Geniza Lab

Letter from Moshe b. ʿOvadya, in Aleppo, to a Nagid, in New Cairo, who receives 20 lines of eloquent Hebrew praises but does not appear to be named (he may be identifiable on the basis of the titles, or if the writer or other people mentioned in the letter prove to be dateable). The writer also conveys his longing for a R. Moshe and for the entire community of Cairo. When the Nagid's third letter arrived in Aleppo, the "season/period" (epidemic?) had already begun in Aleppo and numerous Jews died, including R. Avraham ha-Dayyan the author of Etz Hayyim. Trade came to a standstill. Then the rains began: four months in which they did not even see the sun, and two-thirds of Aleppo "fell" (flooded? buildings collapsed?). Now it is the period of the capitation tax. For all these reasons, the writer was not able to respond sooner. The writing now becomes messier and somewhat trickier to understand. Possibly someone named al-ʿAjami and his son were in Damascus for 10 days, and the "deputy of al-Sham" confiscated all their property, amounting to 1000 dinars. Furthermore, a Jew from Aleppo who was in Damascus at the time reported that someone got their hands on all the money and all the books that Avraham ha-Dayyan had left in the possession of his daughter (possibly her husband was the villain). The writer plans to send another letter having to do with legal/judicial matters (?) so that the recipient can advise him. Noaḥ ha-Levi b. Shemuel ʿAḍʿāḍ added a postscript stating that he was present when this letter was being written and that he sends his respects. ASE.

A long letter of recommendation on behalf of Obadiah the Proselyte, by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq of Aleppo, written in elegant and vocalized Hebrew. For more information, visit https://johannes-obadiah.org/navigator.php?Manuscript=Epistle%20of%20R.%20Barukh%20of%20Aleppo&PageNum=1.

Letter from a physician named Menahem ha-kohen b. Sadoq from Aleppo including greetings from many men including his nephew Yahya ha-kohen b. Mevorakh the physician his son Sadoq who wrote the letter, his two grandsons Dosa and Elijah, from the elder Avraham b. Shemuʾel and his two sons Shemuʾel and Tamim - all these men populate the bet midrash of the great Rabbi Baruch b. Yiṣḥaq of Aleppo. Published in Miriam Frenkel, MA Thesis on Aleppo, p. 306-307. on the back a drawing of a cypress tree?

Recto: Partnership record. Dating: 1096. Written in the hand of Hillel ben Eli. Describes a settlement between Yaḥyā and Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh. Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh loans 210 dinars to and places some agricultural commodities with Yaḥyā. Yaḥyā agrees to take upon himself the maintenance of the poor of Fusṭāṭ for a year in the event of nonrepayment. The repayments do not appear here because this would have been recorded only on the debtor’s copy of the loan agreement. Yaḥyā’s testimony that he paid his debt wouldn't be accepted without these records, but testimony by Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh (the creditor) is to be accepted without such condition. Verso: Court record. Dating: 1116. Part of a court record detailing a different partnership. Abū al-Surūr Simḥa ha-Kohen brings a power of attorney to pursue the claims of the brothers Abū al-Ma‘ālī and Abū al-Wafā Tamīm b. Yeshu‘a regarding a partnership held by their dead brother Mevorakh, with Yaḥyā (the same Yaḥyā from the recto) and Abū al-Ḥusayn the money-changer. The structure of the partnership is unclear, but it seems likely that Mevorakh was an investor and Abū al-Barakāt had always been the active partner. Upon Mevorakh’s death, Yaḥyā and Abū Ḥusayn claim 2/3 of the partnership assets, leaving Simḥa to collect the remaining 1/3 for Mevorakh’s heirs. The verso is written in a different hand from the recto, likely that of Nissim b. Naḥray. Signed by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq, the chief judge of Aleppo. The connection between the two documents is Abū al-Barakāt and Yaḥyā. Per Goitein, this Abū al-Barakāt is not the Mevorakh mentioned on the recto but rather Abū al-Barakāt Mevorakh b. Shelomo al-Ḥalabī, and Yaḥyā is Abū al-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ha-Kohen b. Shemuel ha-Kohen al-Baghdādī. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 56-60)

