Geniza Lab

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions the amirs Shibl al-Dawla (a man of the same title appears in F 1908.44I) and נאתץ(??) al-Dawla. Also mentions a man titled al-Pe'er; a peasant who covets the writer's mechandise that is "with him"; "ḥadrat al-wilāya" (the title of a wālī?).

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Tuesday night, 1 Adar 1539 Seleucid, which is 1228 CE. The writer advises the addressee to resort to the intervention of the mothers and wives of certain 'righteous gentiles': Umm Ibrāhīm and her son; the amir Najm al-Dīn; the wife of Jamāl al-Dīn "who was in the wilāya (=iqṭāʿ?)" of Mubāriz al-Dīn and represented him "in the gate of the Sultan"; and Sitt Masʿūd. He also asks the addressee to inquire about ophthalmics (ashyāfāt). Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Most of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably from the Levant, to a dignitary in Fusṭāṭ. It begins by extolling the favor (iḥsān) that the Amīr ʿAlā al-Dīn b. ʿAlam Dār (or Alemdar = "the standard-bearer") bestowed upon the writer. "It was he who was our friend in Damascus." The amir was very sad to say farewell to the writer. The writer then asks the addressee to convey his regards and obedience to David [Maimonides?] the Great Nagid. He also sends regards to ʿOvadyah and al-Shaykh Munajjā "and the rest of the masters," including al-mawlā al-Asʿad Abū Saʿd al-Ṣayrafī and his father, and al-Mawlā al-Makīn Abū l-[...] and his brother . . . and others.

Recto: A long, interesting letter from a judge to a cantor. The writer is publicizing the ban of excommunication that the late Nagid (אדונינו ראש ישיבתה שלתורה הקדוש זצל) placed on Makārim b. Manṣūr al-Sammāk who encroached on the rights of the tax farmer of al-Maṭariyya—either Heliopolis (Goitein) or the district with the same name in the Delta—who is named Sālim. Goitein: Letter of a dayyān of Cairo to the ḥazzān of al-Maṭariyya, requesting him to intervene with Nāṣir al-Jazzār who had farmed the taxes of the locality from the Amir Malik al-Umārā' and then asked from Sālim 60 instead of 40 dirham nuqra, after Makārim b. Manṣūr al-Sammāk overbade him. See Med Soc II, 606. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script. Needs further examination

Letter from Farajūn b. Hilāl, in a provincial town, to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The sender may be Abū l-Faraj b. Hillel, who is the sender of T-S 13J26.19 (1094–1111 CE). Farajūn b. Hilāl reports that he leased the addressee's shops and house. He further reports on Abū Yaʿqūb and the wine; apparently Abū Yaʿqūb has not gone to Fustat as ordered by Sayyidnā, citing his inability to get a ḍāmin to draw up a capitation tax receipt for him. A certain Khalaf wants to empty the shop and set it up elsewhere, but the sender asked him to delay until he had a chance to write this letter. He talked to the amīr, who agreed to permit either the addressee or his son, but not both, to leave the capital. He urges the addressee (or his son) to come quickly with a letter from the rayyis. Khalaf has sent the addressee 1.5 dinars and wants good-quality lac. The sender then reports in detail about the nagid’s beehives, complaining about all the trouble he has had with them, and asks for instructions. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter in Arabic script addressed to al-Mawqif al-Ashraf and ʿIzz al-Dawla. Maybe Fatimid official correspondence. Mentions the amīrs Shujāʿ al-Dawla, Majd al-Dawla, and the city of Tripoli. The writer mentions sending a delegate/appointee to the amīr Shujāʿ al-Dawla, but the latter refused to accept him and sent the delegate back claiming that he hadn't received an amr (order) from al-Haḍra al-Muṭahhara (=Fatimid Caliph). The writer then sent the delegate/appointee back to the amīr Shujāʿ al-Dawla with a copy of the Noble Letter which was sent in this regard. He also mentions the case of the amīr Majd al-Dawla and explains that Ibn Dardār or someone else hadn't messed up but rather the cause was what he had mentioned in the previous letter. Deserves further historical inquiry into the names of the officials and especially for the light it may shed on administrative practices e.g., نسخت الفصل من الملطف الكريم الوارد في معناه. Al-Maqrīzī attests that the al-Mulaṭṭaf was a royal letter issued by the Caliph (al-Iṭṭiʿāẓ, vol.2, pg. 153). Reused for Hebrew literary text.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Describing the horrific tortures inflicted on the writer and his colleagues in the citadel at the hands of four jailers and the jandārs and the slaves of the Great Amir. The purpose of the torture seems to have been the extortion of money (māl). The victims were tortured 17 times until, it seems, a higher authority (the ṣāḥib al-dīwān?) ordered them to be released. Apart from shackling and physical contortions and forcing substances in the noses and mouths, there is an extended description of being "pressed" in the "press" (al-miʿṣara). When they were released, they were dropped off at the synagogue. "Everyone is healthy, but very distressed." This letter was written on Monday night 27 Heshvan, which might make it possible to date. Regards are sent to Bū l-Rabīʿ and Bū l-Alā' and Milāḥ and Rāma(?) and Zahr. The writer's name may be Bū l-Faraj, but there seem to be two additional letters, and it is not completely certain that this word is even his name. Needs examination. Same scribe as T-S 10J7.4 (likewise an account of torture). ASE

