Geniza Lab

List of 136 households (mostly women with, or without, children, foreigners, disabled and indigent people) receiving approximately 570 loaves of bread. A postscript in Arabic characters (verso, line 9) states that the whole document was written by Efrayim b. Mahfuz (i.e., Shemarya), the well-known leader of the Jewish community of Fustat during most of the first half of the eleventh century. It was witnessed by Isma'il (i.e., Shemuel) b. Talyon (i.e., Avtaliyon), a prominent member of the Palestinian congregation, and two others. Efrayim and Shemuel signed many documents together in the years 1026-1029. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 439, App. B 1, dated 1020-1040)

Verso: Account of communal expenditures. Date seems to be al-Muharram. The final name is X the blind man, illustrating the integration of needy and communal officials into expenditure lists. See separate record for recto.

Verso: List of names with numbers, distributions to individuals, followed, in another hand, by a list of arṭāl of some beverages (speficially: syrups/ashriba, including of quince/safarjal). MRC. ASE.

Left side of a letter of appeal for charity, from Shaul ha-Levi. What is preserved seems to contain learned discussion of charity. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Mordechai b. Simḥa who is in the Persian city of Kashan. In Hebrew. Dating: Possibly 17th century. The sender also signs his name Mordechai Ṣefati ha-Kohen. "I beseech the master to speak with the parnasim of the congregations to give me what they see fit, sufficient for the expenses of travel, for God willing, I plan to go to the land of Israel. Let them do for me at least what they did for the Indian gentile, the idol worshipper." (They provided him with a donkey and gave him money.) "Let them do for me what they did for the chelebi - many 'גרושו - even though he was going outside of the land, to Persia (ereṣ ha-ʿajam), in order to eat meat and drink wine..." On verso he adds a postscript about what happened with the parnas Yeḥezqel (some sort of conflict, with insults flying). Edited by Simha Assaf. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Fragmentary letter of request probably from Jerusalem. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

A, b, and c of this folded piece of paper contain List. 'Distribution of money and clothing,' superscribed 'The rest through Abu'l-Bayan' (the parnas). Since this heading is not followed by a sum, it does not represent the balance of an account, but indicates that one or more preceding distributions were carried out by other officials. Nine persons receive 5 (dirhams), eight, 3, and one, 2, altogether 18 recipients, all women, except for 3--2 of whom are characterized as foreigners. Verso, four distributions of a muqaddar (an item of clothing; three to male persons) and four of a jukhaniyya. Among the recipients a freedwoman and 'the orphans' of one household. In the handwriting of Shemuel b. Saadya, who wrote in the margin an item of another type dated Tishri (Sept.-Oct.), 1183. 14c, ll.5-6 are in the different handwriting of the man, Elazar b. Michael, who wrote this confirmatory note. Entries marked with an asterisk have a wavy line above them, at the beginning, resembling a sine curve, perhaps meaning 'claimed' one entry on 14b is overlined, meaning deleted.

A, b, and c of this folded piece of paper contain List. 'Distribution of money and clothing,' superscribed 'The rest through Abu'l-Bayan' (the parnas). Since this heading ais not followed by a sum, it does not represent the balance of an account, but indicates that one or more preceding distributions were carried out by other officials. Nine persons receive 5 (dirhams), eight, 3, and one, 2, altogether 18 recipients, all women, except for 3--2 of whom are characterized as foreigners. Verso, four distributions of a muqaddar (an item of clothing; three to male persons) and four of a jukhaniyya. Among the recipients a freedwoman and 'the orphans' of one household. In the handwriting of Shemuel b. Saadya, who wrote in the margin an item of another type dated Tishri (Sept.-Oct.), 1183. 14c, ll.5-6 are in the different handwriting of the man, Elazar b. Michael, who wrote this confirmatory note. Entries marked with an asterisk have a wavy line above them, at the beginning, resembling a sine curve, perhaps meaning 'claimed' one entry on 14b is overlined, meaning deleted

Verso: List of "those who have not received their share" (al-bāqiyyīn bi-lā akhdh), i.e., in the distribution of wheat. Dating: Probably 1215–40 CE, based on Goitein's assessment and the date of the document on recto. There are three lists. I. Parties receiving wheat. II.Twelve parties (of whom at least six are repeated from list I) getting sums, mostly of 2.5 or 5 (dirhams). III. Names without any explanation added, some identical with those in the list T-S NS J440. The neglected people listed were mostly outsiders, either foreigners (Rum/Byzantium, Persia, Jerusalem, Barqa, etc.) or from Egypt itself (Alexandria, al-Mahalla, Minyat Ghamr, Benha, Damira, Dakarnas). The overlinings may mean these persons have now received, which would explain the fact that mostly it is the same names above and below that are overlined. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 462–63, App. B 85.)

