Geniza Lab

Bifolium from a court notebook. Dating: One entry is dated 1411 Seleucid, which is 1099/1100 CE. The four pages have four different cases recorded in four different hands. The details of each case are hard to make out due to the poor state of preservation. 1. A certain (Abū l-)Ḥasan b. Yaʿaqov al-Āmidī is asked to hand over various Bible codices to Yehuda b. Ḥayyim ha-Melammed. 2. Concerning garments sent from Sicily to Damietta to Yemen. The parties are Shalem, Tiqva, Ṣedaqa al-Dimashqī, Ḥusayn, and Ibn Masʿūd. Signed by Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel and Avraham b. Shemaʿya. 3. Appointment of an agent in a commercial matter. Mentions Abū l-Faḍl, Ṣāliḥ b. Meshullam, and 6 dinars. 4. One entry involves a testimony of [...] the judge b. Natan Av ha-Yeshiva about the delivery of a bill of divorce (get). Involves Elʿazar b. Shelomo. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Aharon Sijilmāsī, in ʿAydhāb, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. Dating: 25 Iyyar [4900] AM, which is 14 May 1140 CE. Yiṣḥaq b. Aharon Sijilmāsī wrote this letter from ʿAydhāb nearly 4 months after he departed from Fustat to Aden, as described in document ח65 (where he is called Abū Isḥāq Sijilmāsī). He stayed in ʿAydhāb for a time before traveling further south (he wrote this letter after boarding the ship in ʿAydhāb). In the interim he already sent one letter to Ḥalfon and received one letter in response. The present letter asks Ḥalfon to help the bearer, a fellow man of Sijilmāsa, with some mercantile matters. Yiṣḥaq also reports on (and curses) two Jews who reported him to the government in ʿAydhāb, claiming that he cheated on customs dues for some coral. One of the accusers later drowned. On verso there are also several lines of piyyuṭ. (Information from India Book 4; Hebrew description below.)

Legal testimony about the custom of the merchants of Fustat regarding partnerships. The testimony describes how partnerships are established. dated to 1141. Signed by Shemarya b. Shelomo, Yoshiyahu ha-kohen b. [...] Yosef b. Avon, Yosef ha-Levi b. [...]

Legal query to Avraham Maimonides about a trader who travelled to Bilād al-Hind, remained there for fifteen years, and reportedly drowned in Fanṣūr, a Sumatran port famous for exporting camphor (Heyd, Commerce du Levant, ii, 592). The question facing Maimonides was whether or not this woman was allowed to re-marry based on the testimony of the Jewish trader who reported the merchant’s death upon his return from Aden. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Traders, via Nathaniel Moses) Old IB number: 233. New IB number: VII, 33

Letter by Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Damascus (חדרך), to Yeshuʿa b. Moshe, in Egypt. In Hebrew. Dating: ca. 1145/46 CE. Regarding the will of Maṣliaḥ Gaon. The addressee is not known from other sources. Ḥalfon is currently in the circle of Avraham b. Mazhir, the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva in Damascus, who was likely an in-law of Maṣliaḥ. Ḥalfon asks the addressee to look for the will of Maṣliaḥ Gaon among the two witnesses who wrote and signed in (R. Natan ha-Dayyan ha-Ḥaver ha-Meʿulle and R. Natan b. Shemuel) or other witnesses. If he cannot find it, he should try to reconstruct its text from the witnesses and to send it by land through the desert to Damascus. This letter itself was sent by land. Ḥalfon has praised Yeshuʿa to the yeshiva in Damascus. (Information from India Book 4; Hebrew description below.)

Letter from Avraham al-Muʿṭī and Yosef b. Ezra to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. Should be included in the addenda to India Book IV. Most of the substance of the message is lost.