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Long and full of interesting details. Tells a long story on recto concerning a eunuch, the amir Murhaf al-Dawla, the king, and someone named al-Numayrī, and someone and "his slave who is his wife." At the end mentions a woman who fasts and prays for an absent young man (presumably her son). Needs further examination.

Fragment of a letter, probably from a son to his father in Fusṭāṭ. He mainly discusses the flax business and sends regards to numerous people. He concludes, "The amir intends to come in [to Fusṭāṭ], and you must go to him and welcome him and thank him. Likewise Muwaffaq al-Dawla al-Ustādh. By God, I have the utmost gratitude for him." Possibly by the same writer: T-S 12.31.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic to someone addressed as Sayyidnā, reporting that on Friday, the 24th of Adar I, R. Shemarya al-Kohen went to the market and slaughtered, even after taking a vow that he would have nothing to do (?) with the 'matters of the Jews.' It seems he was encroaching on the rights of the legitimate muqaddam, who may have been ʿUbayd, 'who is recognized by the majority of the Gazans.' There is then an aside about how the Gazans are not very bright (?), and the Tiberians are also mentioned. Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Meshullam suggested to the writer that he go to the Amir, who said, "you have infringed on the muqaddam who is in charge of you" (four lines from the bottom). The Kohen then defended himself, perhaps claiming that he did not violate his vow. Needs further examination. ASE.

Maimonides, responsa

Maimonides, responsa

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century. The handwriting may be known. Deals with trade in pepper, brazilwood, saffron (zarnaba), dragon's blood (qāṭir), a flask of sorrel (baṭṭa l-ḥummāḍ), and other items. Also mentions the zakāt (here: customs?), someone who died in Beirut, someone who works as a goldsmith in the citadel of the sultan, the purchase of a female slave ('to be imported from [...]'), various amirs, the Qāḍi Jaʿfar, and someone referred to merely as "the accursed one (al-arur)." Underneath the letter on verso, there are several additional lines in Judaeo-Arabic, in a different hand, probably business accounts added later (בקית אלחסאב אלדי ענדכם פי אלאוראק...). And there are the remnants of a few words in Arabic script, probably from the address of the letter. Merits further examination.

