Geniza Lab

Petition addressed to four brothers (?), the elders Abu al-Baqa, Abu al-Baha, Abu al-Faraj and Abu al-Karam, requesting charity. The supplicant, Harun, writes that he has not tasted bread in days and is emboldened to make his appeal because of the upcoming Jewish holiday. The name of one of the addressees, the shaykh Abu al-Karam, is written on the verso. The cipher at the top, in the small letters, probably is the abbreviation \'b-m\' for bism allah al-rahman al-rahim, found in other Geniza documents and in the Arabic fragments from Quseir al-Qadim published by Li Guo, Commerce, Culture and Community in a Red Sea Port in the Thirteenth Century: The Arabic Documents from Quseir; cf. M. Cohen, 'On the interplay of Arabic and Hebrew in Cairo Geniza Letters, in the R. P. Scheindlin Festschrift, note 19. Undated.

Petition from a woman named Umm Hilāl bt. Ibn al-Muhandiz the ḥaver, who is living in the synagogue of the Palestinians. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the tarjama in Arabic script at upper left (عبدها ومملوكها وشاكر انعامها ام (ابو؟) هلال). This appears to be a draft or a copying exercise. The scribe's name appears in the right margin : al-ḥ[aver] or al-ḥ[azzan] Natan. She beseeches the addressee (the Head of the Jews?) to declare a ban of excommunication in the synagogue against all those who have taken food belonging to her (flour, wheat, oil, wine), for they have stolen her possessions (raḥl) and cut off her ability to sustain herself. She invokes the Torah and Moshe b. ʿAmram at the end. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Calligraphic letter sent to a notable, possibly the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya, asking him to help Natan ha-Kohen, the legal representative of the writer's family, to obtain a favorable settlement in court for a widow and her children. She is owed 10 months' worth of maintenance payments, including for the price of the treatment of her ophthalmia. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from Goitein's hand list)

The beginning of what is probably a petition, written by a boy who was abandoned by his father before he was born. (CUDL description: Letter complaining about a husband leaving his wife and daughter, mentioning precious items, gold and silver.)

Letter in Hebrew written on an irregular piece of vellum from prison. David appeals to Avraham ha-Sar to try to bring about his release from prison. David admits that he is not treated harshly by the jailers ("ha-goyim") but complains that his freedom of movement is restricted and that his diet is meager. The language is in an elevated register and full of learned references. Information from Mann, who suggests that the letter is no later than the 13th century and more likely the 12th.

Recto: Petition draft in Judaeo-Arabic. Abū ʿAlī b. Abū l-[ʿIzz al-Yahūdī] kisses the ground before al-maqām al-ʿālī al-sulṭānī al-malikī al-sayfī al-ʿādilī, and reports that he is a poor man and cannot even obtain paper (or write a petition? al-qiyām bi-l-waraq) except through the charity of others. He has a brother who evidently owes money, and he insists that he is not a guarantor (laysa bi-ḍāmin lahu wa-lā kafīl) for him. He asks for the issuing of a rescript (khurūj al-tawqīʿ) confirming this. Verso: Draft of the same petition, it appears, in Arabic script.

Blessing formula for the caliph al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allah (1131-1149 CE), possibly a draft petition. See also T-S NS 110.26. (“Prayers from the Geniza for Fatimid Caliphs, the Head of Jerusalem Yeshiva, the Jewish community and the Local Congregation,'' in Studies in Judaica, Karaitica and Islamica, Presented to Leon Nemoy...Bar-Ilan University, 1982, 49-58) EMS Goitein thought this was a prayer, but it is almost certainly the draft of a petition formula. (MR)

Petition of a widow to a communal leader. She asks him to help her with her late husband's orphans, as he helped her husband in the past.

Petition, probably to Avraham Maimonides, of a widow who lives in a small upper apartment of a ruin belonging to the pious foundation. Recently the rent was increased from two dirhams a month to three and a half. She asks not be moved from this apartment because she enjoys the sounds of prayers that can be heard from the nearby synagogue. See further information in S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 4:66, 366, 374; and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, 'Protesting the Cancellation of Saying Piyyutim' Peamim 78 (1999), 139 n. 47.

Letter from the wife of Khalaf b. Harūn to Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon, seeking help against her cruel husband, written in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. (Information from CUDL). Avraham the cantor and the wife of Abu 'l-Ma'ali Khalaf b. Harun, describing her husband's mistreatment of her and petitioning the Gaon to look into her plight.

Petition from the Mamluk period. [Described on the paper wrapper as: "Un esclave mamelouk demandant à son ancienne maitresse de retourner dans sa première maison" ; on a separate small piece of paper : "A mamlouk (slave) asking his ancient mistress to return him to her house. She has sold him to a man whose house is dirty and hot."].

Petition, possibly Mamluk.

Petiton from some students at al-Azhar against a landowner. [Described on the paper wrapper as: "Complainte des etudiants d'El Azhar au Waliʹ" ; on a separate small piece of paper: " Some students of al-Azhar writing a complaint to the Wali against a turkish owner who hired them land (?) for cultivation"].

Petition to ʻUthmān ibn ʻUmar to Jawhar al-Ṣafawī, asking him for money. [Described on a separate small piece of paper: "Important"; [next line] "A letter from a mamluk (slave) named ʻUthmān ibn ʻUmar asking his master Gohar Al Safawī to send him a sum of money"; [next line] "The word Urgent is written around the inscription in thick characters."].

Petition to the Fatimid caliph al-Musanṣir.

Petition mentioning the names of Ismāʻīl and ʻUmar al-Kutāmī. [Described on the paper wrapper as: "Complainte contre un homme de la tribu de Kutawa [...] Fatimite" ; on a separate small piece of paper : " A complaint against a man from the tribe of Kutama (from the Fatimite period)"].

Letter from a penniless woman, the widow of Abū Surrī, to Mevorakh b. Saadya (1094–1111). She begs him to come to her rescue in a litigation brought against her by the relatives of her deceased son-in-law for a modest amount. Her daughter was married to Yosef b. Asad b. Qirqas who left her to travel three and a half years ago. That was prior to al-Afḍal's siege of Alexandria in 1094. The daughter was then ill two years while the mother used her dowry (רחלהא) for nursing her in her illness and for the burial when she died. It has recently become known that Yosef was killed in Nastaro (an island between Damietta and Alexandria), and his cousin claimed his estate—which was non-existent. (Information from Goitein's note card and from M. R. Cohen, Jewish Self Government, pp. 221-260.) For a detailed discussion of the geographical situation of Nastaro, see Khan, "A Copy of a Decree from the Archives of the Fāṭimid Chancery in Egypt," BSOAS, Vol. 49, No. 3, 1986, p. 444.

Petition. Calligraphic letter with wide line-spacing in which the writer asks the recipient, whom he addresses as 'my father,' for support, emphasizing that his poor situation 'has become worse.' (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter. Petition in Hebrew of which only the first 20 lines, containing introductory wishes, have been preserved. The letter contained a request for help. The letter is written by Tamim b. Tobias from Aleppo around 1036-1037. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in Hebrew with introductory phrases of appeal. Closes with verses about the ephemeral nature of wealth and the mitzvah of charity. (Information from Goitein's index cards)