Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from a father to his sons, from India Book VII, 60 (unpublished). Note that Goitein calls this manuscript ENA 2739.16 in Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders.

Letter from Saʿīd b. Marḥab, in Aden, to Abū Zikrī b. ʿAṭiyya. Dating: mid-12th century. Apart from the introduction and address, only about a dozen lines are preserved from the margin of recto. In these lines, the sender mentions Zabīd, the righteousness and merit of Sayyidnā, a safe arrival of a group of merchants in Aden, their departure for India, and the news that their ship was stranded in Mirbāṭ on the south Arabian coast.

Letter from Amram b. Yosef to Nahray b. Nissim requesting to forward a letter to Hassan b. Bundar. Location: Alexandria. Dating: 1094–97 CE. ʿAmram congratulates Nissim (Nahray's son) on his recovery (r4–8). He gives Nahray advice about taking good care of his son following his recovery, because "the relapse is worse than the illness" (r25–30).

Legal rebuttal regarding the lawsuit between Yosef Lebdi and Wuhsha over the possession of 22 bales of lac. So far, six bifolia and two leaves have been identified, totaling 28 pages of what must have been 40 pages in 2 quires. It seems that the judge in the lawsuit ruled in Lebdi's favor. A certain 'rayyis' wrote and published a critique of the ruling and supported Wuhsha's position. The judge answered with a rebuttal, and what has survived in the Geniza is the rayyis's rebuttal of the judge's rebuttal. The writer often quotes passages from his original critique and from the judge's answer. While the document is complex and obscure, the positions of the two sides are simple. The judge believed Lebdi's agreement with his two partners, Farah and Abu Nasr, includes the 22 loads of lac in question, as long as the other party does not provide proof that it does not include them. The unnamed rayyis argued that since Lebdi had no proof that the 22 bales belonged to his partnership with Farah and Abu Nasr, they must be considered as belonging to Farah's and Abu Nasr's heirs, since the bales are in their possession. In other words, since the bales are in the hands of the heirs, the burden of proof must be on Lebdi. Farah and Abu Nasr, it must be remembered, were murdered in Aydhab. Lebdi was entitled to 29 shares out of 30 of everything in their partnership and Abu Nasr and Farah had between them only one share. Farah's heirs already took their small share of the 22 bales of lac. It is worth noticing that only Wuhsha is mentioned as 'the heir' to Abu Nasr, even though we know she had another brother and two sisters. The trial between Lebdi and Wuhsha took place in 1104, three years after Lebdi came back from India, because the judge intentionally delayed the proceedings to give the parties time to come to an agreement. The last fragment, whose place in the larger document is not known, contains the information that the case was brought before a Muslim judge, who ruled in Wuhsha's favor. This document was thus written during or shortly after 1104. ENA 2855 16: I, 27a p. 1 T-S Ar 47 245: I, 28, p. 1 ENA 2855 15: I, 27a, p. 2 T-S Ar 43 272: I, 27 T-S G2 60: I, 28a, pp. 1-8 T-S Ar 49 33: I, 28b. For further explanation of the complex codicology of this document see Friedman's notes in pp. 174-177 in the Hebrew edition, and pp. 242-244 in the English edition.

Small piece of an account written by Abū Zikrī Kohen. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter from the Yeshiva in Egypt to Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq and Yosef b. Avraham in Aden. Cairo, ca. 1132.

Letter from Maḍmūn b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju: two fragments. Aden, 1134.

Business letter from Yūsuf b. Ibrahim b. Bundār to Abū Zikrī Kohen (aka Yehuda b. Yosef Sijilmāsī). In Judaeo-Arabic and some Hebrew, with the address in both Arabic script and Judaeo-Arabic. Only the formulaic opening and the address are preserved. Reused on verso for the text of the Shabbat Mussaf prayer. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham b. Bundār, in Aden, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in India. Dating: Ca. 1134 CE. Concerning textiles, musk, and pepper imported from India to Aden, and cinnabar, which was shipped in the opposite direction. (Information from India Book 4, Hebrew description below.)

