Geniza Lab

Lower fragment: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Rabbenu David ha-Ḥakham. Dealing mainly with business matters and also raising money for the capitation tax. Mentions many people including: Ṭāhir al-Simsār; Hiba al-Bilbaysī; Abū l-Makārim al-Kohen. Regards to al-Sadīd and to Abū l-Thanā' and his wife. Shelomo has been suffering an attack of ophthalmia and only wrote this letter with great effort.

Letter fragment on behalf of the lepers of Tiberias to Efrayim b. Shemarya in Fustat.

Letter from Isḥāq b. ʿAlī al-Majjānī, probably in al-Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: Aound 1040. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter deals with disagreements about money and discussions on how to solve them. The writer orders a dirham of bitumen (qifār), "for the need is pressing" (lines 12–13). He is most likely alluding to an eye disease. In the margin, he sends greetings to Abū Zikrī Elḥanan the physician and writes, "tell the friend of Tammām, the physician, 'My hope is in you.'" Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #636. VMR. ASE.

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī to Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1045-1096. Contains details regarding flax shipments that were arranged in partnership with Nahray. The author has avoided working with Ibn Qays, seemingly a shipowner, because of his character. Multiple payments are recounted. He passes on the news that Faraj fainted on Thursday in the bathhouse (subita fī l-ḥammām).

Previous description for ENA 2805.2 (upper fragment): Letter from Shela b. Mevasser, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1065 CE. The sender, the judge of Alexandria, has the name “ḥaver” from the yeshiva in Palestine. He writes about wills of people who passed away and taking care of the widows. He specifically mentions a youth named Manṣūr who made a will while suffering the remnants of an illness (line 15). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #790) VMR Another letter to Nahray, in a different hand, is bound together under the same shelf-mark. Previous description for ENA 2740.3 (PGPID 5263): Letter from Shela b. Mevasser to Mevorakh b. Saadya, written after 1094. Shela reports on how he handled an inheritance dispute in Alexandria that ended up in a qāḍī court. (Information from Frenkel.) Join: Oded Zinger.

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).

Letter from Natan b. Nahray to Abū ʿImrān Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy. Among other matters, Natan mentions that he has given 1 dinar each to Moshe the Judge and Yeḥezqel the Alexandrian, the two frail old men who wrote T-S 13J28.10 requesting charity from Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy. Natan also mentions a medicinal syrup that he has asked Abū l-Afrāḥ to buy him. ASE.

Letter from Mardūk b. Mūsā, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat(?). Dating: ca. 1045 CE, based on Gil's assessment. The handwriting is that of Yaʿaqov b. Salmān al-Ḥarīrī, and the letter switches to his voice starting in line v2. The letter deals with business in lemon juice, tamarind, and textiles of flax and silk. Nahray is sick (wajīʿ, r4–7, r13–14, v6–7). Both Mardūk and Yaʿaqov wish Nahray a speedy reunion with his mother. Information from Gil. ASE.

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon b. Benaya, in Tinnīs, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. Dating: 7 December 1060. Among many other matters, Nissim reveals that he has recovered from his illness and left the house and returned to work today for the first time (r10-11). ASE.

Petition to the Gaʾon Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen (in office 1127–39). Begins with six lines of Hebrew blessings, and ends with one line of Hebrew blessings. The sender describes himself as a man of more than seventy years who has been afflicted by an illness that makes him unable to work and earn a livelihood. He owes a debt (or rather capitation tax payment?) of 14 qirats and 1 dirham; somehow this is connected to a man named Salāma Ibn al-Maqāniʿiyya and a guarantee. If he is unable to pay, he fears being imprisoned. He states that he is near death and starving, some days eating and some days not. Maṣliaḥ had previously promised to help him pay this sum, so this letter is a reminder. In the margin, mentions a meat shop and someone named Mīkhāʾīl. Verso is filled with Arabic-script jottings and document drafts in a chancery hand, including drafts of a letter or petition to a notable. VMR. EMS. ASE.

