Geniza Lab

An Instruction to Avraham (b. Sahlan) to find money for a poor man.

Letter from Mordechai b. Simḥa who is in the Persian city of Kashan. In Hebrew. Dating: Possibly 17th century. The sender also signs his name Mordechai Ṣefati ha-Kohen. "I beseech the master to speak with the parnasim of the congregations to give me what they see fit, sufficient for the expenses of travel, for God willing, I plan to go to the land of Israel. Let them do for me at least what they did for the Indian gentile, the idol worshipper." (They provided him with a donkey and gave him money.) "Let them do for me what they did for the chelebi - many 'גרושו - even though he was going outside of the land, to Persia (ereṣ ha-ʿajam), in order to eat meat and drink wine..." On verso he adds a postscript about what happened with the parnas Yeḥezqel (some sort of conflict, with insults flying). Edited by Simha Assaf. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Brief letter from a person in dire straits suffering from illness and lack of clothing, and unable to buy anything to eat for the upcoming holiday. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter of appeal for charity from Abū l-Majd to the physician (ḥakīm) Yeshuʿa ha-Levi. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer needs help paying 20 silver dirhams (nuqra) which he still owes on account of his capitation tax. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter of appeal addressed to a Jewish dignitary (ha-dayyan ha-maskil). The introduction is in Hebrew and the body is in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer prays that the addressee will be spared "the diseases of this year." He states that he is impoverished and suffering from an illness. "If I live, you will see my gratitude for you in public." He asks the addressee to send a messenger to the Nagid on his behalf. The letter contains the interesting oath "wa-ḥaqq al-yiḥud," where yiḥud = tawḥīd. He also writes that al-ḥūrma (his wife?) is as sick as can be. Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Letter in Arabic script. The sender is a man from Alexandria who was forced to flee from that city because he was unable to pay the capitation tax for his little boy. He asks the Nagid Avraham Maimonides to instruct the judge Eliyyahu to help. He had been unsuccessful in obtaining work. See verso.

Letter of appeal for charity from Sālim of Tyre to an unidentified addressee. The letter (in Judaeo-Arabic) is on verso, while recto is a poem (in Hebrew) by Yizḥaq b. Khalfūn (in the same hand as the letter). The content of the letter is brief and quite formulaic (misfortunes, want, illness). There is some unusual orthography: גזקי ומלי for רזקי ומאלי. Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog.

Letter of appeal for charity. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. From Yehuda b. Shelomo, the cantor of Damsīs, to an unidentified addressee, who is asked to induce Abū Zikrī to make a gift of provisions for the holiday. On verso there are four lines in Arabic script, possibly a note from the addressee to Abū Zikrī or somebody else, trying to fulfill the request of Yehuda: "What will the noble masters do for Yehuda...?" ( ما يتفضل السادة الاجلا على يهودا ال. . . . . ). (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Letter addressed to Abū l-Faraj and Abū l-Ḥasan. In Judaeo-Arabic, with extremely rudimentary spelling and and handwriting (e.g. אכדיל אלכום for ادخل اليكم). This is a letter of appeal for charity. The sender bemoans his and his family's poverty. He asks for hospitality until after the holiday (this is not the first time he has asked). He also asks for some wine for qiddush.

Recto: Letter of appeal. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the name of a woman who is 'cut off and my husband is absent.' Also mentions her son, 2 dirhams a month, and a ḥukm (a court case?). The scribe has a very distinctive אל; probably the same scribe who wrote Halper 466; see Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h466.html) and further references there. On verso there may be the remnants of a chancery document (just one or two enormous letters).

Letter(s) of appeal for charity. Likely drafts. In Arabic script. The one on recto is addressed to Abū Manṣūr and the one on verso is addressed to al-Rayyis.

Recto: Letter from Barakāt Ibn al-Dayyān Abū l-Faraj (=Shelomo b. Eliyyahu the Judge). In Arabic script. A narrow vertical strip is missing from the right side. In which Shelomo complains of his poverty and illnesses (alām) and asks for help paying the capitation tax. He may be asking on his father's behalf as well as his own (mentioned three lines from the bottom). (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Petition from a certain Jaʿfar to a Fatimid dignitary (qāʾid). In Arabic script. In which Jaʿfar asks that the support (maʿūna) granted to him not be withdrawn. (Information from Khan.)

Letter of appeal in Arabic script. The writer, Faḍā'il al-ʿŪdī b. Baṣīla (?), had lived for 6 years in Alexandria until he had to come this year ("in which nothing is blessed") to Fustāṭ. He is unemployed there and unable to even enter the market of the druggists due to debts owed to Ibn Ṣ[...] and others. He now perishes of hunger and illness. No one in the family has eaten for three nights. He has three dependents: his wife, his daughter (a widow), and her three-year-old son. He asks for charity especially for the rent of a boat (to travel back to Alexandria?). He concludes with blesings for the addressee, in the midst of which he writes, "If it were not for God and your mercy with regard to this year's jāliya, I would be in prison." Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script (with the words שער הנשיאות in Hebrew) to a Nasi, by ʿImrān b. Muhājir. According to Goitein's note card, it is an apology for disrespectful remarks about the latter's origin. Gotein likely succeeded in reading an obscure passage of the letter, but on its face it seems more like a straightforward appeal for financial aid invoking the afflictions of fate: "al-mamlūk mustaḥiyy min fiʿl hādha l-zamān alladhī ṣayyaranā [[anā]] lā naqdir al-qiyām bi-mā ʿalaynā min al-maḥqūq al-wājiba idh ḥukimat ʿalaynā al-iqrār. . . . wa-baʿd inna l-kull zamān wa-kull waqt aḥwāl yudabbirhā hādha l-falak bi-mā amar wa-bi-mā rakkab fīhi fa-l-mamlūk mustaḥiyy. . . ." Verso: A note in Judaeo-Arabic about the distribution of bread "from the Talmid, from the day of our arrival." This is followed by a pair of verses in Arabic, which have been transcribed into Judaeo-Arabic, against chess. ASE.

Verso (secondary use): Petition/letter of appeal for charity in Arabic script. From Manṣūr. The sender and his family have perished from illness (maraḍ, awjāʿ), poverty, and nakedness, and their rent is due. The sender reiterates in the final line that he is perishing "from the disease of arwāḥ (hemorrhoids?)."

Letter of appeal for charity. In Arabic script. Written in two columns. Asking the addressee to exchange the writer's possessions for food. Mentions Abū ʿAlī al-Parnas and the judge Efrayim. The writer is without work "and the mice have eaten my clothing." (Information in part from Baker/Polliack catalog)

Letter of appeal for charity. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Written in a calligraphic but shaky hand.

Letter of appeal. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentioning a pledge-drive (pesiqa) at holiday time.

Recto, with address on verso: Letter of appeal. In Judaeo-Arabic. From a certain Yiṣḥaq, in Malīj, to a certain Nissim, probably in Fustat. Goitein identifies the addressee as Nissim b. Nahray b. Nissim. Dated: ca. 1090 CE, per Goitein. The sender is in great distress ("the knife has reached the bone") and has no clothing to wear, on Shabbat or otherwise. Efrayim suggested to the sender that the addressee could get him a letter from the Rav (whom Goitein identifies as Nahray b. Nissim) and from the Nasi (whom Goitein identifies as David b. Daniel), recommending collections to be arranged on behalf of the petitioner in al-Maḥalla and Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 508.)