Geniza Lab

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with interspersed Arabic script (header, footer, and sliding blessings). Eloquent and formal style, possibly copied from or for a literary source. Seems to mostly be expressing love for the a third person and sadness at his failure to fully reciprocate. Mentions Abū Isḥāq the cantor and Abū Kathīr. "When his late mother died, may her Creator have mercy upon her, I went to his house and consoled him and met his need as far as I was able to with speech. He showed me signs of love, and my limbs bore witness to him with many times the same. They (=my limbs) prayed for him and my soul thanked him, without any imposition (? takalluf) imposed on him or imposed on me from money or honor.... rather, that love for him remained in my heart like.... until the day of Shavuʿot... the soul praised her Creator and prayed to Him from its blackness(?), and my love and affection for him became like the trees whose [...] more than one branch (or root?), and no matter how the wind blows... it does not budge from its place... and it continued like this until he showed me aversion (jafā) from his soul... without any crime that I committed...." Join: Alan Elbaum. Needs further examination.

Letter from Netanel b. Moshe ha-Levi ha-Shishi to two of his friends (Yosef b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen and 'my brother Elʿazar), during his confinement to his father's house for the sake of private study. The closing greetings are in Arabic script. "For studying at home I received 25 dinars, on condition that I do not leave the house—even to visit the public bathhouse. Dear brother, you cannot imagine what I suffer by being separated from you and from our friend the Devil (Abū Murra), the Bird of Jinnies (ʿUsfūr al-Jinn)...." See also T-S K25.64. (Information from Goitein's note card and Med Soc V, 428, 628, no. 66.)

Letter in Arabic script from a father to his son Abū l-Majd. "The fire was in our hearts because of you, how you spent shabbat over bread and cheese (i.e., without meat). If it weren't for Yaʿīsh and how he asked the Rayyis to 'send them something to eat,' we wouldn't have found anyone to bring you anything.... If every shabbat you get up and come on Friday, spend shabbat with us, and travel back on Sunday, the way is long...." On verso he mentions that he has managed to send a sweet (ḥalāwa, v2) and possibly peaches (khawkh, v3). "I want to come to you, but I don't know the way." He has also sent something which he wants the son to work on very carefully (wa-ʿaqlak bi-l-ghalaṭ) for Abū l-Faraj Ibn al-Dujājī, evidently for Abū l-Faraj's son, since he then writes that "his son's name is—"; he then switches into Hebrew for the blessing for a son (ha-malʾakh ha-goʾel) and reveals the name to be Shelomo b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi.

Letter from Yehuda b. Avraham b. al-Faraj, possibly in Ṣahrajt, to ʿEli b. ʿAmram (aka Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn b. Muʿammar), in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1060s CE. The letter is in Arabic, with additional text in Hebrew on verso in Yehuda's hand. See also ENA 2465.8–9 and T-S 13J13.2, two other letters with the same sender and addressee, also written in a mix of Arabic and Hebrew script. ASE

Letter written on behalf of a woman who complains that someone pawned an amount of one dinar. She asks her addressee to take from him what he owes her. At the top of document someone added in Judaeo-Arabic דכרת (the same word that begins the Arabic-script letter), and at the bottom is the Hebrew formula שלומו יגדל "may his peace increase," One of the people in the letter is named Hilāl b. Aharon Ibn al-Shammāʿ. (Information from Naïm Vanthieghem and Oded Zinger)

Letter, calligraphic, written in alternating Hebrew and Arabic. Dealing with political machinations and silencing enemies. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Letter addressed to Menaḥem the physician, in the horseshoers' market (fī al-musammirīn) in Fustat or New Cairo. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic, with the first five lines written in Arabic script. The sender conveys everyone's grief over the death of the addressee's mother. He says they have sent 10 letters with Mukhalliṣ the tax farmer, but they have received no response. He asks for small quantities of silk. Umm ʿAjam also asks for news and tells the addressee to return as soon as he has finished his work. "If we had known you would stay in Cairo for a year, we wouldn't have let you go." Greetings to family members and from ʿAjam and ʿIwāḍ. ASE

Mysterious text with alternating lines of Hebrew script (mostly Aramaic, it seems) and Arabic script, many or all of which are glosses on the former. Needs examination.