Letter from Damietta to the Fustat community (קהלת מצר) to collect money for alimony and travel expenses, it seems, to Palestine, for two individuals. David and his father are addressed; Avraham, the judge, and “our teacher Hillel ha-hazzan ha-parnas” (the cantor and leader) are greeted. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) VMR and EMS

Recto: Distribution list in Judaeo-Arabic. In a Byzantine hand? Lists dozens upon dozens of people, including a large proportion of women and people such as 'the chronically ill women' and 'the chess player' (line 11), 'Kali the Byzantine woman and her daughter' (line 13), 'the woman from Ṣahrajt' (6 lines from the bottom). On verso there are accounts in Arabic script introduced by wa-ḥaṣala, so perhaps this part is a revenue/donation list. Needs further examination.

Two lists in an unusually large cursive script with a postscript in another, small and neat script. a) The superscription 'I[n Your] N[ame]' shows that this is the first list. It is followed by 'Those who have not yet received their share' (and are receiving it now, as is proved by the second list. b) 'Expended on...' (illegible perhaps referring to the holiday concerned). In five places dr, dirham, is added after the numerals, but dirhams are intended throughout, since the postscript actually has lil-ruqa'i, 'to the trader of orders of payments,' the banker with whom the community used to deal and who was prepared to accept these orders. The numerals in the postscript are Coptic, but conform with the Hebrew numerals in the main list, as far as preserved: 19 households receive 73~ dirhams. A number of characteristic names are identical with those occurring in B 17-24. Note specifically: a European (ifranji) who lives in the synagogue--2...a poor young man who arrived in the evening and whose overcoat, kisa, was taken from him as a collateral for 5 dirhams; his name is Abu al-Muna, he is sick; Mu'ammala ('the one hoped for'), a widow of good family, who never in her life had taken anything from anyone--5. The whole seems to be a distribution of money, probably before a holiday, in a time of severe hardship, when the community had not enough means, and about fifty families had to wait for their shares. Even then about one-third received their allocations in orders of payments--and we do not know how much the ruqai charged for converting them into cash. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 456-457, App. B 65, dated 1100-1140).

Distribution of wheat to Byzantines (thabat al-Rūm). Belongs with T-S K15.113. Dating: ca. 1100–40 CE.

Recto: Letter from Barakāt Ibn al-Dayyān Abū l-Faraj (=Shelomo b. Eliyyahu the Judge). In Arabic script. A narrow vertical strip is missing from the right side. In which Shelomo complains of his poverty and illnesses (alām) and asks for help paying the capitation tax. He may be asking on his father's behalf as well as his own (mentioned three lines from the bottom). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

List of 31 contributors in Arabic and Coptic numerals (1, 1 1/2, 2 2 1/2, 3, 4 4 1/2, 5, 8, 9) but no denominations of coins. The physician of the hospital here is the al-Sadid of T-S K.149. Arabic was used here no doubt because the originator of the collection was a merchant who was accustomed to corresponding in Arabic rather than in Hebrew script. He also arranged collections in two noted bourses of Fustat (two collections in each bourse), one, the dar al-Fadil, founded by al-Fadil al-Baysani, originally a Fatimid official, but later chancellor and confidant of Saladin, and dar al-Za'fran (saffron house), which was adjacent to the house of gems, repeatedly mentioned in Mediterranean Society (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 508, App. C 139)

List of contributors to charity during the time of Abu Ya'qub al-hakim, headed by Mahfuz al-Suri, ca. 1095 (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, App. C 79)

List, eleven names preserved, each donating the same amount, including a perfumer/druggist, a banker, a katib, and a murid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, App. C 27)

Recto: Letter of appeal for charity addressed to al-Rayyis Yūsuf. In Arabic script, calligraphic with large letters. Asking him to bestow two garments (thawbayn) on the sender, since his family is almost dying from the cold. Verso: Letter from a certain Yūsuf who is ill. In Judaeo-Arabic, with erratic handwriting and spelling, difficult to read. He explains why he couldn't come. He says that he even loaded up his donkey and set out, but then was overtaken by sukūna (a medical term that appears in other documents but whose meaning is not entirely clear) and an attack of colic (qawlanjiyya). He feared that he wouldn't make it through the night. Unclear if or how the two letters are related to each other. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) ASE

Fragment (lower part) in the same hand [Shelomo b.Eliyyahu's] as T-S K15.74; T-S K15.88; T-S NS J256. List of cash receipts, arranged according to days and indicating which official collected the sums and to whom they were delivered. In several cases, orders of payment, referred to here as hawala, literally, transfer of debt, were given. Some items are noted as 'balance of his vow,' or 'part of what he owes.' Only the column 'Tuesday,' headed by the Nagid who gives 10 dirhams (next highest payment: 5), is completely preserved (9 contributions). Besides a hawala of 5, there were 34 dirhams in cash, of which 25 were delivered to the parnas Baqa, while the writer retained 9. The total of one collection, presumably for a week, was 162 dirhams, for which a collector's fee of 6 dirhams was charged, while three other persons, two parnasim and a beadle, brought 45 plus 19 dirham plus 1 dinar and 45 plus 10 1/2 [? not visible on microfilm]. Total 119 1/2 dirhams plus 1 dinar; also a sum of approximately 160 dirhams, for which a jibaya, collection fee, of 6 dirhams was paid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 488, App. C 45, dated first part of 13th century)

List, similar to T-S NS J422, but smaller, of persons donating one or two (dinars?), or not yet decided. dated 1140s. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 480, App, C 25)