Geniza Lab

Memorial list for distinguished (meyuḥasot) families including: Shemaryahu ha-Ḥaver Nin ha-Geonim and his two sons including Yoshiyahu; Ghālib ha-Zaqen and his son Mevorakh and his son Ghālib who died young; R. Naḥum (?) and R. Ḥalfon and R. Yaḥyā and his three sons, Avraham, Yefet and Shelomo and his son Yaḥyā who died young and his wife; Yosef ha-Parnas and his son Yefet ha-Rofe ... and his son Yeḥezqel. Written on a reused state document (see PGPID 35347).

Fatimid state document. Needs examination. Reused for a memorial list (see PGPID 19130).

Letter from a Jewish notable who had previously been minister of finance in Egypt, seeking assistance from the Jewish community in Constantinople. This very long letter begins with many lines of poetry and greetings to the Constantinople community, after which the writer describes his fall from favour and how he has now been supplanted by a new Christian minister of finance. The recently deceased Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya's elevation by the Vizier al-Afḍal is described, and the very high regard in which he was held at court. The Nagid's death had presumably left the writer and other Jews in high positions exposed to court intrigue. Dated to soon after 1111 CE (when the Nagid died). Information from CUDL. The writer spells out Greek words in vocalized Hebrew script: "το πατριαρχη" (the patriarch) and "εἰστό Ταμίαθι" (in Tamiathi = Damietta = Kaftor).

Letter in Arabic script. Addressed to an 'ِAmīr al-Ajal reporting on a ship bearing wood (markab al-ḥaṭb) that arrived at the port of Fusṭāṭ on the Nile (al-ṣināʿ maḥrusa). “The ship bearing wood has arrived after a delay. I’m sorry for the delay, it’s not my habit. Please hold off Ibn al-Tabbān and tell him to wait until a laborer(ʿāmil?) is available to […].” It seems that the addressee was in the service of al-Afḍal b. Badr al-Jamālī (or the son of Saladin?), hence the letter could be dated to that period. On verso, there are various jottings and pen trials in Hebrew and Arabic script. Needs examination. ASE, YU.

Letter from a penniless woman, the widow of Abū Surrī, to Mevorakh b. Saadya (1094–1111). She begs him to come to her rescue in a litigation brought against her by the relatives of her deceased son-in-law for a modest amount. Her daughter was married to Yosef b. Asad b. Qirqas who left her to travel three and a half years ago. That was prior to al-Afḍal's siege of Alexandria in 1094. The daughter was then ill two years while the mother used her dowry (רחלהא) for nursing her in her illness and for the burial when she died. It has recently become known that Yosef was killed in Nastaro (an island between Damietta and Alexandria), and his cousin claimed his estate—which was non-existent. (Information from Goitein's note card and from M. R. Cohen, Jewish Self Government, pp. 221-260.) For a detailed discussion of the geographical situation of Nastaro, see Khan, "A Copy of a Decree from the Archives of the Fāṭimid Chancery in Egypt," BSOAS, Vol. 49, No. 3, 1986, p. 444.

Letter from Yosef b. Menashshe, in Ashqelon, to Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq ha-Talmid, in Fustat. In Arabic script. Dating: 1085 CE. The writer describes the conditions in Ascalon against the background of the Turcoman/Seljuk invasions, and how he traveled from Ascalon to Jerusalem and visited his abandoned house to recover some books, but only found dafātir and maṣāḥif that had been destroyed by the damp. The girl, al-Jawziyya, whom he had wanted to marry in Ascalon, had become engaged to somebody else. There ensued a legal struggle which involved an official titled Sitr al-Dawla, apparently Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ma'mūn Yaḥyā Ibn Kātib al-Baṭā'iḥī, who became the vizier in Egypt following al-Afḍal. At the time of the present letter, he was evidently the Fatimid governor in Ascalon. His son Jamāl al-Mullk (Mūsā) is also mentioned, who later became the general of the Fatimid army in Palestine and who lived in Ascalon. (Information from Aodeh) ASE