This shelfmark includes 3 unrelated fragments. Upper right fragment, recto: Bottom left corner of a letter in Hebrew sent from the community of Aleppo (צובה) to another community. In Hebrew. Mentions Efrayim, a dignitary (sar) named Abū Manṣūr ha-Gizbar ("the treasurer"), [...] ha-Kohen b. Ṭoviyya. Upper right fragment, verso: Agreement between [...] b. Abī Qida (? קדה) and Mukhtār b. Bushayr concerning a load of brazilwood (baqqam) that is worth over 1000 (dinars?). They will split (profits?) equally.

Letter from Shemuel b. Sahl al-Hawwārī, in Aleppo, to [...], in Fustat. (The names are written in Arabic, so the writer's is tentative and the addressee's may yet be legible.) Written in calligraphic Judaeo-Arabic. Shemuel calls the addressee 'my father'; he seems to be the father-in-law of Shemuel's brother Abū l-Faḍl rather than Shemuel's actual father. Shemuel has received a letter informing him that his brother Abū l-Faḍl died in one of the villages of the Egyptian Rīf. Shemuel has no further information—which village, how he died, whether naturally or killed by Bedouins ('bādiya'), where he is buried, and in whose possession are the goods/money (apparently substantial) that Abū l-Faḍl had with him at the time of his death. Shemuel is sending his other brother, Abū ʿAlī, to travel to Egypt and investigate the matter. He asks the addressee to assist Abū ʿAlī when he arrives, so that the family can be 'consoled a little, though consolation is distant from us.' There are surprisingly few words of consolation at the beginning of the letter, but around here Shemuel writes that he and his brother and his mother have all 'melted' from grief, and commiserates with the addressee and 'our sister.' The addressee should send his response to Shemuel's mother in Jerusalem, to the alley of Yosef al-Sofer. There is the customary urging of a rapid response so that an old woman can be consoled before she dies of grief. ASE

Letter from a man, in Damascus, to his father, perhaps in Fustat. The sender expresses his longing and desperation in this foreign land, especially after the departure of Manṣūr ("the world closed itself in on me... I cry... and wish my soul would leave, but it does not"). He reports that he is revered, because he has successfully humiliated all the competing cantors, and now nobody dares to chant in his presence. (The father seems to be a cantor as well.) His father was upset that he entered the service of "someone like the ghulām"; Manṣūr will explain everything when he arrives. He was unable to send some of the goods for his brother; Ibn Abū l-Zakkār may have told him not to trust a potential bearer. He has sent with Manṣūr a mould of cheese worth 2.5 dirhams, and he has equipped Manṣūr with funds to keep the cheese well-oiled en route lest it dry out. He complains about the lack of sustenance in Damascus. He claims to fast most days out of sorrow/longing, and he repeatedly asks for prayers. He is worried that his enemies will gain the upper hand over him (he may have seen this in a dream? Verso, line 8). He describes the hospitality of his paternal uncles and their children and his maternal aunt. He asks for news of potential fiancees back home—his cousin (bint ʿamm) and Nabaʾ—since the locals in Damascus are trying to set him up with a local woman. He emphasizes that he would never get married with his father absent. He alludes to a period of a year when he had a falling-out with his father, a rift which is now healed (this may explain some of the over-the-top language of longing in this letter). He asks for some aqwāl, which should be sent to the house of the Nezer along with instructions to forward them to Aleppo should the son have traveled already. He concludes by warning his father to seal all of his future letters—"and not with a heavy seal." (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter sent from Aleppo to Egypt whose sender is reporting of the arrival of cargo – 1928CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 26) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 67). MCD.

