Geniza Lab

Letter from Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Ṭuviyyahu, probably in Bilbays, to Avraham Maimonides, in Fustat. Recommending his nephew Avraham b. Moshe for charity. The writer was active 1170s–1220, was the muqqadam of Bilbays, and was a close companion of Moshe and Avraham Maimonides (information provided by Amir Ashur).

Fragment (upper part) of a Judaeo-Arabic letter to Avraham Maimonides from al-Muhadhdhab ha-Kohen b. Manṣūr (?) ha-Kohen. From the body of the message that remains, al-Muhadhdhab describes his distress on account of the tax he owes. 

A draft version of the same legal query to a jurist (istiftāʾ) as in T-S Ar.41.105 (edited by Geoffrey Khan, Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents, doc. no. 65), concerning changes introduced in Jewish liturgical practice. A major difference is that this query is addressed to the qāḍī al-quḍāt ʿImād al-Dīn (d. 624 AH, which is 1226/27 CE). A full list of variants can be found in Fenton's edition of T-S Ar.41.105 (as cited by Khan). A very imperfect edition of this text was provided by Gottheil in Mélanges Hartwig Derenbourg, p. 98. On verso there is Hebrew literary text.

A query seeking a responsum, addressed to Avraham Maimonides regarding an unmarried man living with a female slave. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 486 and from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of a query to Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) regarding the relationship between a single man and a female slave.

Letter to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205-1237) concerning public affairs.

A covenant (כתב אמנה) of the congregation of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat, drawn up in Adar 1522 (=1211 CE), which enumerates the venerable liturgical rites they inherited from their ancestors and which they refuse to allow anyone to change. The context is the controvery over the prayer reforms that Avraham Maimonides attempted to introduce. There is an extensive literature on this controversy, and this document sheds important light on the practices that the traditionalists wished to preserve. The handwriting is that of the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi, a fact first noted by Fleischer; see 'לסדרי התפילה בבית הכנסת של בני ארץ-ישראל בפוסטאט' in his collected articles, תפילות הקבע בישראל בהתהוותן ובהתגבשותן, vol. 1, p. 827 (p. 245 in the original article); thanks to Shulamit Elizur for this information. Two lines were added in a different hand, reiterating the main point that it is forbidden to change these traditions, signed by [Nissim] b. Seʿadya ha-Kohen. Verso contains a liturgical composition in a different hand. (Ed. Fleischer, Tefilah u-minhage tefilah Erets-Yiśreʼeliyim bi-teḳufat ha-genizah, 1988, 218–57. Trans. Friedman, Teuda, vol. 10 (1996), 251–53.) ASE.

An autograph responsum by Avraham Maimonides (1186-1237) dealing with wine brought by a Karaite and the injunction about preparation of wine by Jews (rabbanite Jews). (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 14, 123, 428)

Deed of sale in which a father sells to his son a quarter of the apartment belonging to him in a house in the al- Mu'tamid passage of the Tujib quarter for seventeen dinars. Dated 1233. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 281)

Letter of recommendation sent by seven elders of the Jewish community in Minyat Zifta to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides, recommending Moshe, the son of a previous judge named Perahya, for appointment or confirmation, and describing his rival as the very opposite of the proposed candidate in every respect. Dated Tevet1531/ December 1219- January 1220. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 44; V, p. 199.) Alternate description: "Ruling from the Bet Din of Minyat Ziftā, addressed to the Nagid Abraham Maimonides, dated Ṭevet 1531 (= 1219-1220 CE). Despite vehement opposition from other parties in the town, Moses b. Peraḥya is cleared of charges against him and his appointment is recommended. Moses is reported to be 'extremely modest, bashful, humble, taciturn, forbearing, and inexperienced in trouble-making'. Signed by Ṣedaqa b. Šela, Solomon b. Benjamin, Solomon b. Yefet, Yefet b. Isaiah ha-Levi, Moses b. Ṭahor ha-Kohen, Moses b. Yefet, Ḥalfon b. Obadiah, and Judah b. [...]." (Information from CUDL)

Seven autograph responsa in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. The last one is even signed: אברהם ברבי משה זצל. Awaits further examination. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Legal document. Partnership. Dated: 1215-1216 CE. This fragment emerged from the court of Avraham Maimonides. The partners ʿImrān Moshe al-Iskandarī b. Bū Manṣūr ha-Zaqen and Abū al-Ma‘ālī b. Ḥalfon ha-Levi ha-Zaqen contract a partnership. The division of profits and losses is not retained in the preserved portion of the document, but allusions to it in line 15 indicate it was outlined clearly. Line 12 suggests it was an "‘isqa under the rules of a commenda", in which case the active partner would have received 1/3 of the profits and not have been responsible for losses. The active partner, apparently Moshe, was to journey as far as Aden; that the partners were to be separated by distance suggested by the fact that Moshe takes upon himself "the avoidance of betrayal". (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", pp. 275-276)

Letter from a local Dayyan to Avraham Maimonides. Dating: ca. 1229/30 CE.

Letter from a file of Avraham Maimonides, written to Nissim Ha-Dayyan (judge).

Letter from the office of Avraham Maimonides, in Fustat, to the community of Alexandria. Dating: ca. 1220 CE. He instructs them to help a woman and her little daughter to get to Palestine, where she had another daughter. She was the divorcee of Futūḥ, the cantor in the Yemeni synagogue in Jerusalem. Information from Goitein's note card.

Fragment of a double query, presented to Avraham Maimonides about (1) a man who keeps a female slave—not for service—although he was married and a father of children. (2) a man who had a Christian female slave accept Judaism but lived with her out of wedlock. This seems to be another version of the same two questions contained in T-S 10K8.13. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter addressed to a Nagid (Avraham Maimuni or his son David), reporting about payments.

Letter/petition/recommendation to a Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender asks him to help the bearer, Ibrāhīm b. Abū Dāʾūd al-Ashqar al-Bilbaysī, who betrothed (amlaka) a woman in Bilbays years ago. Everyone in Bilbays knows that he has continued to send gifts to her and her family. However, when her brothers learned that he had suffered financial losses, they tried to cancel the betrothal. Mentions a specific person who came and spread this rumor, and mentions the arrival of R. Yeḥezqel. The Nagid mentioned might be Avraham Maimonides, but there is no clear evidence. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 445.)

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning a group of people who share an underground(?) storage room of wheat in a single courtyard; some have stored less, some have stored more. One of them lives in the same house. Then, a government representative "attacked" the majority of the houses in the city, demanding the harvest stores "for the strengthening of the lands." (There is a tricky phrase at the beginning of this section: this representative appears to be called בליל, which could be Bulayl and a diminutive of Bilāl; it is faintly possible that בליל חמס refers to "the one sodden with discord/oppression"; it is also possible that there is a pun or code for בעל המס, tax collector, and the querier did not wish to put that phrase in the document.) It seems that the one who lived in the house handed over some of the wheat, and now there is a legal question about how the losses should be distributed.

Autograph note from Avraham Maimonides to al-Shaykh al-Talmid al-Ajall al-Raṣuy(?). In Judaeo-Arabic. Seems to mention somebody in need (...wa-ḍururātuh...) and Rabbi Menaḥem. The third line on the other side appears to also be in Avraham's handwriting (at least the Hebrew script that refers to al-Tifʾeret, but perhaps also the preceding words in Arabic script). This note is written on a fragment that was cut from a letter sent to Avraham Maimonides. The original address of that letter (in both Arabic script and Hebrew script) is still preserved: "al-Ḥarīrī should deliver this to Sayyidnā al-Rayyis... Avraham ha-Nagid ha-Gadol...."