Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter from Natan, a foreigner from Jerba (the island off the coast of Ifrīqiyya), who claims that he has been unjustly placed under house detention by the Muslim authorities. House arrest was imposed for unpaid debts in general, not just for the capitation tax. Unable to acquit himself of the entire obligation he owed he had been paying interest for nine months as well as the fee for house arrest (payment for the guardsman, called tarsīm), the normal procedure in such cases, a form of 'debtor's prison.' He asks assistance from a notable, a Jewish courtier with connections to the Muslim government. (Information from Cohen.) Join by Oded Zinger.

Letter, beautifully written, by a woman married for 15 years addressed to Masliah, the head of the Jewish community in Egypt (1127-1138), complaining about neglect and asking him to intervene with her husband to grant her divorce and payment of her dues. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 186 and CUDL)

Letter from the Karaite congregation of Alexandria to the leader of their community, complaining about the helplessness and dissolution of the community. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 365) Reused for Arabic accounts with Coptic numerals (see PGPID 35173).

Letter to the Nagid by a woman who had taken steps to convert to Judaism requesting that he accept her conversion, which, she assures him, she did not seek for material gain. (Information from and translation in Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 309-310)

Letter in Hebrew, complete but letters smudged on right side and crossed out in line 7. Apparently an appeal for charitable assistance.

Petition from Yusuf requesting help from the addressee, Natan, for a woman who has weak vision and a blind daughter. The sender also enquires after another woman.

Petition from Yaʿaqov b. Aharon, a man of some learning. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown. The sender petitions the addressee for financial help and for an appeal through the addressee to the council of elders to arrange a public collection for him. He describes himself as 'naked and bare with nothing upon me and nothing beneath' and having three children and a wife. In the margin the sender offers to copy out for the recipient the 'prayer for rain,' a long and extremely difficult liturgy (recited on the concluding holiday of the Feast of the Tabernacles) which Yaʿaqov obviously knew by heart. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 90, 531.) Possibly in the hand of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides (d.1355).

Three unsigned court depositions. Location: Damascus. Dating: July 1094 CE and March 1095 CE. They have to do with properties owned by the Zawbaʿa ("Tempest") family. The elder brother was named ʿUthmān b. Yefet. The second brother was Maṣliaḥ b. Yefet known as ha-Gizbar ("the Treasurer"), i.e., he was a government officer. (This Maṣliaḥ is also known from Megillat Evyatar as the man who brought up David b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya.) There were two tyrannical governors in Damascus: Ḥaydara Ibn Manzū (r.1063–64) and Muʿallā Ibn Manzū (r.1068–69). One of these expropriated the property of Maṣliaḥ in the Dār Quzmān neighborhood (near the eastern gate of Damascus, in the Jewish quarter), and the two brothers Maṣliaḥ and ʿUthmān fled the city for Egypt. Some 25 years later, Yefet the son of Maṣliaḥ returned to his birthplace and sued to regain the property abandoned by his father and uncle. In the meantime, another uncle had moved into one of the houses, encroaching beyond the border of the neighboring property owned by his wife. The uncle insisted on bringing the case to the Muslim courts, and Yefet b. Maṣliaḥ here testifies that he was compelled to go to the Muslim courts and did not want to. (Information from Goitein's edition.)

Verso: Draft of a petition in Arabic script. Needs examination.

Document containing a list of blessings for a benefactor, to be publicly recited during service at the synagogue. The noble patron, a representative of merchants living around the twelfth century, is a recipient of blessings in five other documents as well. The piece opens with a prayer on the ancestors and other deceased relatives of the notable and lists four titles for him: “Pride of the Kohens,” “Delight of the Nobles,” Trustee of the Merchants,” and “Eye of the Congregation.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:162, 554) EMS

Letter (petition) addressed to a certain notable named Perhaya. AA

Letter from Damietta to the Fustat community (קהלת מצר) to collect money for alimony and travel expenses, it seems, to Palestine, for two individuals. David and his father are addressed; Avraham, the judge, and “our teacher Hillel ha-hazzan ha-parnas” (the cantor and leader) are greeted. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) VMR and EMS

Beginning of a petition from Yosef b. Moshe asking the addressee, his lord and master (mawla and sayyid) for a favour, describing himself as modest, shy (muhtashim). Address on verso.

Petition in Judaeo-Arabic. Very wide spaces between the lines. Very thoroughly blotted out, but might be legible with multispectral imaging. Some of the phrases include: אנעאמהא לא זאלת מנעמה . . . מן כאדמהא . . . בזה השופט נט רח . . . לתפעל פיהא מא יכלצהא . . . אלא אמכן אחד מן אל טא[יפה] אלרבאנין ישמרם צורם. Reused for a copy of Mujādalat al-Usquf ("The Disputation of the Priest").

Fragment of a petition in Arabic script. The petitioners complain to the authorities that a certain person is corrupting their religious status quo (niẓām) and preventing them from fulfilling their religious duties (al-iqāma bi-mūjibāt sharīʿatihim) and from their gatherings. Includes a marāḥim formula (wa-hum yasʾalū min al-marāḥim al-hamīma wa-l-ʿawāṭif al-[...]).

Petition to a Fatimid vizier regarding the repayment of a debt. The petitioner asks for help in dealing with the head of the arsenal, Abū l-Aʿsar, who is claiming the repayment of a debt that the petitioner had never contracted. Dating: middle of the 12th century. On verso there is a calendrical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic, dealing with the number of days in the different types of years of the Hebrew calendar and the length of the day in hours and parts (חלקים). (Information from Khan and CUDL.)

State petition. Recto: petition to the the imām Al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh from a Jewish merchant, Mūsā b. Ṣadaqa, who was detained unlawfully after his return from India and Yemen with goods. The merchant writes that he had already registered documents in the court of the judge Jalāl al-Mulk Tāj al-Aḥkam (Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf b. Ayyūb al-Maḡribī) and asks for his property and freedom to be restored. Ca. 516-521 AH (= 1123-1127 CE). On verso there is Hebrew liturgical text. (information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Petition, draft, from an ex-government servant asking for work, from the period of the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim (996–1021) or possibly earlier. Verso: tax receipt in the hand of Mikhaʾil b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ (see separate entry).

Verso: Fatimid petition, right side only. With blessings for 'al-mawqif al-ashraf' and 'al-maqām al-sharīf al-ṭāhir.' Verso as catalogued, but written before the legal document on recto (see separate record).

Legal document in Arabic: acknowledgement (iqrār). Recto as catalogued, but written after the Fatimid petition on verso (see separate record). Date isn't easy to read; likely 5th century AH.