Geniza Lab

Letter in which a man from Tlemcen, Algeria, who had not heard from his brother in Egypt 'for years,' reports that both the country and the family were flourishing, that he had two sons, and his deceased sister two sons and a grown up daughter. Asks who is the current Head of the yeshiva and says he would like to write him a letter. Dated ca. 1050. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 239). Address, top of the page, straight line, same direction as main text.

Recto: Letter in the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, probably from Qalyub to his father in Fustat, consisting almost in its entirely of good wishes for Tabernacles. He mentions that the turban (raddah) arrived. He mentions the wife of his paternal uncle, but the context is ambiguous. He then admits that he has no money even to buy bread, but all will end well. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 87, 351.) Verso: Either the response or the initial letter, probably from Levi (Abu Sahl) to his son Moshe. Everyone in the family is well. The addressee's brother Abu l-Ḥasan is doing well, in spite of all that he suffers. He mentions something that the wife of the addressee's paternal uncle said, but it is not clear what. There is an abrupt change of topic (unless this topic is what the wife of the uncle was talking about) to a certain Shelomo. "They said that this is something that pleases neither God nor man, that a woman should be married and her husband does not see her plucking or combing or putting on earrings or dressing up or going about." The letter is torn here. The gossip about this wife resembles the situation of Sitt Ghazal in her marriage to Shelomo b. Eliyyahu (see T-S 13J8.23), but that marriage took place in 1228 CE, and Moshe b. Levi, the presumed addressee of this letter, died in 1212. ASE.

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. In which a woman with a child asks her sister and mother to take more interest in her because of her condition. Same sender and addressee as CUL Or.1080 J25 and L-G Ar. II.129.

Fragmentary letter to a friend mentioning repeatedly the writer's gratitude. The hand resembles that of the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi, supported by his mention of his brother Musa. But needs further examination. ASE.

Letter from a woman to her brother in Fustat expressing her loneliness. She gives advice regarding the recipient's relationship with their other brother. "You know that he is like your son, for you raised him and you know his character. [Do not let] people divide the two of you. If he makes an error, you must bear the consequences." The recipient's ʿamma (in general paternal aunt, but Goitein interprets it as mother in this case) wants to see him before she dies. At the end of the letter, either the writer or the aunt/mother asks him to send two (ounces? dirhems?) of Isfahani kohl (antimony), since her eyes are sore and none is available where they are. Information in part from Goitein's index cards. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Beginning of a letter from Abu al-Faraj to Abu al-'Ala the glassmaker, containing eulogies and ending with an extensive list of greetings. On verso are some Arabic notes of amounts.

Letter to Yefet b. Sason (aka Ḥasan b. Surūr) who is described as 'the Modest' (הצנוע). Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic, with the introductory blessings in Hebrew and the address in Arabic script. The sender has a son named Eliʿezer. Mentions the addressee's meeting with a Nasi ("the scion of the tribe of Davidites"). Ends with greetings to several persons.

Personal letter from Yehuda b. Ya'qub (Yehuda b. Yaʿaqov) to Abu 'Imran in very poor spelling.

Personal letter giving condolences on the occasion of the death of a little girl (presumably the daughter of the recipient) and reporting family news. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 97, 374; V, pp. 110, 536.) Also: "The daughter of Futūḥ al-Shamshūrī says that the wife of my paternal uncle fasts for her son because of his illness. But he has no illness (maraḍ) and nothing wrong with him (ba's), only his body is covered with little scabs (ḥuṣayfāt)." Dating: Probably early 13th century, based on the mention of Abū l-Futūḥ al-Shamshūrī in a letter by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu: Moss. VII,170.1. This letter also mentions the faqīh Jamāl al-Dīn, presumably the same as in Bodl. MS heb. c 28/64.

Letter from Manṣūr b. Sālim, in Alexandria, to his son Abū Najm, who has gone on an adventurous journey or had run away to the army. The father mentions that he has sent to his son twenty letters and then twenty more, but the son never replied. The father states ‘I have never seen a character or religion like yours and never heard of the like’ and closes his letter with an exhortation ‘return to God and bring your mind back to yourself.' Abū Najm's mother perishes on account of his actions, and her vision is fading (alternate readings are possible, but "inḍarra baṣaruhā" seems likely as inḍarra derives from the same root as ḍarīr/maḍrūr, both meaning "blind"). Several other letters by the same man are known, all of them either addressed to Manṣūr's contacts in Fustat, asking them to help him find his son, or directly to his son (like this one). See tag. (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society, II, p. 379; V, p. 189.)

