Geniza Lab

Letter from a woman to the Head of the Jews, in Fustat. Dating: Early twelfth century (see explanation below). The writer asks the addressee to send her money for two orphan sisters whose care she was reluctantly supervising. The girls were ten and thirteen years old and had no relatives to take care of them, and nothing to live on. They had been allotted two dinars from communal charity funds, but for some reason (the letter is torn here, and parts are missing) the money had not actually been sent; without it, they had "only enough for a crust of bread." A childless widow who lived nearby had volunteered to teach them embroidery, and the letter's narrator was willing to check in on them once in a while. But she refused to take them into her household, even though the girls themselves wanted her to: "They constantly tell me, 'We want to come to you so that you can take care of us.' She asked the Head of the Jews instead to provide the two dinars that the girls had been promised, along with extra funds to rent them a living space and to hire a religious steacher who could "teach them prayer, so they will not grow up like animals, not knowing shemaʿ yisra'el." Eve Krakowski, Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt, p.1. Regarding the date: "The time of the document can be defined approximately by the mention of al-haver Ibn al-Kāmukhi, the member of the yeshiva bearing a family name derived from the profession of kāmukhī, preparer of preserves with vinegar sauce. Two such persons are known, onel iving at the time of the Nagid Mevorakh, around 1095, and another during the incumbency of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya around 1145. The script of the letter would fit either of the two dates, better perhaps the latter." Goitein, "Side Lights on Jewish Education," p. 88 (doc. 3).

Letter on behalf of a Byzantine woman named Rachel, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. The main part of the letter (in Judaeo-Arabic) is scribed by the teacher and court clerk Yehuda b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī; there is a postscript (in Hebrew) added by Shemuel (a.k.a. Kalev) b. Yaʿaqov. Dated: 19 Adar 1538 Seleucid, which is 1227 CE. The letter concerns Rachel's husband, Yosef of Barcelona, who is about to marry a local woman, leaving their children orphans in their lifetimes (and "pieces of meat"). Eliyyahu is asked to relay her case to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205–37), to intervene and prevent Yosef from doing this to her. Yehuda switches to writing in his own voice on verso, line 3. He sends various respectful greetings and adds that Rachel's eyes (or those of her mother?) have developed ophthalmia (ramad) from all her weeping. The postscript in the hand of (and signed by) the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov corroborates the story in the body of the letter and blames the husband's mother, who tempted him to do these bad things, and also "his wife, the snake, who married him against his will"—which makes it sound that Yosef has already married the local woman. Shemuel seems to conclude by saying that he has taken on the name "Kalev" (or vice versa?) on account of his illness, evidently an effort to change his fortune by changing his name. ASE

Letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat regarding an inheritance of a widow and her orphans. Dating: ca. 1080 CE. The local Jewish judge (Heb. dayyan) issued a ban (Heb. ḥerem) against anyone who withheld information about property belonging to the orphans, but the ban did not help. Apparently there was also an attempt to take over the property by an appeal to non-Jewish courts. The writer of the letter asks the recipient to ask the Nagid, Mevorakh b. Saadya, to intervene. Join: Oded Zinger. NB: The letter does not seem to be dated; 1080 CE was Goitein's estimate.

Petition to David b. Daniel from a destitute woman with no family and afflicted with a serious illness (leprosy, it seems). Dating: ca. 1090 CE. She begs “Our lord David, the great nasi, head of the diasporas of all Israel,” to assist her and concludes the note with wishes for David, that “male children may fill your place.” (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, 207, 219; trans. Cohen, Voice of the Poor, #21, pp.52-3); EMS. The letter describes her as a "lonesome bird on a rooftop"; the same phrase appears in a poem attributed to Yehuda ha-Levi in L-G Lit. I.50. The scribe, a Byzantine, has been identified by Ben Outhwaite. This scribe wrote T-S 12.237, T-S NS 325.184, T-S 13J13.16, and T-S 8J16.29.

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.

Petition from a woman to the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. Location: Fustat. Dating: 1140–59 CE. "'I am a 'cut-off' (munqaṭiʿa) woman and I do not have (recourse) except to God’s gate and yours. I have fallen in with a man who is unashamed of the unseemly things spoken about him. My father does not enter my (house) for anything because of what happened to him. My brother is a young man, bashful and has no tongue… I have no supporter except God, the exalted, and you. May the holy One not lock your gate in the face of every munqaṭiʿ and oppressed (maẓlūm).' This woman is munqaṭiʿa even though she has a father and a brother, because these male relatives are unable to help her. So she is a munqaṭiʿa because she does not have effective male kinship." Information from Oded Zinger, "The Use of Social Isolation (inqiṭāʿ) by Jewish Women in Medieval Egypt," JESHO (2020), 827–28 and Oded Zinger, "Women, Gender and Law: Marital Disputes According to Documents of the Cairo Geniza," 388–90. She goes on to ask for the Nagid's assistance, and mentions a bill of divorce, the delayed marriage gift, and her husband’s failure to provide for his family. EMS

Letter from the widow of the cantor Ben Nahman to a Head of the Jews (entitled Gaon) concerning the difficulties she is having with her husband's sons and their aunt over her right to domicile in the house to which she had a claim. Cf. T-S 10J16.4, an earlier plea from the same woman, also T-S Ar.18(1).107.

