner in his sugar factory. This document is largely damaged, but several interesting points emerge. For instance, when his eldest son reminds him that according to Jewish law the firstborn was entitled to a double share (Deuteronomy 21: 17), the dying man replies: "I do not prefer one child over another." Also, he and his business partner mutually declare that they trust each other completely; Abū al-Barakāt’s account books would speak for him after his death. At the end, a large bag with ʿūd (aromatic wood) was brought in, a purse with gold was put into it; the bag was laid into a Rumī (European) chest, which was locked, and the key was put into the hand of the dying man. Location: Fustat. Dated: 25 Av 1538 Seleucid, which is August 9, 1227 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Recto: Letter likely sent from Aden to Fustat. (The locations are not specified in the document; this is Goitein's assessment.) In Judaeo-Arabic, written in a Yemeni hand. Dated: 26 Adar 1530 Seleucid, which is 1219 CE. The sender wants mercury and Iraqi roses to be purchased with the proceeds from bamboo chalk (ṭabāshīr). He asks about the value of Yiṣḥaq's pepper and frankincense. ʿAṭiyya al-Dajjājī is to write with an update on the bag (kharīṭa) of aloeswood and the silk fūṭa. Greetings to al-Asʿad. This is document VII, 52 in India Book VII (unpublished). Verso: Draft of a letter written in Edessa (al-Ruhā). In Judaeo-Arabic. In a different hand than the letter on recto. The sender complains that he has been unemployed for 2.5 years, the first of which he spent in Tyre. Then (the French rabbi Yosef) b. Gershom arrived in ʿAkka, and terrible things happened.... (The fragment ends here.) Goitein suggests that this letter is a request for a post.

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 from Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef to a certain [son of] Natan he-haver. The letter mourns the passing of Madmun (the Nagid of Yemen) and is dated to Marhesvan 1151, thus establishing the date of Madmun's death. See Goitein-Friedman, Madmun (India Book II), 12. This letter is India Book VI, 3.

Memorial list for the family of Yosef b. Perahya Yiju, Egypt, early thirteenth century.

The death of Shelomo Lebdi was not only a serious personal blow to his brother, Yosef Lebdi, but it also meant that Yosef could lose half of his property to his nephew, David b. Shelomo, depending on what type of partnership the court will determine to have existed between the two brothers. While I, 20 (Mosseri V 374 1 A3) shows a testimony forward by David, this document shows a testimony in the court of Fustat brought forward by Yosef Lebdi. Sedaqa b. David testifies regarding a rather large shipment (worth about 400 dinars) that Yosef deposited in his hands to be delivered in Tripoli (Libya) in the Maghreb to Shelomo Lebdi or his son David. The fragmentary state of the document prevents a detailed understanding of the events. The document is dated to August 17, 1101 (in the English edition the date is August 19, 1101).

Cheque in the hand of Abu Zikri ha-Kohen. See Goitein Nachlass material linked below.

Quittance given to the carriers of goods sent from Yemen by a husband, Efrayim b. Yaʿqūb, to his wife. Written by Hillel b. Eli. On the verso another legal deed dealing with an oath, written by another hand.

Letter in the hand of Abū ʿAlī Yeḥezqel b. Netanel ha-Levi, Ḥalfon's brother, while in Qalyūb. Mentions Abū l-Faḍl and Abū l-Ḥasan who are known from other IB VI documents. The writer had received two shawls and a fūṭa (waist-wrapper) which in Qalyūb were worth 1.5 dinars and 0.5 dinars respectively. He sends greetings to Abū l-Fakhr, Abū l-Ḥasan al-Bazzāz (the clothier), and a different Abū l-Ḥasan. He asks for the news of the sick person in the house of the latter Abū l-Ḥasan. Makārim and his siblings also send greetings. ASE.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq to Avraham b. Yiju. Salutation to Avraham b. Yiju and acknowledgment of receipt of his letter. After 1138, c. 1138-1150 (Goitein and Friedman estimation). VMR

Marriage agreement between a Rabbanite husband and a Qaraite wife, with a 30 dinar fine to the poor if one transgresses the religious practices of the other. The groom is called al-Rayyis Abu Ali Yefet ha-Kohen, and the bride is called [Sitt?] Yaman, known as Najiya. On the other side is a legal record in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe involving a marriage or inheritance dispute. Another entry is a list of names and titles of the prominent Bundar family ca. 1120: Bundar prince of the congregations b. yefet, his uncle Avraham prince of the congregations, his broth Yishaq the generous [of the congregations?] and his son Khalaf the precious of the congregations. This list is published in India Book IIb.

List of the honorary titles of the Bundar family of Aden, ca. 1120. Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi.

Letter of a merchant in Egypt to the Maghreb containing information on Yosef Lebdi's arrival in Aydhab, after a successful trip to India. The writer asks the recipient to buy for him good quality corals and reports on the current state of Egypt and the Nile. He informs the recipient about the arrival of merchants in Qus, and about the merchandise they brought. Remarkable is the piece of information regarding the entire amount of merchandise that has arrived so far in Aydhab: 9,000/13,000 bales of goods. Among these merchants was Yosef Lebdi with a shipment of 80 bales of lac packed in Nahrwara, 50 bales of pepper and other merchandise. Friedman dates the letter to approximately 1101.