Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef [...] and Moshe [...]. In Hebrew. Location: Probably Tripoli, Greece (טראפוליצא = Τριπολιτσά). Dated: Wednesday 8 Tammuz 5510 AM, which is 1750 CE. This is a fundraising letter for the redemption of Yaʿaqov of פיש (Fez?) and his wife and two Jews, who had embarked on a Turkish ship in Crete (קאנדייה) when Maltese pirates attacked and took them captive. God moved the Maltese captain (הקברניט המלטיז) to have mercy, and he brought them to land on מאנייה (the Mani peninsula?) and left them in the charge of a local rich man, setting the ransom at 1500 gasim/גסים ("big" coins—a common term for coinage in this period). ASE. MCD.

Large letter from "the two congregations" of Alexandria to the Palestinian community of Fustat, and particularly to Efrayim b. Shemarya, regarding fundraising for the ransom of captives. They convey gratitude for 200.5 dinars that had already been sent. The tale is rather convoluted, but they are clearly in need of money again. In particular, "one of the Arabs" named Yubqī (or Yabqā?) b. Abī Razīn recently arrived with a new set of seven Jewish prisoners from Byzantium (מארץ אנטאליה), four Rabbanite and three Qaraite, demanding 33 1/3 dinars per captive. The head of the Alexandrian community, Netanel b. Elazar ha-Kohen redeemed one of them and suggested writing to all the communities of Egypt to raise the remaining total. Thus they have sent letters to both Rabbanite congregations and the Qaraite congregation of Fustat, to the elders in general, and to the Rabbanite and Qaraite congregations of Tinnīs and Damietta and Ṣahrajt. Some of the sermon included in the remainder of the letter seems intended for public reading in the synagogue (an insight from Frenkel, ha-Ohavim ve-ha-Nedivim, p. 190). There are ~17 signatures in addition to that of the scribe, Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen b. Yosef ha-Shofeṭ, and that of the head of the community, Netanel ha-Kohen b. Elazar. ASE

Letter from Dalāl bt. Masʿūd/Seʿadya (a.k.a. Umm Ibrāhīm), in Bilbays, to the dignitary Abū l-Barakāt Yehuda b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen (titled "ha-Sar" and "Sofer ha-Malkhut"). The sender was a widow and had been held captive in 1168 CE. She was freed after paying for her own release, one dinar at a time. The addressee had previously helped the woman, but suggested she leave the dinar with him until she needed it; he did not send it back to her. Time has passed. The woman's cousin is now wanted by the police, and she asks Abū l-Barakāt Yehuda to do as he had promised. (Information from Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, 319–20) VMR.

Letter from a Byzantine silk dyer to the elder al-Najib Ezra in Fustat, detailing that the writer is afflicted by severe agony (al-ʿadhāb al-shadīd) after having been tortured and his children seized as a security. He had allegedly spoiled some previous silk garments, and asks Ezra al-Najib to help in reclaiming his children. (Information partly from Goitein’s index cards.) EMS. Verso also contains the draft of the beginning of a family letter in rudimentary handwriting, in which the writer defenes himself against his brother's rebukes. ASE.

Legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Draft, with extensive corrections. This document is long, rich, and damaged. Dating: Perhaps c.1100, based on the appearance of Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī; but see the identification tab on FGP for further possible identifications of other people mentioned. Recto is a declaration/testimony in the first person. It opens with a reference to a group of captives, perhaps in Tyre (line 3), who managed to redeem themselves. The narrator donated 20 dinars, and the freed captives were able to travel to Fustat. The original text and the corrected text contain slightly divergent stories, but it seems the narrator gave a second payment of 15 dinars and a third payment of 12 dinars to a specific man (likely Yaʿaqov) and to his mother (the scribe drew up the document with few references to the mother, then subsequently added her into the story). At this point, Sar Shalom b. Ḥiyya and Yiṣḥaq al-Nafūsī arrived in Fustat and reported that Yaʿaqov was thriving and enjoyed the favor of (had 'ittiṣāl' with) Yehosef Nagid ha-Gola. A shipment of valuable Socotrene aloe now enters the story—Yaʿaqov might have asked the narrator to sell it and send him the money because his mother needed it. The narrator might have objected, citing some terms of the 'tadhkira' that he had with him. The story becomes difficult to follow around here -- it is possible that Yaʿaqov has been embezzling the funds that everyone (the narrator, Yaḥyā ha-Zaqen al-Fāsī b. Avraham, and Yīṣḥaq al-Nafūsī b. Ḥalfon) has been sending him to support his mother (a total of 47 dinars), and now they are demanding confirmation that she has received the money and a release from further obligations. There is a note underneath in smaller text that may contain the findings of the judicial investigation: how much money Yaʿaqov's mother received, how much money Yaʿaqov still owes her, and a confirmation that he has handed over the rest. Someone (Yaʿaqov?) may be called al-Muqaddasī here. The portion of the document on verso is the confirmation that Yaʿaqov's mother has now received all the money, and therefore all parties are now released from further obligations. This reading is tentative, and the document awaits transcription and more definitive study. ASE

