Geniza Lab

Moshe b. 'Amram b. Ḥalfon ha-haver asks Za'im al-Mulk in Fustat to help him retrieve the inheritance of his grandfather in al-Ramla, which was taken away by Ma'mun al-Dawla after his own father's mother died. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: A woman complaining to the Nagid Mevorakh about her inefficient brother-in-law who was unable to secure her children's estate from his partner, expresses the apprehension that the latter too might die, and getting something out of orphans for other orphans was next to impossible. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 296, 302) Verso: List in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to a hazzan, Ben Sadoq, who is asked to intervene on behalf of the writer, Menashshe nin Shemaiah, before Sar Salom, head of the community of Alexandria. The writer says he’ll be in Alexandria at the New Year, God willing. Ca. 11th century. Menashshe signs his name at the end surrounded by a motto. Verso: small amount of illegible text in a different hand and ink. (Information from CUDL)

Later document: Petition/letter of recommendation from an unidentified sender, apparently in Fustat, to Yoshiyyahu Gaon. In Hebrew. Dating: Ca. 1020 CE. This is a letter on behalf of the brother of Daniel b. Sahl ha-Melammed, who sent Daniel a letter crying out about his harassment at the hands of somebody (Gil suggests this was a Fatimid military officer but does not explain why). This person claimed in Muslim courts that Daniel's brother was his slave, but "God forbid that a Jew should be a slave of a Gentile, all the more so of a Jew like him" (r34–38). Various Jewish dignitaries are mentioned, including Elḥanan Rosh ha-Seder. Yoshiyyahu is asked to intervene. This fragment also contains a state document in Arabic and a Hebrew piyyuṭ in a different hand than the letter (larger and cruder).

Letter from Ṭoviyya b. Daniel (as far as the first few words of line 31) and the Gaʾon Shelomo b. Yehuda (from the remainder of line 31, as well as line 30, inserted between lines 29 and 31 in minute script), on behalf of the academy, in Ramla, regarding the imprisonment and subsequent release of "our ḥaver who had been ordained in our academy’, (probably Efrayim b. Shemarya). Dating: ca. 1030. The ḥaver and some colleagues had been falsely charged, apparently by rivals within the Shāmī Rabbanite congregation in Fusṭāṭ, but the intervention of the Sahl, Saʿadya, and Yosef b. Yisraʾel al-Tustarī and Abū Naṣr David ha-Levi b. Isḥāq caused the governor to investigate and dismiss the charges. The faʾon led prayers of thanksgiving in Ramla, mentioning both the caliph and his governor, and has arranged for the same to be done in Jerusalem. He urges the leaders of the Rabbanite community in Fusṭāṭ to strive for peace. (Information from CUDL) Letter in Arabic script on verso (as catalogued); see separate entry.

Enormous letter from Yoel ha-Melammed to Avraham the pious and to his brother Yosef, containing a request for help. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Draft of a petition to the caliph al-Ḥākim al-Hakim, with tarjama and opening formulae. Verso contains a Hebrew legal deed (see separate entry). From Hibat Allāh b. Abū Manṣūr al-Yahūdī. It reads: ṣalawāt allāh wa-barakātuhu wa-nawāmī zakawātihi wa-afḍal taḥiyyātihi wa-salāmihi ʿalā mawlānā wa- sayyidinā l-Ḥākim bi-amri llāh amīr al-muʾminīn wa-ʿalā ābāʾihi al-ṭāhirīn wa-abnāʾihi al-akramīn. (Information from Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 468 note 15.) Cf. ENA 2742.4 which contains similar petition-like phrases from [...] b. Bū Manṣūr b. Yehuda.

Letter/petition. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 12th century, during the tenure of the Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. The sender asks the addressee to assist him with ‘tadbīr’ (management, regimen) so that he can petition or something similar. He offers blessings for the recovery of the Nagid Shemuel. (Goitein’s index cards). EMS

Letter requesting (probably financial) help from someone addressed as ‘my lord': the writer asks for something to be sent to him through his sister's husband. He complains that his expenditure is increasing and makes reference to ‘more than an Egyptian dinar'. A number of names and titles are given, including ‘the son of the Ga'on זצ״ל', Shemuel ha-Kohen and Nataniel he-haver. (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Letter/petition from Asher, Yisachar, and Dan, three Jewish converts in Malīj. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 13th century and probably later. They express their thanks for the good treatment afforded to them by the judge Yosef and by the elder al-Nafīs b. Abū l-ʿAlā. They complain about the wicked tanner Khalaf who has excused himself from participating in the financial obligations of the local community. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Letter asking for charity in which the writer describes how “exacting” the upcoming holiday of Passover is in terms of expenses, noting that his "prayer shawl" for Sabbath is torn and although it’s patched, he’s embarrassed to been seen it. He also mentions the purchase (not yet carried out) of new bowls and cups for Passover. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 4:156, 397, 444) EMS Verso: Jottings in Hebrew and Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Petition of a cantor, son of a judge, who is sick and poor, asking God and a Nasi for help (the Nagid Mevorakh per Goitein's identification of the writer). See Oded Zinger, Women, Gender, and Law, 83, 324; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society 2:109. EMS. "I have become chronically ill. I cannot move from my place more than a span without pains and screams. As God is my witness, I cannot even stand to pray. I have entered serious straits because of my illness and poverty. By Moses and Aaron, I have no silver except what I receive from the synagogue on Mondays. My illness requires a lot of money. I beseech you to aid me and address my situation, like you address the situation of strangers and converts and captives. If you delay, I will perish and die, lost." ASE.