Report from a Fatimid official, probably sent from Tyre. Dating: 1108 or 1109 CE, as it concerns the events in Tripoli following the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār (cf. T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and around the time of the fall of Tripoli to the Crusaders. The document resembles another report to al-Malik al-Afḍal also preserved in the Geniza, T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57 + T-S AS 11.383 + T-S AS 146.195, edited by Geoffrey Khan (ALAD doc. 111). Among many other matters, it discusses: a request for a Fatimid fleet to come to the aid of Tripoli; how Ibn ʿAmmār was an enemy of the people and of the notables (muqaddamīn) of Tripoli and of the Fatimid state; how the traitorous al-Sharīf al-ʿArīḍī had been sending Ibn ʿAmmār state secrets (akhbār al-dawla) until Sayf al-Mulk b. ʿAllūn ordered the former to be detained; how a boat containing twenty-two men and women arrived from Crusader-ruled ʿAkkā (Acre) after letting themselves into the city over its walls by rope; how those newcomers report that Muhannad b. Ghawth had returned to Jabal ʿĀmil(a) and Kafr Birʿim, where he now serves the Franks and lived among them; a blood feud between Banū Ḥaddāthā (حداثا in present-day Lebanon) and the neighboring Banū Shabakhtān, a disruption that the authorities in the sender’s location had to manage; and something to do with army regiments (al-muwallada and al-sūd, "the blacks"), taxes, and Franks. Needs further examination. On verso there is a Hebrew prayer (the second baqqasha of Seʿadya Gaon). T-S NS 125.135 is a join for the prayer on verso but not for the report on recto. There are still several fragments missing. Joins: Alan Elbaum. ASE. Description from PGPID 20866: Recto: Hebrew prayer Verso: Arabic document or letter - needs examination.

State document in Arabic script. Approximately 12 lines are preserved. On verso there is piyyuṭ in the same hand as verso of T-S NS 325.232 + T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. Joins: Alan Elbaum. Needs examination.

State document. Response to endorsement of a petition written by Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth (a Christian), who referred the case to the office of al-Afḍal. Dated: 504 AH (1115 CE). There are three hands on this fragment; the bottom four lines are presumably in the hand of Yuḥannā himself. On verso there is vocalized Hebrew piyyuṭ (Yehuda ibn Balʿam בזכרי משכבי). There are many joins for the Hebrew with different Arabic texts on recto; all should be looked at together. Geoffrey Khan's edition and discussion (ALAD, doc. 105) cites copious sources on Abū l-Barakāt Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth, the head of the Diwān al-Taḥqīq (aka Dīwān al-Majlis), 501–27 AH: "Al-Afḍal established an office known as dīwān al-taḥqīq in the year 501 AH and appointed as its head the Christian Abu al-Barakāt Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth. Yuḥannā remained in this appointment until he was removed in 527 AH and was killed in 528 AH (Ibn Muyassar, Akhbār Miṣr, 77, 108, al-Nuwayri, Nihāyat al-'arab XXVI, 81; al-Maqrīzī, ltti'āẓ al-ḥunafāʾ III, 39, 43, 75, 126, 148, Khiṭaṭ I 441, 488 [= Ibn al-Maʾmūn, Akhbār Miṣr, 21, 11]). The dīwān al-taḥqīq regulated the activities of the other government offices. According to Ibn al-Maʾmūn the office that was instituted in 501 AH and headed by Yuḥannā b. Abī l-Layth was the dīwān al-majlis (aI-MaqrlzI, Khiṭaț I, 401; Ibn aI-Ma'mūn, Akhbār Miṣr, 9). This appears to be the same office. Some sources, in fact, refer to the office as dīwān al-taḥqīq wa-l-majlis, e.g. aI-Shayyāl, Majmūʿat al-wathāʾiq al-Fāṭimiyya, 325:14. Elsewhere Ibn aI-Maʾmūn refers to Yuḥannā as mutawallī dīwān al-majlis wa-l-khaṣṣ (aI-Maqrlzi, Khiṭaṭ I, 412:3-4, Ibn aI-Ma'mūn, Akhbār Miṣr, 53:1)."

Report to al-Afḍal. The join between T-S NS 201.132 and T-S AS 116.410 + T-S AS 103.49 + T-S NS 209.47 is very probably but it is not a direct join. On verso, liturgy for Yom Kippur in the hand of the same scribe as T-S NS 325.232 + T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57. Joins: Alan Elbaum. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Fatimid state document. Needs examination.

Fatimid state document. Report to al-Malik al-Afḍal from al-thaghr al-maḥrūs (probably Tyre). Ca. 1108 CE. Related fragments are as follows (the clusters are defined based on the type of Hebrew-script reuse on verso): Cluster 1: T-S NS 325.232 + T-S 16.114 + T-S 24.57 (the latter two were published by Khan); reused for Hebrew poetry in a known hand; see Joins Suggestions. Cluster 2: T-S AS 11.383 + T-S AS 146.195 (also published by Khan); reused for draft of a Judaeo-Arabic letter. Cluster 3: T-S AS 129.149 + T-S Ar.39.280 + T-S AS 116.11 + T-S NS 137.20 + T-S NS 207.44 + AIU I.C.73 + T-S NS 238.99 + T-S NS 244.84 (+ T-S NS 125.135); reused for Saadya Gaon's second baqqasha. Cluster 4: T-S K8.102; reused for Hebrew dirges