Geniza Lab

Verso (original use): Left half of an Arabic-script letter with wide line-spacing. Refers to the wages owed for transport of wheat. Reused for a letter from ʿIwaḍ b. Ḥananel to Nahray b. Nissim (see separate entry).

Letter from Daniel b. ʿAzarya probably to ʿEli b. ʿAmram, mentioning a realease valid in both Muslim and Jewish courts. A third person is asked to act in a court case to appear the following Monday. Dated to the 11th century. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to Eli Ha-Kohen B. Hayyim, Fustat, approximately 1060.

Letter from Efrayim b. Isma'il al-Jawhari, probably in Alexandria, to Yosef b. 'Awkal, in Fustat, ca. 1030. Mentions Palermo and Mahdiyya; ships of Ibn Daysūr (?), ships of the amīr, the ship of ּḤusayn al-Lakkī (?), the ship of Yaḥyā b. al-Sāḥilī, and the ship of Ḥassūn.

Letter from Ibrāhīm b. Farrāḥ, Fustat, to [ ] b. Isḥạq b. ʿAlī Majjānī in Alexandria. Mentions an ullaba (container) holding bible codices, details about a commercial shipment and a discussion with the owner of a boat. He hopes a load with goods will arrive at Majjānī's soon, but remarks that neither the navy nor civilian boats have been able to sail. He adds that Nahray b. Nissim was unable to pay his one dinar to the synagogue for lack of cash. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 335, and Gil)

Get (bill of divorce) written in Ramla, beginning of 1026.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, in which the writer states that an amount of money sent by Nahray was delivered by Natan to the widow of Awad b. Hananel, ca. 1045-1096.

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya (in his handwriting), 1051. He is worried for his status and thinks that people will prefer Yosef ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 643-645, #353) VMR

Letter from Eliyyahu b. Aharon Ha-Ḥaver b. Yoshiyyahu, the president of court, to Efrayim B. Shemarya, approximately 1030.

Two paper leaves, very damaged, which form a part of a collection of letters from Evyatar ha-Kohen Gaon b. Eliyyahu, sent from Tyre. The first letter is addressed to Isaac b. Shemuel, the Spaniard, a Dayyan in Fustat. Evyatar appeals to Isaac to help the parnas "ha-Kohen we-ne'eman" ("trustee"), referring to Eli b. Yahya of Fustat. Greetings are sent to a certain parnas Abu al-Ridha and to the Hazzan Abu al-Mu'mar. Dated 1091. The second epistle is evidently addressed to a priestly scholar in Iraq who was authorized by the exilarch Hezekiah. It appears he had written Evyatar about a widow who had become liable to the levirate as her husband Yefet had died without issue. Evyatar sends greetings in the names of his two sons, Eliyyahu and Sadoq, and the banker Shemuel b. Aaron and the shaykh Abu 'Ali Ḥasan are also mentioned. (Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimids, NY: Ktav Pub., 1920-22, rpt. 1970, 1:192-4, 2:228-9; and Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, Princeton University, 1980, 112) EMS

Letter fragment of thanks from Daniel b. Azarya (1051-1062) to the parnas.

Deed of guardianship given in the court of Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen Gaon b. Shelomo, August 1065.

Writ of agency which was written in Tarablus al-Sham between 'Ulla Halrvi and Yeshu'a Pride of the Communities. Signed by Yehuda Hakohen b. Nathan, Halfob Hakohen b. Aharon, Ibrahim b. Salih, Nahum b. Yanai, Mushafir b. Zedaqa, Shelomo b. Halfon, Shmuel b. Aharon. The qiyyum is signed by Yater Levi b. Shilo, Shelomo b. Ishaq b. Meir Gaon, Saloh b. Yivhar ha-Haver, Ya'aqoc b. Yosef. AA

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, ca. 1025. This letter describes a difficult and very brief visit to Jerusalem involving a controversy about some Jewish captives. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment from Yosef Ha-Kohen Ha-Ḥaver b. Yaʿaqov, the head of the Jewish community in Tyre, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, in Fustat, approximately 1040, concerning two sisters from the Tyre Jewish community, who are trying to claim their inheritance after their father, Ḥalfon b. Taʿlab, died in Fusṭaṭ in 1040 CE. Most of the details, such as the names of the sisters, are not preserved, but the name of the husband of one of the sisters, Ṣedaqa b. Ezra, is preserved, linking this letter with T-S 10J12.25 and T-S 13J18.1, which is five years later, dealing with the same case, and preserving more details including the names of the sisters. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo b. Semah, Ramla, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, ca. 1030.

Letter possibly from the ḥaver Yehoshuaʿ b. ʿEli, in Ramla, probably to Yehuda b. Seʿadya here called Rosh Kalla, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1060 CE (per Gil). The sender was identified by Gil on the basis of handwriting; however, Goitein identified the sender as a Tunisian scribe named ʿAyyāsh. This was evidently written before Yehuda gained the title Nagid. His brother Mevorakh b. Seʿadya is also mentioned (l8). The sender asks for employment in copying books. "This country on account of our sins now has few scholars, and nobody seeks any of the works/knowledge (? maʿnā min kathīr al-maʿānī) which these lands are famous for...." (Information from Gil and Goitein's index card.)

Letter opening from Shelomo b. Yehuda to the communities, first half of the 11th century.

Letter from the Gaon Shemuel b. Yosef ha-Kohen perhaps to Shemarya b. Elḥanan. (Gil revised his guess as to the letter's writer after Menahem Ben-Sasson found the join T-S NS 310.43.) Previous description (Gil's original identification?): Letter fragments by Yoshiyyahu Gaon, concerning a dispute with the ‘father of the court’ Yosef b. Menaḥem ha-Kohen, approximately 1020. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index card.)