Geniza Lab

Highly fulsome letter of praise, consisting of 12 lines of praise in Hebrew, followed by 5 lines of Arabic script containing the actual content of the letter, and closing with a further 13 lines of blessings. The whole letter has a heading בשים איל רחום וחנון. On verso the page is covered with Arabic pen trials. (Information from CUDL.) It appears that the Hebrew beginning and ending were prepared by a scribe in advance. Either the same scribe or somebody else later used the template to fill in the 5 lines of Arabic script. It is a a letter of appeal for charity. ASE. ... ويجعلك الله تعالى من المقبولين ويستجيب مني لحضرتك صالح الدعا وقد علم الله تعالى ايش نحن فيه من الضر والعري انا ومن عندي فلنا اليوم عشرة شهور قد علم الله ايش قاسينا فيها من ضيق اليد . . . . ليل ونهار على ما جرى عليا . . . . . . . . من عبدك لك دعوة في هذه الايام فاسل الله ان يستجيب مني لك . . . . . صالح الدعا

Letter from Mūsā (or Musallaḥ?) b. Ṣāliḥ to an unknown addressee. In Hebrew and in Arabic script. Appealing for help from the addressee. (Cf. Geoffrey Khan, “The Historical Development of the Structure of Medieval Arabic Petitions,” BSOAS, 53:1 (1990), 21). EMS On verso long text in Judaeo-Arabic.

In this appeal, typically addressed to the community ('your excellencies, my masters, the illustrious lordly judges, and...the elders of Israel'), a widow and mother of four, weighed down by debt, asks for 'something to conceal myself (astur bihi nafs) and the fo[ur] who are with me. She thus voices the common plaint of the master, the 'concealed,' who strives to maintain him/herself economically without having to 'uncover his/her face, especially by resorting to the public dole. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from Cohen)

Letter on behalf of Yaḥyā b. ʿAmmār of Alexandria addressed to ʿŪlla ha-Levi b. Yosef, a.k.a. Abū l-ʿAlā' Ṣāʿid b. Munajjā, a parnas (social welfare official) and trustee of the court in Fustat, dated documents 1084–1117. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Yaḥyā requests financial help, especially with paying off his debts. His dependents include his children and his old, blind mother. When he could not bear to see them suffering from hunger, he ran away. For some time he has been in hiding from his debtors, some of whom are Muslim. He has recently heard that his mother is dying. He fears that she will die "on his account" before he is able to return and obtain her forgiveness. Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 257, Goitein's index cards, CUDL, and Cohen. ASE.

Letter from the wife of Maʿānī. Desperate letter of appeal to the 'courts' (judges) from a blind woman whose husband had fled to Alexandria and left her and her 3 year old girl. She is pleading to the community for relief. She calls herself 'a widow during the lifetime (of her husband). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 218, 472 and from Cohen)

Letter from a tax farmer in the Fayyum, who was cheated of his share by his partners, was unable to pay his debts, and was therefore taken into custody. He has been in prison for four days. He is sick with ophthalmia and his dependents are perishing. He asks help getting released before the Sabbath. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 35, 362 and from Goitein's index cards )

Letter of appeal for charity from Yeḥezqel b. Ibrāhīm (the writer) and the former judge Moshe b. Shemarya to Abū ʿImran Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, Segulat ha-Yeshiva. Moshe has gone blind from ophthalmia (ramad); his eye is white and he walks with a cane. Yehezqel is so infirm that he has not left his home for two years, even to attend synagogue services. They ask Mūsā to intervene on their behalf with the Nagid Sar ha-Sarim (Mevorakh b. Saadya), though they know that Mevorakh is busy with the “service of the rulers” (khidmat al-salāṭīn), see Rustow, Heresy, p. 339, and Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 220. See also ENA 2805.5a, in which Natan b. Nahray informs Musa that as instructed he has given 1 dinar each to Moshe the Judge and Yeḥezqel the Alexandrian, who is sick and confined to his house. Dated after 1094. (Information in part from Goitein’s note cards) ASE

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee is asked to intervene in a divorce case where the woman is being treated unfairly by her husband, who is trying to bilk her out of her dowry (qumāsh) and delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar). Likely a draft, based on the format and numerous corrections. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter and a responsum, on either side of the same sheet of paper, detailing the story of a man in distress, particularly because of debt. The letter likely concerns an earlier stage of the case, discussed in yet another responsum. The handwriting looks like Berakhot b. Shemuel. (Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, 2005, 80-2) EMS

Letter asking for financial help, sent from Jerusalem to Bilbays and signed by Yosef b. Gershon and Jehiel Sarfati (the Frenchman).