Letter written by a Byzantine scribe in Egypt on behalf of an unnamed blind man, addressed to a charitable administrator called ‘Eli ha-Kohen b. Hayyim and his son Efrayim. Dating: ca. 1090 CE. The letter details that the poor man’s wife and children are due to come up from Alexandria but they have written to say they cannot afford the cost of a boat ride, and so the writer requests that Eli ha-Parnas hold a collection and “do not let the oppressed return in shame.” The foreign scribe spells Alexandria with a qof instead of the expected kaf. (Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, Julia Krivoruchko, and Cameron Boyd-Taylor, 183, 197-201) EMS

Letter requesting charity in which the petitioner describes that he is unemployed, starving, from a distant land (al-Raḥba), and has ‘uncovered his face’ to the addressee. EMS. NB: This was previously listed as T-S 8J16.29 on PGP.

Letter addressed to Abu Sahl b. Moshe, the cantor, in which the writer requests aid in a mixture of Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. In a post-scripted note, the petitioner also requests some food should the addressee have a Jewish celebration. (Mark Cohen, Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press: 2005, 57-8). "By constant fasting and hunger my eyesight has become faint and my heart blotted out, so that I do not know what I am writing" (Goitein, Med Soc V:87). EMS.

Letter from a widow, with one orphaned daughter and whose house had collapsed, petitioning a high-ranking official in the community for assistance. The woman employs the common strategy of appealing especially for her fatherless daughter, and indicates furthermore that she herself was an orphan. (Mark Cohen, Voices of the Poor, 89) EMS

Letter from Yahya b. ‘Ammar (basis for identification unclear), who had reached Jerusalem with the help of a benefactor in Fustat, petitioning for assistance so that he may remain in Jerusalem (“Har-El”(?)). The letter, written by a scribe, utilizes the biblical phrase from Psalm 61:5, that God may cover his would-be benefactor “with the cover (be-seter) of His wings.” The verso contains a line from Psalm 119:165 and notes that the letter was dictated by Saadya b. Futuh. (Mark Cohen, Voices of the Poor, 23; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:35, 514) EMS

Letter of petition, draft, addressed to “our lord” Mevorakh during his first term in office, from the “holy community of Malij and its cantor.” Only the prefaratory laudes and the address on the back have been preserved. (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-Government in Medieval Egypt, 167; and Marina Rustow, “The Diplomatics of Leadership: Administrative Documents in Hebrew Script from the Geniza,” in Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Times: A Festschrift in Honor of Mark R. Cohen, ed. A. Franklin, R.E. Margariti, M. Rustow, and U. Simonsohn, 167) EMS Verso: Address, in 2 lines, and 4 lines of Hebrew script in a different hand and ink which have been crossed through. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a certain Efrayim concerning consignments of wheat and sums of money, written in a very polite form with many Hebrew phrases, among them biblical citations such as Deuteronomy 26:11. (Information from CUDL) See also Goitein's index card.

Letter from the Alexandrian community to Shemuel ha-Levi, "the prince of Levites, the glory of doctors" b. Shelomo, requesting his help in countering a decree that forbade saying piyyutim (Heb. sacred poetry) during prayer. Goitein argued that the letter was written from a country town in Egypt while Friedman suggested that the letter originated from the Jerusalemite Synagogue in Fustat and that the decree forbidding piyyutim was part of the Hasidic reforms of prayer which Avraham Maimonides tried to implement. In Frenkel's opinion, the letter was sent from Alexandria. There are a few indications for this in the letter: The mentioning of 'the evils of gentiles' (recto - line 17) fits well with Alexandria which was known for its fanatic atmosphere and for its not uncommon anti-Jewish acts of violence; see Goitein, Med. Soc. 2:278-281. The same is true for the mention of an epidemic lung disease common to Alexandria (recto, right margin line 1 and the note to this line). Furthermore, Alexandria was known for its characteristic prayer customs, to which the Alexandrian Jewish community adhered with zeal; see for example the responsa sent by Saadya b. Berakhot ha-Melammed from Alexandria to Maimonides (Maimonides, Responsa, vol. 1, #113, p. 196; vol. 1, #118, p. 202; vol. 2, #163, pp. 311-312; vol. 2, #259, p. 485). Friedman's argument that the decree forbidding piyyutim originated from Avraham Maimonides fits well with the argument that the letter was sent from Alexandria. A group of pious followers (Heb. Hassidim) of Avraham Maimonides settled in Alexandria and strove to implement in the wider community the principals of their creed. The reference to these pious followers as 'judges, cantors and managers of pious foundations' (Verso, line 3) agrees with other hints about the followers of Avraham Maimonides as enjoying material benefits and neglecting their spiritual mission. On the active followers of Avraham Maimonides in Alexandria see Goitein, 'Our Rabbi Avraham,' Trabitz 33 (1964): 181-197. (Information from Frenkel.) [The suggestion that barāsīm refers to an epidemic lung disease is doubtful. Though the Pahlavi birsām originally meant "pleurisy," in the Arabic medical literature, the word was used interchangeably with sirsām, i.e., phrenitis or delirium. Al-Razi notes that even if physicians sometimes distinguished the two terms, laypeople regarded them as fully synonymous. See Ullmann, Islamic Medicine, pp. 29-30. Both the disease and the death are metaphorical in this letter: "O Israel, if you see that we have been ended and killed by the frenzies brought against us (by our persecutors), know that we have been killed for the sake of the rite of our fathers and grandfathers and prophets..." It would not be a martyrdom to be killed by a disease. ASE.]