Geniza Lab

Letter from Salama b. Musa ha-Sfaqusi from Alexandria probably to Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1068. Mentions several people including Avraham b. Farah and Yosef b. Eli ha-Kohen. The writer returned from Sicily to Alexandria and deals with business matters and buying goods. Also mentions the situation in Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 4, pp. 477-483, #753) VMR

Letter from Abūn b. Ṣadaqa, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: 31 March 1059 CE, according to Gil. Deals with various business matters. He thanks Nahray for burning his last letter. He asks for news of 'al-kabīra' Sitt Murruwa, who had been sick.

From Nahray b. Nissim (Misr) to Farah b. Isma'il Farah (Busir).

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Tyre, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1060 in the month of Ab.

Letter from Yeshu'a ha-Kohen ha-Ḥaver, an official in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim. Yeshu'a writes to raise money to free three Jews held by Italian merchants. The merchants had acquired their human cargo from Rum (Byzantine) pirates. The pirates had beaten and almost killed their captives. Jewish communities in Egyptian port towns bore the brunt of these expenses. Charitable collections were often held throughout the Jewish communities of Egypt to help free co-religionists captured in wartime or in acts of piracy. (Information from CUDL)

Letter sent by Nahray b. Nissim (according to Gil) or by Barhun b. Yiṣḥaq al-Tahirti (according to Ben-Sasson) to Barhun b. Musa al-Tahirti in Fustat, containing prices of goods and information about the movements of ships. Dated 1053. (Information from Gil)

Letter sent by ʿAṭā' b. Zikri from Alexandria to Mevorakh b. Israel Januni in Fustat, containing a legal question to Nahray b. Nissim about the writer's rights to collect his deceased brother's and his own shares in a transaction with Yiṣḥaq b. Khalaf. Dated ca. 1060. (Information from Gil)

Letter from Mardūk b. Mūsā, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1060 CE, based on Gil's assessment. The letter was written by Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, and it switches to his voice from line v1 onward. Mardūk reports that he has recovered from his illness: he entered the baths and ate pullets (r4–5), but some of his family members are still sick (r16). The rest of the letter is entirely business matters. (Information in part from Gil.) ASE.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim to a person in Alexandria. Mentions merchandise and textiles, along with books and various texts that someone is copying for Nahray. Circa 1050 (Gil estimate). VMR

Letter from Musa b. Abi al-Hayy from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1065. Details about goods that Nahray ordered in Alexandria, probably materials to use for copying books. Mentions a person that came from Sicily and brought lead, oil, and cloths. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 515-519, #453). VMR

Letter containing personal, business and communal news from Marduk b. Musa, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, ca. 1045-1096.

Power of attorney to Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1045-1096.

Letter of notification by a senior of the academy, probably Nahray b. Nissim, written by Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen, saying that the Nasi (David b. Daniel) had temporarily withdrawn his ban of excommunication of Yosef b. Elazar, who against the orders of the government had made mention of the head of the Jewish community in public. Dated to the second half of the 11th century (between 1082 and 1092). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p.538, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Awad b. Hananel from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The writer is in urgent need of cash "I do not even have a single dīnār left, whatever I had, I purchased with it wheat", "I am in need of your generosity, I do not have a single dirham". Describes the increasing prices of wheat and beans. Mentions a shipment of nuts and oil. It seems that the writer lives in a house that belongs to Nahray. (Information from Gil). VMR, YU.

Letter from a scholar from Ramla (who had lived for twenty years in Baghdad) to Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1095. Seems like a part of a regular correspondence between the two. Nahray was blind at that time and needed someone to read him the letter. Mentions the book by the Gaon Aharon b. Yosef (Khalaf b. Sarjado) and one of Shemuel b. Hofni’s grandsons. The writer asks Nahray to find a few products in Fustat, including indigo, pepper, arsenic, ammonia water and more. Between his request for funds due to him and his discussion of an ongoing divorce, he interposes the line, “for I am a lump of flesh waiting to die,” continuing later that “I am in need of mercy, my strength is fading” — a common rhetorical strategy for gaining the sympathy of one's correspondent. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #85) VMR, revised following the analysis of old age (and complaints about old age) in the seminar paper of Jake Brzowsky ('21), Fall 2018. Same writer: T-S 24.46, T-S 12.780, ENA 2594.12.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim, Alexandria, to Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm (a.k.a. ʿIwāḍ) b. Ḥananel, Fustat. Abū l-Khayr became ill following ʿIwāḍ's departure, and his mother suffered greatly on his account. He then improved. Nahray himself developed an abscess on his left hip. He too recovered, but the remnants of the illness are still with him. He was not able to go about his work until the present moment. The rest of the letter deals with business matters. ASE.

Letter from Moshe b. Ya'qub, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan from Jerusalem to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. September 8, 1060 (per Gil). Several financial issues between Yisrael and Nahray. Also mentions copying books and the writer asks for a shipment of cinnamon. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 139-143, #470). VMR

Letter addressed to Nahray b. Nissim from Marduk b. Musa about a shipment of threads sent from Fustat to Alexandria. Marduk notes that a baqyar (large-sized turban) 25 cubits long was made for Nahray, along with a shuqqa cloth 20 cubits long. He further reports that ‘Atiyya b. Shamma‘ brought to him a blue kerchief containing cotton, [linen] yarn, and unraveled flax, which would be combined with yarn previously sent - and currently in the hands of the artisan - to produce another cloth for Nahray. Alexandria, ca. 1070. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:90, 105, 125, 379, 412, 418, 429; 4:159, 179, 398, 409; and S. D. Goitein, Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders, 134) EMS

Letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat, by Avraham b. Farah to Nahray b. Nissim, reporting on the arrival of ships in Alexandria and dealing with commercial affairs. Dated July 1053 by Gil and 1050-1055 by Ben Sasson. (Information from Gil and Ben Sasson)