Letter from Makārim b. Mūsā Ibn Nufayʿ, in ʿAydhāb, to (his son-in-law?) the ḥaver Yeshuʿa b. Yoshiyya(?) the descendant of Shemaʿya Gaʾon, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Shortly after ca. 1141 CE, since it mentions a receipt for the capitation tax for the year [5]35 AH. The sender has arrived safely in ʿAydhāb in the middle of Ramaḍān. He has booked passage to Aden in one cabin (bilīj, originally a Malayan word) in the ship of al-Dībajī together with Nahray (b. ʿAllān, cf. BL OR 5566D.6) and (Makhlūf b. Mūsā) Ibn al-Yatīm. They have taken care of their business and intend to travel onward after the holiday. He mentions: a piece of copper to be sold; that the large Bible codex should be kept safe from the mice; that the gallnuts should be sold; and that the bottles (qamāqim) should be sold if they can fetch a certain price, but otherwise they should be given to Bū Naṣr to make rose water in them. He leaves instructions for taking care of his capitation tax: "as for the capitation tax, there remain with / owed to me 3 (dinars) with Hiba from before. I received from him the receipt (al-barāʾa) for a dinar and change (dīnār wa-kasar, cf. the same expression about the capitation tax in T-S 13J25.6). It is now with Thābit but lacking a registration mark (ʿalāma). And for the year [5]35, 1 dinar and 2 qirats and 1 dirham. If you neglect this for me, I am lost. 'If you see them smoking, you (should?) think they're cooking.'" (The significance of this proverb in this context is not clear.) He has sent 33 dirhams of a Yemeni commodity (חב קרץ?) with the bearer of the letter; the addressee should sell it little by little. Greetings to the addressee, an old man, and Shemaʿya; to the sender's sister and mother, to his paternal uncle and his son Zayn and his wife, to his maternal aunt and her son, to Suʿūd, and to Thābit and his brother. Thābit should be reminded to press the wine for the sender. They should all take care of 'the old woman.' Greetings to Sayyid al-Kull b. Naḥmān (known from several other documents, e.g., T-S 12.527) and to Barhūn, and then a final urging not to forget the capitation tax. On verso, apart from the address, there are two medical prescriptions unrelated to the letter, one in Arabic script (complete) and one in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information in part from Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 575 note 140, from the several citations in India Book II, and from Friedman, Dictionary, p. 133 s.v. דכ׳ן.) ASE

Letter from Yosef b. Avraham b. Bundar to Sulayman b. Abu Zikri Kohen denying misappropriation of a deposit. Aden, 1152.

Letter from Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov, in Fustat, to his in-law Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Alexandria. Dating: Sunday, 15 Jumāda = 16 Adar, which is probably 3 March 1135 CE. The letter is an urgent warning advising Abū Zikrī to take all his merchandise out of a warehouse in Alexandria. "A business partner of Abu Zikrī's in Fustat was dying, and because of the lawlessness prevailing at that time in Egypt, Abu Zikrī's goods would be confiscated together with those of the dead man (before 1129, it seems). {The dying man, Abū Saʿīd, was related to Abu Zikrī's partner the well-known Alexandrian India trader Abu Naṣr b. Elishaʿ. Evidently, Abu Saʿīd did not have any heirs of the first degree, and the officials of the diwan al-mawārīth (line 5: aṣḥāb mawarif!), the Office of Estates, which took advantage ofsuch situations, were about to confiscate all ofhis belongings held by Abu Naṣr. Not taking any chances, the officials would sequester Abu Naṣr's assets and, moreover, those of Abū Zikrī, since the partners' holdings were stored together. The Head of the Yeshiva, certainly Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, who in fact was apparently Abū Zikrī's cousin, personally conveyed the warning to Maḥrūz and instructed him to send immediately an urgent message to his brother-in-law Abū Zikrī. For this purpose, Maḥrūz hired a private courier (najjāb) to Alexandria by camel. In his letter, Maḥrūz tells Abū Zikrī to disregard costs and extricate his wares without delay. The warning is repeated in a postscript written after Musallam (see the previous document) informed the writer that the courier would not set out that night. The Head of the Yeshiva's warning is not related to Abu Zikri's urgent request to him in II, 58, since that letter was written several years after II, 59. No. II, 59 is dated Sunday, 15 Jumada. Since Maḥrūz urges Abu Zikri to return to Fustat to be with his family before the approaching holiday, the date can be fixed with a fair degree of certainty as March 2, 1135, when 15 Jumada I came four weeks before Passover. (I do not know why Goitein assumed the letter had been written before 1129.) As already noted, Maḥrūz was not accustomed to writing, and others penned for him most of his letters, which have been preserved, except for this one and V, 20. Because ofthe urgency ofthis letter, he evidently wrote it himself. His untrained hand, poor style and substandard language, replete with vulgar forms and other orthographic irregularities, prove the wisdom of his normal practice.}" Also of note: Maṣliaḥ Gaon is sick with "the stone" (al-ḥaṣā), i.e., a urinary stone (r17). On verso there are six lines of love poetry in Arabic script. Description based on India Book; see attached. ASE.