Legal testimony. In the hand of Avraham b. Natan Av. No witness signatures. Location: Cairo. Dated: Thursday, 27 Adar I 1415 Seleucid, which is 1104 CE. The document contains the proceedings before the court regarding the matter of dispute between two members of the community of Malīj, Shelomo b. Avraham (aka Salāma b. Ibrāhīm al-Sayrajī) and Peraḥya ha-Kohen b. Ṭarfon (aka Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf). The story opens with a verbatim copy of another testimony (called a sheṭar/maḥḍar) dated 2.5 months earlier (Saturday night 12 Ṭevet 1415 Seleucid), in which the witnesses Mevorakh b. Yiṣḥaq, Yosef b. Mevorakh, and Elʿazar b. Yosef testify that they entered the house of a Jew named Bashshār and found Salāma b. Ibrāhīm assailing Abū l-Surūr b. Ṭarīf and hanging on to his clothing; the latter was not defending himself. Salāma insisted on taking Abū l-Surūr before the government (sulṭan); Abū l-Surūr insisted on taking Salāma to the Jewish courts (before 'the Rayyis'). Salāma then insulted the Rayyis and said, "I am [King] Baldwin (Bardawīl), and Abū l-Surūr is my prisoner!" Salāma summoned the police (rajjāla) and had Abū l-Surūr and Yūsuf b. Rajā and Yūsuf b. Manṣūr taken before the Muslim courts/government (headed by "the amir"). The amir nearly had the defendants beaten. (End of first document.) Now, Abū l-Surūr has finally succeeded in bringing Salāma before the Jewish court and "sayyidnā" (though the pronouns are not entirely clear in l. 4 and it could also be Salāma suing Abū l-Surūr). The court orders Salāma to justify his behavior. Salāma says to summon the witnesses. The court refuses, saying, And what if they don't obey the order? Abū l-Surūr says that the court should use the ḥerem stam (blanket excommunication) to coerce people into reporting any communication they received from Salāma to antagonize Abū l-Surūr before the Muslim courts. Either Salāma or Abū l-Surūr at this point accuses the other of bearing false witness in the Jewish court ("before Sayyidnā"). The court reads out a letter that Salāma confesses to be his own, in which he accuses a troublemaker (=Abū l-Surūr) who had been exiled from Malīj to Cairo of sending letters to Ibn al-Qāsh the dyer and to the shoṭer and the nadiv to the effect that they aren't rid of him yet, since he will return as soon as Rabbenu dies. The court asks Salāma on what basis he made that claim, and Salāma can only respond that someone (he refuses to say who) told him about Abū l-Surūr's alleged letters. The court believes Abū l-Surūr's side of the story, but also issues a ḥerem stam commanding anyone who did receive a troublemaking letter from Abū l-Surūr to come forward with it. The shoṭer and the nadiv are present, and they deny receiving any such letter from Abū l-Surūr. The document ends abruptly with the line, "The day broke, and the crowd dispersed." ASE

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (bottom five lines). Faded, and difficult to understand any of the content. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The handwriting looks like one of the Mosul Nasis active in the 13th century. The sender says that he (or she?) received word suddenly that the amir is coming for some work tomorrow, which alarmed him because he has not prepared for such a visit. "By my life, if he comes, we will move our אסבת (hides? baskets?) inside, and he/it will be in the place where we are" (maybe they will give their own sleeping quarters to the amir?). He has obtained some chickens but doesn't know where to send them for them to be prepared. He asks the addressee to tell him where to send them. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter (or draft) in Arabic script. Addressed to a certain amīr. Needs examination.

Recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer describes coming to a certain place and finding its synagogue in a dangerous state of disrepair and its columns collapsing. He insisted that it needed to be rebuilt and offered his services. A person named Abū l-Faraj al-Levi features in the story. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic; unclear whether it is related to recto. The writer describes a certain Abū l-Faraj pleading for mercy from an amīr, who ultimately granted mercy. The writer cites Ezra 6:11 at this point. He goes on to describe a group of people harassing his group with 'שנאות ורשעות.' Needs examination.

Letter fragment (bottom) in a neat, distinctive hand. Mentions a runner (raqqas) several times ("he was in Fustat and wished to take a runner with him and travel to where you are..." Mentions the letter of the Amir; someone who approached the recipient for a favor or charity; and "I cannot even describe to you what happened to us..." ASE.

Letter mentioning Abū l-Najm and the Emir of Bayrut. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to the Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner). Dating: Likely 13th or 14th century, based on handwriting. Mentions the amir Sayf al-Mulk and the synagogue of Damīra. Introduced by a quotation similar to Micah 5:8. (Information in part from CUDL)