Geniza Lab

Letter from a man who has been seized with unbearable chills to Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq, appealing for his help. The letter ends with extensive prayers to God to protect the recipient and his family. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter (petition) asking for help to free the writer’s brother who apparently had been incarcerated for failing to pay the capitation tax (here, called kharāj). Dating: 11th century. The spelling is phonetic and possibly somewhat archaic: the definite article lacks lām before sun-letters, and many of the short vowels are written plene. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards)

Letter in the hand of Shabbetay b. Avraham addressed to the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya. Asking him to obtain a caliphal rescript stopping the local governor from charging the sugar cooks twice the normal price for raw sugar (qand). Dating: ca. 1150 CE. Lines 1–6 and verso are written on T-S 10J15.29; lines 7–18 on T-S 10J15.32. (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, 45–46, 531.)

Letter from the widow of the cantor Ben Nahman to a Gaon concerning the difficulties she is having with the son of her late husband and his sister over her right to domicile in the house to which she has a claim. Cf. T-S 13J13.6 (subsequent plea, two months later, from the same woman), also T-S Ar.18(1).107.

Letter addressed to Yosef ha-Kohen Segan ha-Kohanim. In Hebrew. Containing greetings and an apparent request for charity. The letter is written in the same hand as T-S 10J17.27 and T-S 10J17.29–30. (Information from Gotein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Letter addressed to Yosef ha-Kohen. Contains initial greetings, a request for assistance, a congratulations on recovering from an illness, and wishes for the forthcoming high holidays. This letter is written in the same hand as T-S 10 J17 fs. 27-28 and T-S 10 J17 f. 30 (Goitein). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Petition from Yefet ha-Melammed the schoolmaster to Avraham Maimonides; the latter's answer is on verso, lines 18–26. Yefet writes that he is ill and losing his vision, and consequently has been unable to pay his rent (?) which has accumulated in arrears of six dirhams. Avraham grants him the money. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 37, 529, and Goitein's index cards.) Many of the specifics of the writer's financial situation are lost. There is an ambiguity as to whether "ujra" here means rent or wage/tuition. In "Side Lights on Jewish Education" (p. 96), Goitein prefers the latter: "The community paid for [the tuition of] the sons of those who were impeded by any reason to go after their usual professions (munqaṭiʿ)," referring to recto, lines 9–11. In this reading, the word munqaṭīʿ refers not to the writer of the letter but to the parents of his pupils who have been unable to pay him. "[This] teacher receives 1 dirham per pupil and week, probably for special reasons," referring to recto, lines 13–14 and 17–19. Yefet has evidently continued to work despite his condition, but has not received the wages officially due to him from the community. He thus writes with a description of his current plight (shidda) to expedite the payments. ASE

Petition of a pregnant woman describing herself as a 'lonely foreigner' (gharība qatīʿa). Ibrāhīm, the scribe, emphasizes the great reward and place in heaven the recipient will obtain if he helps the woman. He also adds various business matters of his own, including, apparently, something to do with the 'milking' of musk. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter of appeal addressed to Shelomo ha-Nasi. The writer asks for assistance after having been arrested. He suffers severe poverty and illness and bedbugs (al-baqq). "May God spare you such a trial, and may God place all whom you hate in my situation."

Badly effaced letter to a business friend describing his dire situation and lack of wheat and asking the addressee for assistance. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

The beginning of two drafts of eloquent complaint against Zikri b. Musallam Ibn al- Naja al-Tabib, to the Nagid Avraham and two of the chief justice in Fustat. On the other side the writer notes that most people in the town knew what had happened between him and Ibn al-Naja. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:301-302, 590.) VMR. Join by Oded Zinger.

Letter to 'al-haver al-Me'ulle Hakkam ha-Yeshiva' (the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya, 1095-1112) regarding business matters. Verso: Petition to a caliph.

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya informing one of his supporters in Cairo that an unnamed prominent person had received a friend of his opponent in Dagun (a suburb of Ramla) and on top of that had not answered his letters. He urges his supporters to have the vizier write to the aforementioned man. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Verso (original use): State document. Response to an endorsement on a petition. A multi-handed internal memorandum. Contains a note by a chancery clerk per Khan JRAS 1990 53. (information in part from CUDL)

Letter requesting aid for the poor of Palestine, 11th century. Recto: Fully vocalised poetry in a very crude (almost unreadable) hand. (Information from CUDL)

Letter addressed to Sar Shalom, written by a man whose wife and son had been in captivity by Edom (Christians) and who had lost all his property and had no profession, asking for bread and clothing. Possibly dated 1219. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 595, and from Goitein's index cards}

Last page of a letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to a public figure, in Fustat. Identification is based on handwriting and style. The first page of the letter is missing. Dated: 9 Tammuz, apparently of the year 1141 CE (so the 8th of June). The letter contains information on ships that frequented the port of Alexandria. It mentions an attack of Bedouins on the passengers of the Sultan's ship in Tobruk (this note was added from Goitein) as well as general news and instructions of a commercial nature, dealing with spices, perfumes, books, pearls and gold. The letter reports the great distress in which the Jews of Alexandria found themselves. The leaders of the community, among them Abu Nasr himself, were under house arrest due to unpaid debts from previous years. The matter created 'hatred' (Heb. sinʾut) and general anarchy. The recipient is asked to intervene in the matter and petition a few Muslim public figures which might assist. (Information from Frenkel and Goitein's note card.)

Letter from the wife of Shemuel, a poor woman from al-Maḥalla, addressed to the Gaon Maṣliaḥ. She asks for assistance for herself and for her blind son, particularly for paying the capitation tax. She had already been in Fustat one month without relying on anyone for charity. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Hebrew letter, sent by Shemuel b. Shelomo of Lucena, Spain, to Mevorakh b. Saadya requesting assistance. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from X b. Menahem to Elazar ha-Kohen b. Meshullam asking for assistance after losing 350 nasiri and 25 dinars at sea. (Information from Goitein's index cards)