Deed of lease of an apartment in Sicily for forty years for Yosef Yiju, Probably Mazara, after 1136. Yosef Yiju pays the rent for forty years in advance (!) to the owner Umm al-Aziz.

Letter drafts from Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1139 CE. This fragment contains three different drafts of letters. The first draft is partial and appears to be an incomplete version of the second draft. This is a letter addressed to an unnamed Jewish courtier in Fustat. The third draft is likely addressed to the Head of the Jews, probably the new Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. In this letter, Ḥalfon apologizes for not having presented himself in person or having written earlier. He blames this on his wretched condition in the wake of his illnesses (v16–18) and the tribulations of his four-year journey to the Maghrib and to al-Andalus. In particular, he has been shaken by the deaths of his brother and the death of 'our diadem and crown and master and head' (v19–21); Goitein concludes that the references are to Ḥalfon's brother ʿEli and to the head of the Yeshiva, Maṣliah Gaon. Presumably, Ḥalfon wrote these drafts during the period he spent in Alexandria upon his return from the West to Egypt in April 1139 CE. "God knows how I wrote this, with a downcast heart and trembling fingers." Description based on India Book 4, #58. ASE.

Letter from Yehuda ha-Levi, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: After the middle of September 1140 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. He mentions the exaggerated honors that the Jews of Alexandria honored him with, especially Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī. He felt the need to show outwardly (“טאהר”) that he received them kindly, but that they embarrassed him because he did not leave Spain on his way to Israel, but wanted, in his hidden intention ('באטן') to be alone, and he saw death before his eyes. The poet asked Ḥalfon to write a letter of thanks to the judge, whose sending would prove how much the guest appreciated the efforts of his benefactor. In the continuation, he responds to Ḥalfon’s "depression and sadness of heart," mentioned in IV, 92. Yehuda ha-Levi explains that this is a natural response to Ḥalfon's grief for the death of his brother ʿEli. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Business letter in Arabic script from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Abū l-Ḥasan Allal b. Ḥassun. in Fustat-Cairo. On the back of the letter are scribblings and accounts in a difficult hand.

Recto: Letter from Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, in Alexandria, to an India trader (probably not Ḥalfon b. Netanel). Dating: 20 Adar II, likely 1448 Seleucid = 1137 CE. Inquiring about arrivals from the India route and describing the general economic depression in Alexandria. A brother of Abū Naṣr adds greetings. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.) Verso: Addendum to a letter written by Abū Naṣr b. Avraham, Ḥalfon b. Netanel's representative in Alexandria, possibly to Abū Zikrī Kohen, the representative of the merchants in Fustat. The identification of the sender and addressee was made according to the handwriting, style and content of the letter. The letter reports hard times in Alexandria. The letter testifies to Abu Nasr's involvement in the India trade. Local scarf production is also mentioned. (Information from Frenkel. See additional information in Goitein, Med. Soc. 5:180 no. 36.)

In this incompletely preserved contract, Yosef Lebdi provided merchandise worth 460 dinars with which the active partner Khalluf would trade. Lebdi will receive three-quarters of the profits and Khalluf one quarter. The contract is described as mudarabat al-tujjar, a merchants' commenda, which normally provides for a division of two-thirds and one third of the profit. Here the active partner did not make an investment on his side and so his share in the profits was lower.

Letter from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq, in Aden, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in ʿAydhāb. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1131 CE. Ḥalfon was probably en route back to Fustat from Yemen. Khalaf asks him to distribute gifts to the dignitaries and to deliver some letters. Khalaf discovered that he owes Ḥalfon a quarter dinar. Mentions items that he told Ḥalfon to purchase for Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon. Khalaf also asks Ḥalfon to apologize on his behalf to two cantors in Fustat for not having responded to their letters. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter addressed to Abū l-Ṭāhir al-ʿAṭṭār (the druggist). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century. Concerning the India trade. Giving details about 15 or so spices and their prices in Fustat. The writer first assures the addressee that his children are well and that many people are traveling from Fustat. He orders a couple mystery items: רבע פילס נרזד and גוז אצטראמי טואל. Information from Goitein's attached notes.

Letter from Perahya Yiju, in Egypt, to the Nagid complaining about Avraham Ibn Yiju, probably around 1156.