Complaint of a damin (tax farmer) in al-Minya about competitors, submitted to the Nagid Mevorakh around 1096. The writer claimed to receive one of his appointments as tax-farmer from the father and predecessor of al-Malik al-Afdal. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:361, 605-6) EMS See also Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 149; Mann, Jews in Egypt, II, p. 249; Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 85, 411; II, pp. 359, 361, 606; V, p. 367

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda (or Avraham son of the Gaon?) to Efrayim b. Shemarya. In Hebrew. Asking Efrayim to organize the Jewish community in Fustat to assist the bearer, a victim of theft (or refugee?), on his homeward journey. Dating: probably 1034/35 CE. (Information from CUDL). Join: Oded Zinger.

Begging letter from Fuḍayl, the brother of Abū l-Ḥasan, and from Abū Saʿd, to his relative Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa b. Ṣammūh b. Sasson requesting help for himself and another person. Fuḍayl asks Ṣedaqa to 'make the rounds' and collect some donations from other Jews. "You know how sick I am after having been a man as [strong as] as lion." The total amount asked for is very modest, only five or six dirhams, which might have been only a symbolic number. The letter starts with a biblical quotation (Proverbs 21:14). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 358, 605)

Letter sent by a young man named Siba to his mother in Fustat but addressed to his brother, Abu al-Najm, describing the troubles he had encountered from a capitation tax official on his travels in a Nile boat and saying he had arrived safely in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 299, 300)

Calligraphic letter requesting help for a man who is out of work and has a large family which would be satisfied with getting a mere piece of bread. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Draft of a petition in the handwriting of Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, addressed to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil (aka the vizier Ibn al-Salār), asking that he release the estate of the Jewish merchant Abū l-Faḍāʾil b. Baqāʾ, which had been illegally sealed by the Mutawalli al-Maʿūna in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1150–51 CE. (Information from Khan and from Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 269, 437; II, pp. 353, 513, 604.)

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Yaʿqūb to an unknown recipient. Written in a good hand and pleasant style. This letter implores the addressee to help the writer buy medicine (?) and 2 ounces of sugar for his ill infant child, assuring him that he and his wife didn't have enough money even for a pound of bread. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 188; Goitein index cards.) Specifically, the writer requests the price of a qirṭās (probably meaning a bag) of nuqūʿ (which can mean infusion, as of a medicine, but also dried apricots, which would more easily go in a bag). The writer's son has a terrible cold (nazla ʿaẓīma). Verso: The beginnings of seven lines of a letter or petition in Arabic script, with wide space between the lines. In between the lines and at 180 degrees, there are a few more lines in small Arabic script, possibly the address of the letter on recto. The name Abū l-Ṭāhir can be read. ASE.

The teacher Dawud of Qalyub writes to the judge Shelomo b. Eliyyahu around 1225 complaining about his meagre salary and his inability to pay the jāliya (capitation tax). (Information from Goitein's index cards, Med. Soc., CUDL and Marina Rustow)

Poetic epistle addressed to the poet and man of letters Yehuda ha-Levi, who was also a well-to-do physician and devoted time to public welfare and charity. The writer, a traveler from Badajoz, Spain, is in dire circumstances and requests a donation from Yehuda ha-Levi while the two were sojourning in Egypt. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:580, 5:83, 528) EMS Correction: The manuscript actually says 'אלברגושי' i.e from Burgos, not Badajoz (which back then was still Batalyus) MY

Hayfa, daughter of Sulayman Ibn al-Ariq, writes to the Ḥaver Eli b. Amram, the spiritual head of Jerusalem congregation of Fustat, during the third quarter of the eleventh century. She asks him to write to Damascus (from Egypt) to her husband Said b. Muamar, the silk weaver, after he had deserted her twice. She was forsaken by her family as well. She had a boy from Said and she wants his compassion or that he will set her free. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society; and Goitein's index cards) VMR

Recto: Report to a vizier of al-Ḥāfiẓ by a military official in which the sender references previous petitions and also makes a new request for a rescript. Dating: second quarter of the sixth century AH / 12 century CE. (Information from Khan, ALAD.) EMS

Petition from an Alexandrian coppersmith. Dating: Fatimid-era. Goitein's reading is that the petitioner had bought some merchandise from the dīwān, but had to return it, and now asks to be given those goods back and promises to pay an additional three dīnārs. (Information from Goitein's index card.) Alternatively, he may be describing how he wished to act piously (tazakkā) for the sake of the army (ilā al-ʿaskar) and bought some items from the dīwān, labored on restoring them, then returned them, but he was only recompensed their original value and has not yet received any recompense for his labor (takalluf, taʿab)—hence the petition. ASE Reused on recto for Hebrew piyyuṭ in a distinctive scribal hand. In a different hand underneath, there is a draft of a panegyric for a physician named Eliʿezer (called "sar"/"prince").

In the form of a legal document (see lines 3-4), a fragment of a petition to a Nagid from a small town, signed by twenty-six persons in different hands, of whom seven were opposed and three were out of town. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 62; V, p. 118)