Geniza Lab

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably a letter of appeal for charity. Mentions [the synagog]ue of the Iraqis.

Informal note in Hebrew. Asking for money for supporting the sick people (?חולין) in the writer's household. (Information from Goitein's index card)

Letter from Avraham Baronito to a communal dignitary. Dating: Second half of the 16th century. The sender is known from ENA NS 49.20 (a legal deed dated 1563 CE) and T-S 8J14.28 (as the addressee of a Ladino letter from Yiṣḥaq Baronito). He asks for financial help, as the tax collector has detained him in the 'mishmar' (perhaps house arrest).

Letter fragment (left half of recto) of appeal to "אלחבר המועלה." The writer appears to be requesting money as soon as possible and may have already asked for money from the cantor. ASE.

Letter to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya requesting he intervene with the Nagid on behalf of the bearer of the letter, who had spent six months in prison and was ill. The bearer is named Abu l-[Faraj?] al-Sayrafi. Goitein deduces that the bearer was sick even before his time in prison from the language in lines 14-18: "You knew him in his prosperous and happy state and how he was at that time and what he suffered. His suffering has only increased due to his degradation and his staying in prison close to six months, sick among the gentiles. He is in the meanest state among them due to his illness." (Information from Goitein's index cards. See also card #27109.) EMS. ASE.

Letter fragment (lower left corner of recto) of appeal. The writer describes himself as a poor man (סעלוך) and the tail end of Proverbs 26:3 remains. ASE.

Letter fragment (part of the left of recto, part of the left of verso) of an appeal. The legible text on recto is solely blessings and verses and the honorifics of the recipient. On verso, legible words include "the cold"; "captive"; ". . . except for the Jerusalemites (?) to redeem myself with it." Then there are closing blessings. ASE.

Letter from the lepers of Tiberias to Furayj b. Ḥasan. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. Asking for donations be given to the emissaries from Tiberias collecting charity on the senders' behalf.

Letter from a certain Yisrael, in Jerusalem, to Avraham Castro (d. 1560), in Cairo. In Hebrew. Asking for charity and for his family of 8 individuals. (Information from A. David's edition via FGP.)

Letter of appeal for charity. Fragment (upper part only). The op line is in Arabic script (the address?), and the rest in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender asks for two dirhams until after the Sabbath in order to buy bread and a medicinal syrup, for "nothing has entered his mouth."

Verso: note from an invalid begging for oil for the sabbath to be sent with the carrier of the note. (Information from CUDL)

Petition/letter of appeal for charity. Addressed to someone titled Ḥemdat ha-Nesiʾut, possibly the same person as Sayyidnā in l. 8. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. The paper is dark and the text is faded. The sender describes his poverty ('weakness') and the losses he suffered for 4 months. He has 'uncovered [his face]' seeking help from God and from Sayyidnā. Mentions someone 'shutting (a figurative door) in our faces.' Mentions Abū l-Bayān. The sender has pawned his clothing (thawbī marhūn). AA. ASE.

Letter in Arabic script. The writer mentions his distress (al-shidda wa-l-ḍīqa wa-l-khawf). Later (three lines from the bottom) he clarifies that he is scared of the collectors of the capitation tax (aṣḥāb al-jawālī). The writer refers to the addressee as سيدنا القلفي and thanks him for his generosity (inʿām) and perhaps asks for more. ASE

Letter of appeal, draft. In Judaeo-Arabic. Rhyming (-dī). On a reused list of various expenditures of the community. (See Goitein, Med Soc, II, App. A 46.)

Letter of appeal for charity, probably. Dating: Perhaps 14th–16th century. Few details are preserved. NB: Verso does not seem to be digitized; the image listed as verso on FGP actually belongs to T-S K25.157.

Letter from Umm Bū l-Makā[rim](?) to an important person. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. She asks/reminds him to send a letter on her behalf with the bearer of this letter to David b. Ḥalfon b. Maḍmūn (see India Book II, p. 16).

Letter of appeal for charity or assistance. Addressed to Peraḥya ha-Kohen. The sender came down with an illness (wa-thāra ʿalā ʿabdih al-maraḍ) and he has been prostrated by it for two weeks (wa-lahū usbūʿayn maṭrūḥ), "may God not afflict any other Jew with this."

Letter of appeal for public charity. In calligraphic Hebrew. The writer is a foreigner who wishes to return to his land, but has no money for the trip. The letter ends, curiously, with a string of six שs.

Letter of appeal for charity from Isḥāq b. Avraham to the Nagid Moshe b. Mevorakh (1112–26 CE). What remains is almost entirely in Hebrew, though the body of the letter was in Judaeo-Arabic. "Few petitions by individuals in distress entreating Moshe's assistance are extant. However, the 'broken-hearted' Jew whose torn letter to Moshe Nagid b. Mevorakh preserves, aside from the salutation and the address, some biblical verses about answering the prayers of the needy, was undoubtedly only one of many who sought Moshe's succor." Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 278.

Recto: Letter of appeal for charity in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary hand. Written across a bifolium. Perhaps a draft. Verso: The right-hand page is related to the letter of appeal. The left-hand page is very faded; it seems to be a list of names and dates in a mixture of Hebrew script and Arabic script. Needs further examination.