Letter from Yaʿaqov ha-Meshorer b. Yiṣḥaq b. David Maʿaravi, in Hebron, to Yehoshuaʿ, descendant of the Negidim. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Possibly Mamluk era. The letter opens with four short biblical quotations; extensive rhymed blessings follow. Yaʿaqov describes his devastation upon the death of ʿOvadya, descendant of the Negidim. He goes on to describe the poverty of the community of Hebron, and especially his own poverty. He receives 8 dirhams a month from Yeshuʿa al-Ḥakīm b. Menaḥem of Damascus, bu this hardly suffices (he cites the Talmudic idiom "a handful does not sate a lion"). He asks for charity from the addressee. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter of appeal for help, mentioning a recent death, apparently of a husband, leaving the writer (the widow) without livelihood and unable to live with the 'dowager (al-kabira)' (her mother-in-law probably), who is demanding she move out. The lower part of the letter refers to a woman who died in the seventh month of her pregnancy. There is a gap of at least a line or two between the two fragments that comprise this document. It is conceivable that the two fragments belong to two different letters, but they are certainly by the same scribe. Join by Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity/help from a man who is housebound on account of his illness and poverty (wajaʿ, ḍuʿf, ḍīq ḥāl). Mentions Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav, Yeshuʿa, and Yosef.

Letter from a certain Abū l-Faraj to someone titled Sayyidnā. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely Mamluk-era (i.e., after ca. 1250) based on paleographic features, position of the tarjama (recto righthand margin), and use of the abbreviation אלממ[לוך]. The sender asks for financial help, including for paying his capitation tax (jāliya). On verso there are Hebrew writing exercises (haqeṣ ʿaṣel) and maybe two names in Arabic script, one of which is Ibn al-Qābila ('son of the midwife'). (Information in part from CUDL)

Begging letter asking for financial support. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in the hand of Avraham Maimonides (d. 1237) or his son David asking a cantor to arrange a collection in the synagogue on a Thursday morning for two chickens and bread for a poor, old, sick man. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 463, and from Amir Ashur; cf. T-S Misc.8.18, written in a similar hand and layout.) Dating: 13th century

Letter to Mishaʾel ha-Sar from Hiba Ibn Zaʿafrān, a poor inhabitant of Fusṭāṭ. Hiba asks for assistance paying the capitation tax, and has already been arrested and beaten for not paying it. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Sason b. Shemuel to a notable named Elʿazar (or perhaps [...] b. Elʿazar). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The sender alludes to his bad state and requests charity or help of some kind. There are a few lines in Arabic script on verso, perhaps part of the address. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Ḥisday ha-Nasi (a Qaraite communal leader) concerning a husband who wishes to divorce the wife he had been coerced into marrying in Alexandria. The husband demands to pay the marriage gift in installments (i.e., never completely) after all that he had suffered from her bad character (al-tarbut raʿa). He has been with her for three years, but it feels like twenty. He is perishing from his illness (maraḍ) and poverty and bad wife. If his request is refused, he threatens to flee the country and leave her an ʿaguna. Shelomo is probably not writing on his own behalf, as it is unlikely that he would consult a Qaraite Nasi for a legal opinion. Contains elements of both a petition and responsum. There is a provocative (mis)quotation of Leviticus 14:45 on verso: "I have broken (should be: he shall break) down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, etc." With this the husband is comparing his wife (referred to as one's 'house' in Judaeo-Arabic) with a house stricken with ẓaraʿat. (Information from CUDL and Oded Zinger, Women, Gender and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 87, 149, 180, 220, 260.) EMS. ASE.

Letter fragment addressed to a communal leader, a ḥaver. In Hebrew. Regarding a matter of inheritance (‘they are orphans and a widow’) and the writing of a document for Hillel. Hillel’s late brother, Menaḥem, is also mentioned. Greetings are sent to ‘his community, his friends and the elders of his court’ (זקני בית דין). (Information from CUDL)