Recto: Letter in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe to his 'brother' Abū Naṣr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions a previous rebuke; the arrival of the physician today; possibly medically-induced vomiting (...[isti]frāgh min kull budd allāh yajʿal al-ʿāqiba...); 20 dirhams; and something he needs. On verso there is probably the response from Abū Naṣr, stating that the order has arrived, and he was distressed at the news, and probably that he will act on it. This fragment also contains two words in Arabic script from an earlier state document, perhaps a decree.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Writer and addressee are unknown. The letter is an appeal for private charity. The writer is under duress from difficult times (awqāt al-shadā'id). There is a sick person in his household who has had a nosebleed (ruʿāf) for the entire week (the word "sick person" could plausibly be emended to "maraḍ" from "marīḍ," meaning that the writer himself has a nosebleed, but the next line, "I was away," suggests that it was rather someone in his family). When the letter resumes on verso, the writer mentions Cairo; that he is emptyhanded and helpless; that the addressee should not blame him; and that he has [?] his face from shame. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary (horizontal piece from the middle). Mentions a woman going up to Fustat and litigating over 20 dinars. "And if her travel is delayed to pay him the 20 dinars that is part of his merchandise (? raḥluh), she is excused, because her daughter died and she herself became mortally ill, and illness annuls debts." Then the letter, confusingly, appears to address the woman: " go up (iṭlaʿī), and if there is no going up and no payment...." The text in the margin suggests that this letter is a query addressed to a legal authority. On verso there is an unidentified text in a crude hand that includes words in Hebrew, Aramaic, and maybe Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer and addressee are unknown, but the handwriting seems very familiar. The writer starts by addressing a single person and sending blessings for his son; he then switches to addressing that person together with his brothers. The letter is a quintessential example of the epistolary norms surrounding illness, expressing preoccupation for others, and rebuking others for failing to do the same. "When I heard that your condition had worsened (takhallufhā), I became very distressed and forgot my own illnesses and condition, until God had mercy and the news of your health arrived, and I thanked God for that, yodu l-adonay ḥasdo, and may God avert all evil from you and your brothers and all in your care and protect me from all bad news. By my life, I am pained/sick of heart from the fact that you do not mention me in a letter or an inquiry, despite the fact that I have not cut off (our correspondence), and the fact that you are to me like my children, nay, like my brothers-in-law, and you ought to be inquiring after me (iftiqādī) if only with a letter or an inquiry. But I forgive you because of all of your cares." ASE.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to [...] Abū ʿImrān. Mentions the intercalation of the calendar and something the sender intended to do before he fell sick. He asks for a favor. This letter is stuck to an unrelated fragment (see separate record).

Letter from Umm al-Khayr, the widow of Eliyya al-Dimunshī, in Ragusa, Sicily, to her son Yehuda b. Eliyya in Fustat. Around 1060. The woman lives with her married daughters. The letter is a tearful plea for her son to return home before she dies. In fact, the family had heard a rumor that he died three years prior, so they held a large funeral and mourned him as if he had been present, believing that he died alone in a foreign land with no one to mourn him. But a letter from her son just arrived, awakening her yearning for him. She tells him that his father died in his lifetime, so he should return to his conscience and awaken his soul, and say to himself, "My father died in my lifetime, and now my mother will too. This will be counted as a tremendous sin on my account." She reiterates several times that he must come back before she perishes. (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #798.) VMR. ASE.

Letter from Shemarya to his brother Yaʿaqov. Written in non-fluent Hebrew (e.g. uses אהיה as a copulative when there is no need; and more). The writer excuses not having written before, because he had suffered a five month illness of נפלות (perhaps to be read נפילות and understood as epilepsy). But God sent him health. He is worried about his brother because he hasn't heard from him in a year and a half. The brother had sent with the wife of Yona a גלילי כיפוכניכו garment (? perhaps this is Greek, and Shemarya is Byzantine. It is vocalized in the document). Shemarya heard that the 3 dinars he had sent his brother never arrived. He mentions R. Mikha'el. Needs further examination.

Letter from Yosef b. Yehuda b. Simḥa (Alexandria) to Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā b. Nissim (Fustat), ca. 1050. The writer mentions a number of deals in beads and pearls. He is worried about owing money to a number of people including Yaḥyā b. Nissim and, although they do not demand payment, is anxious to settle the issue. He also mentions having heard about diseases (amrāḍ) that have spread in Fustat. The address is written in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. (Information from Gil.)

Letter from a man, in Fustat, to his brothers Yūsuf and Ibrāhīm, unknown location. He blames his delay on the ״כר״ that belongs to Baqā', who refused to let him use it. The sender had a fight with Baqā' (taḍārabtu) and was seriously injured (inkhabaṭtu) and fell sick again (maraḍtu marḍa jadīda) but is now doing better (qad tawajjahtu li-l-ʿāfiya) so no one need worry about him. He will come on Sunday. If the addressees have gotten their hands on Abū Naṣr's silver, they should send it, because Abū Naṣr has already come to the house asking for it 3 or 4 times "and he doesn't know that I am in Fustat." (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Verso: Letter in Arabic script, in a book hand. Opens with two verses of poetry, then probably a taqbīl ([... al-a]rḍ), then greetings for the noble addressee (...al-sāmī al-ajall al-mawlā ??? abqāhu Allāh taʿālā...), then a report (wa-yunhī) that God sent health to the sender after an illness and ophthalmia (ramad) which lasted 20 days (...Allāh taʿālā manna bi-l-ʿāfiya fa-taṣṣarafa bi-hā baʿd ʿashrīn yawman...). The sender seems to be thanking the addressee for his generosity in helping him in this period of illness, "for he (the addressee) has never been stingy toward a sick person" (...maʿa kawnih lam yabkhal qaṭṭ ʿalā marīḍ...). Further down, mentions "the distress is severe, and from country to country, the excuse is plain...." Then a judge called al-qāḍī al-ajall ʿAlam al-Dīn.