Business letter. Probably from Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghribī al-Tūnisī (upper right of recto). In Arabic script, in an experienced hand. Dating: Possibly Mamluk-era. On recto, the sender describes various commercial transactions (l. 15r). Toward the bottom of recto, he mentions the following: 3 aqfāṣ of antimony; lead; 7 chests of mercury and verdigris; 6 chests of soap; 7 chests of labdanum; later on, arsenic; and something "to India." On verso, he mentions [...] b. Muḥammad al-Shāṭir on two occasions (l. 1v, 17v); he gives prices for pepper and ginger; mentions the return from the ḥajj (al-nuzūl baʿd al-ḥajj); and mentions saffron. He says that he and Abū Naṣr visited the Nā'ib of Jedda, who received them graciously (l. 8v). MCD. ASE.

Unpublished letter about India trade. Contains the glyph. Fatimid or Ayyubid. (MR)

Receipt in the hand of Abu Zikri Kohen: saḥḥa lil-shaykh Abū l-Surūr dirham wa-niṣf la-ghayr. Old IB: 229f. There is a line or two in Arabic script on verso in a fiscal hand, probably part of a tax receipt (cf. also ENA 3971.13–24, 31, 33, 34).

Partnership agreement. Dated: 11 Sivan 1347 Seleucid, which is May/June 1036 CE. Gil identifies the handwriting as that of Sahlān b. Avraham. The contents are as follows: Shemuel b. Sahlan al-Barki brought a shipment of pearls from Farah b. Sahlun, from Qayrawān. Three experts are splitting the pearls between both partners. Shemuel (one of them) asks that his part would be used for traveling and selling the pearls in the Arabian Peninsula. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #799) VMR

Power of attorney by Shemuel Ibn al-Lebdi from late tenth-early eleventh century Fustat. Shemuel appoints a man (only 'son of Ḥalfon' survives) to sue Nissi b. Yaʿaqov.

Verso: Cheque by Abū Zikrī Kohen. The banker Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the bearer 25 dinars. Dated: Tishrei 1447 Seleucid, which is 1135 CE.

ENA 4011.16b (lower fragment): A cheque of Abū Zikrī Kohen. Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the bearer Dār Rayḥān (the wife of Rayḥān?) 2 dinars and 2 ḥabbas. Dated: Elul 1452 Seleucid, which is 1141 CE.

Verso: Cheque written and signed by Abū Zikrī Kohen. Dated: Tishrei 1454 Seleucid, which is 1142 CE. Abū l-Khayr Khiyār is to pay the price of the pepper, namely, 8 dinars.

Letter. Dated: beginning of Kislev 1456/1144 (אתנו, not אתט). Mentions that tefillin had been sent, people who feel envy and the name Maḥrūz. Sends greetings to Abū Saʿīd al-Dimyāṭī and Muslim/Musallam al-Kaʿbī. India Book V, 10.

Recto: Bill of sale for a female slave. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Av 1466 Seleucid, which is 1155 CE, under the authority of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Seller: the trader (tājir) Abū ʿAlī b. Natan he-Ḥaver. Buyer: the trader (tājir) Abū l-Faḍl b. Elʿazar. Slave: An Indian woman named Ghazāl. The price is missing. On verso there is a communal account which Gil dates to ca. 1215 CE (see PGPID 775).

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef Yijū, in al-Maḥalla, to Abū l-Fakhr Saadya b. Avraham Ibn al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. Dating: 1161–72 CE. Peraḥya conveys his happiness to have learned that the family members of Abū l-Fakhr who had been sick are now recovered (and for this reason opens the letter with Deut. 7:15, "The Lord will ward off from you all sickness"). Peraḥya is supervising the production of kosher cheese and encountering difficulties: "I have already perished from the cheese and have become perplexed as to what I should do." He writes that he would like to travel to Sicily or Damascus {al-Shām}, but since 'the little one' (his cousin and wife, Sitt al-Dār) was grown up and "had no one in the world except God" (that is, her father was dead), he could not do this. Peraḥya thanks Abū l-Fakhr for his generosity with his brother Shemuel, and he urges him to help convince Shemuel to come to Peraḥya's town, where the congregation will accept him as a schoolteacher with a salary of 20 dirhams a week plus gratuities (nawāfil), a generous salary for a teacher. Information from Goitein and Friedman India Book 3.