Leaf from a geographic treatise written in a combination of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script.

Letter(s) in Arabic script. Recto and verso are probably distinct letters. Dating: Likely 13th century or later. The letter on recto appears to be from a father (al-wālidī) to a son (al-walad al-ʿazīz al-muwaffaq al-saʿīd). Only the opening greetings are preserved. The letter on verso mentions names such as al-Shaykh al-Thiqa Abū l-Bishr and Mūsā. There is one phrase in Hebrew script, the title of the book הלכות מאכלות אסורות ('the laws of forbidden foods'), which the addressee is asked to have copied for the writer. The addressee is asked to take payment for two items from the bearer. The remnant of the address reads, "the children of the Jews (awlād al-yahūd), Fustat."

Jottings of accounts and calendrical notations in a mixture of Arabic script, Greek/Coptic numerals, and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th or 13th century, based on handwriting. Alt description: A curious mix of notes, scripts, and a tidy hand of archival notes in Hebrew script on 18th C documents on verso. Notary's notepad?

Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Mostly in Arabic script with a few words in Hebrew. Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm is to give Eliyyahu the Judge 5 of something (dirhams?). Very similar to the order in T-S K25.240. Needs further examination.

Letter fragment in Arabic script. Opens with greetings to the mother. Mentions Naṣr al-Dīn. The address on verso is written in a different hand: to be delivered to Abū l-Riḍā. Then in Judaeo-Arabic: "from his mother." So perhaps one side is the response to the other side.

Order or receipt in Arabic script with Judaeo-Arabic annotations for 2 dinars for [...] Makkī(?) al-Khabbāz from Yehuda b. Yosef (presumably this is Abū Zikrī Kohen).

Address of a letter to the judge Eliyahhu b. Zekharya. In Arabic script with רבי אליה in Hebrew script. None of the letter is preserved.

Recto: Fragment of a grammatical treatise, probably. In Arabic script. Verso: Talmudic discussion in both Hebrew script and Arabic script.

Letter written in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic script. Various blessings and Bible citations are rendered in Hebrew script, whereas the main part is written in Arabic script. Seems to be an elaborate letter of appeal for charity. Mentions Ibn ʿAwkal, Ibn al-Madhāmīrī(?), and Ibn Qarīṭa(?) (v3–4). (Information in part from CUDL.) Needs further examination.

Digest of a partnership contract for a period of one year between Abū ʿAlī b. David and Netanʾel b. Nadiv. Written mainly in Judaeo-Arabic, but with some Arabic script mixed in. Each of the partners may take one dirham each day from the shop. The sums 150 (or rather 500-something?) and 500 wariq (dirhams) are mentioned in relation to each of the partners. On verso there are pen trials. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter fragment written by a communal official concerning the “rabbi from Rum” who was potentially threatened. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 5:236-7, 571) EMS Written partly in Arabic characters. (Information from CUDL)

First-person report about a discussion, possibly a polemic between the writer and other people. This fragment begins in Arabic script, switches to Judaeo-Arabic for the remainder of recto, then switches back to Arabic script for all of verso except for a name written in Hebrew script. It begins: ". . . he was overcome by distress. . . and this is what the rabbis said, 'Do not get angry and you will not sin' (Berakhot 29b), for the man with such a character should attempt to get rid of it with the guidance of Solomon in Proverbs and with other (texts). I only said this to him by way of affection and 'love your neighbor as yourself.' As for what the master needs to know without doubt: I was passing through the square (al-murabbaʿa) and found Bū l-Ḥajjāj al-Ṭabīb (the physician) talking with Ibrāhīm al-Jābī. They saw me and Ibrāhīm said, 'This is so-and-so.' I said, 'What are you up to?' Ibrāhīm said. . . ." The continuation of the narrative on verso requires further examination. There is a lot of reported dialogue, followed by the sender visiting R. David(?) and telling him about the story, whereupon R. David may have told him that he was in the wrong. FGP. AA. ASE.