Either a poetic introduction to a letter from the Yeshiva of Jerusalem to the community of Aleppo, or a letter that is in its entirety a poem. Recto contains the poem, in which not only is there an acrostic (אנשי צב. . . probably "the people of Aleppo"), but also each verse is composed entirely of words starting with the same letter. Verso contains the address

Letter from Abu Yūsuf, in Fustat, to Abū Yūsuf Yaʿaqov ha-Ḥaver b. Yiṣḥaq, in Aleppo. In Hebrew. Information from FGP.

Letter from a woman to her mother ʿAzza al-ʿIblāniyya (from Iʿbillīn, a village in western Galilee), in Fustat. She is asked by her daughter to save her from her husband, life with whom was hell (l. 10), and who wants to take her, against her will, to his native town of Aleppo. The daughter asks her mother to come herself or send a proxy. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 177, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter. Petition in Hebrew of which only the first 20 lines, containing introductory wishes, have been preserved. The letter contained a request for help. The letter is written by Tamim b. Tobias from Aleppo around 1036-1037. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to the Gaon, probably from Aleppo, complaining that the Gaon is paying too much heed to those who slander the writer, approximately 1035. Verso: Very faded and mostly illegible text, possibly liturgical or a sermon. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a ḥaver of the Jerusalem yeshiva, probably in Aleppo, to a gaʾon, probably Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem. Dating: ca. 1035 (Gil). The ḥaver complains about the members of his congregation who plot against him and have twice slandered him, once to the present gaʾon, once to his predecessor. The writer’s innocence has been proven before, and will be proven again, with the help of Ṣadoq b. Levi, whose previous letter was lost. Also mentions Tamīm b. Avraham and Yefet Ibn al-Shayzarī. The writer is also on good terms with the local governor. The writer is leaving for Calneh to attempt to resolve a dispute within the Jewish community there over who should succeed their recently deceased judge. It's unclear what is meant by Calneh; various candidates for this biblical toponym have been proposed, but the most likely here is probably the one near Aleppo, identified with the modern village by the related name Kullan-Köy. As the recipient’s last letter was lost, the writer requests that the recipient send a letter of support to strengthen the writer’s authority within the community in Aleppo; with allusions to Job 30:26, 10:22 and Proverbs 27:19. (Information from CUDL and from Marina Rustow)

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ Ha-Kohen B. Yair, Tiberias, to the communities of Aleppo, approximately 1020.

Legal document concerning a power of attorney from Zuhra bat Joseph, apparently for Jacob he-haver, regarding the inheritance of hasan b. Faraj al-Amidi. Mentions Joseph b. Isaac and [...] ha-Levi b. Furqan, and towns such as Aleppo and the Lebanese Tripoli. Verso: document, probably a letter, in Arabic script. (Information from the Cambridge Genizah Research Unit via FGP).

Letter in which the writer sends greetings to R. Hananel, “al-dayyan al-jalil” (the illustrious judge) and to the judge Yehiel b. Eliakim (of Aleppo). The note, mostly in Judeo-Arabic, begins with the Hebrew expression, “In the name of the Merciful, (a letter) to the honorable, great, holy, precious, crowned, glorious […] judge Eliyyahu the wise.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:515; Esther-Miriam Wagner, “The Weakening of the Bourgeoisi,” in From a Sacred Source: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif,” ed. Ben Outhwaite and Siam Bhayro, Brill:2010, 347) EMS

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ Ha-Kohen B. Yair, Tiberias, to the communities of Aleppo, approximately 1020.

Lengthy testimony describing that at the arrival of the ships from the West in Alexandria, Shelomo b. Hillel from Aleppo and Amran b. Yosef from Tyre had a dispute regarding 4 dinars, which was settled after the intervention of colleagues. 21 Av 1098. (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS

Testimony regarding a freed female slave who was betrothed to a kohen, Aleppo, 1191.