Informal note from ʿAbd al-Karīm to R. Yosef . He asks the addressee to urgently send his grandmother ("the mother of Sutayta") for Shabbat, because the boy himself is sick (mā kān ṭayyib) and so is his father. The father had been carried home (maḥmūl) on a bed (?) on Wednesday. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) ASE.

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanel from ‘Aydhab to his brother Ali b. Netanel, 1132. Ḥalfon is on his way back to Egypt after an unsuccessful journey to India. He writes to his brother, a judge in Fustat, concerning his business and his disappointment that it did not go as expected. He also describes in details an event that happened in Yemen when he was a part of an argument between members of the Jewish community there, about the Gaon's authority (Masliah Gaon from the yeshiva of Palestine), which led to Ḥalfon's humiliation. He writes how hurt he is and asks his brother, that is very close to the Gaon, to talk with him about it. (Information from Gil and Fleischer "Yehuda Ha-Levi and his circle", pp: 348-354). VMR

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Dated (v2–3): 16th of the ʿOmer '195, meaning 4800+195=4935 AM, which corresponds to 15 May 1235 CE. (Not 1595 Seleucid, corresponding to 1284 CE, as Ashtor thought.) Mentions a sea-voyage from Marseilles that lasted 25 days (verso, ll.3–8). Same sender as T-S Ar.53.67, which may even be the last folio of the same letter.

Family letter written by Abū l-Faraj to Abu ʿImran in Fustat at the time of R. Ḥananel (early 13th century). The writer reports that he inquired about Muhadhdhab from two Jews who arrived from Minyat Zifta and learned that he has recovered from his illness. He is now well (fī ʿāfiya) & left his house (kharaj al-ṭarīq) & returned to work (taṣarraf). The writer also inquires four times after al-ṣaghīra, 'the little one,' referring to the recipient's wife. This urgent request for information can be explained by the fact that the plague was then raging in Cairo in 1216. Hananel will forward an answer together with his letter to Abu al-Tahir. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 113.) Note that this dating is tentative; Goitein writes that this document is dated Kislev 1528 = November/December 1216 (Med Soc V, p. 538, n. 375). But he almost certainly meant to cite T-S 6J6.20. By contrast, T-S Ar.54.91 is not dated and does not refer to a 'great plague' but rather to 'the wakham.' ASE.

Family letter from a son to his father, Abu al-Muna al-Muwaffaq. Two main family matters are discussed. First, the son states that his brother-in-law, a Rumi, has stolen the Ketubba (marriage contract) of his sister. The son had intended to bring the Rumi to the head of the police or to the rabbinical court, but he had already run away. Secondly, the writer asks his father to allow his brother, Abu Ishaq, to spend the holidays with him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 114, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in the hand of the court clerk Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya. The letter opens with condolences for the addressee's loss. Then the sender goes into his own problems: his son Abū Manṣūr does not pay attention to what he says nor accept advice from him. The son has married, or plans to marry, a bad woman. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 122.) On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. OZ. ASE.

Letter of a woman, regarding her marital problems. Written by Halfon b. Menashshe Halevi (Date: 1100-1138). The join was created by Oded Zinger. Might be connected to T-S NS 226.113.

Letter from Avraham, son of the Gaon, to a business partner in Fustat.

Letter from the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Ramle, to his son Abū Isḥāq Avraham, in Tyre or Damascus (Shelomo does not know which, so he arranges for the letter to reach Avraham in either case). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: June 27, 1033 CE, based on Gil's assessment. Shelomo had traveled from Jerusalem to Ramle to see his daughter, because she had given birth prematurely to a boy at 7 months. It seemed at first that the newborn would survive (kānat ʿalāmatuhu khayr), but he died soon afterward (r4–6). Shelomo's daughter remains ill with an intermittent fever (r19, where the word "nawba" is probably to be understood in its technical sense of "paroxysm"), however it seems not dangeorusly ill, since Shelomo plans to return to Jerusalem in two days. Shelomo had sent two previous letters with the same content: he had sent one copy to Tyre, to be forwarded to Damascus, and he had given the other copy to a Damascene Muslim in Abu Musa's caravanserai in Ramleh, who was to pass it on to R. Moshe al-Ḥaver (r6–10). Information in part from Goitein's note card and in part from Gil ASE

Family letter from Meir b. Hillel b. Sadoq to his son. The letter reflects the personal and economic distress of the writer, who was far away from his loved ones. The second half of the twelfth century. (Information from Frenkel; The piece of paper was originally a letter of request written to Meir b. Hillel b. Sadoq. Meir b. Sadoq reused the paper to write the letter to his son. The text provided by Frenkel contains only the letter written by Meir. For the letter written to Meir see T-S NS J171 verso; For more information see Goitein, Med. Soc. Vol. 2, pp. 577-578, n. 45)