Letter from Sheʾerit to the Jewish community (qahal) of Fustat. His children were taken captive, and the community has only redeemed some of them so far. In the margin, there is an autograph note from one of the later Maimonidean Nagids ordering the cantor to read it in public. Dating: No earlier than 13th century. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 107.)

Letter of recommendation from Yosef ha-[...] b. Seʿadya ha-Bavli addressed to the communities of Sūra(?) and Qaryat Ismāʿīl(?). Written in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The bearer is a learned man "who has captives" whom he is trying to redeem. The addressees are asked to give him money. The Qaraite community (?וגמאעה אלקראיי) is specifically named.

Letter from Abū Yūsuf, unknown location, to Rabbi Elʿazar (body of the letter) who is likely identical with Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallima (address), presumably in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Goitein makes much of the addressee's matronymic and also reads the address as kanīsat al-muʿallima, "literally, "the synagogue of the woman teacher" (since school often was held in the synagogue compound, the school itself came to be called synagogue)." But it is also possible that the letter is addressed to the neighborhood of the Hanging Church (Kanīsat al-Muʿallaqa) and that the addressee is Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallim, that is, the son of the male teacher. Goitein identifies the addressee with Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallima who (according to another document that Goitein summarizes but does not cite) volunteered to send money to Ashqelon that was collected to ransom the Jewish prisoners who been taken and the books that had been looted when Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in July 1099. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 356, 506.) As for the content of this letter: The writer is unemployed and asks for help "in this difficult year." Otherwise, the letter is almost entirely taken up with expressions of preoccupation and urgings to write. Regards to a woman named Qaḍīb, who is sick, as well as several other people. ASE

Circular on behalf of a notable from 'Arqa, northern Syria, whose wife and child were held in captivity. On verso blessings on food.

Letter of recommendation, likely a draft, from Fustat. Dated: 5735 (מעֿשֿהֿ) AM, which is 1614/15 CE. The bearer, Avraham b. Shemuel Ashkenazi, fell into Ottoman captivity eight years ago. His captors brought him to Istanbul, but he refused to convert to Islam, managed to escape, "and took shelter in the Beit Midrash of Shem and ʿEver." He has been living in Fustat for the last two years, exerting himself in service of the community. He now wishes to return to his native land, and the anonymous addressee is asked to help him. (Information from FGP)

Recto: Letter of appeal from a woman who "is among the captives from Palestine." Dating: both Goitein and Gil date this document to the early Crusader period (early 12th century), but see Goldman, "Arabic-Speaking Jews in Crusader Syria" (diss.), p. 37, "Many undated Geniza documents have been ascribed to the period of the Crusades simply because they relate to warfare, ransoming, refugees, and/or massacres." Content: The woman requests the help of the community (qahal). She arrived this week in Fustat from Sunbāṭ. She is "naked" (i.e., in need), with a young child to take care of. Verso contains a very faded text in Arabic script (see separate entry, PGPID 35164).

Pledges for ransom of captives. A pledge-drive (pesiqa) for the man from Antioch for the ransom of his children. In four columns divided further into six sections. The sums are astoundingly small. The total, which must have been less than 10 dinars, was far less than the amount. needed to ransom one captive. The man from Antioch, which was taken by the Crusaders in 1098, might have been ransomed by money given by a notable, partly to be restituted by the community. Our list might have been drawn up for such a purpose. There are other possibilities, too (see Goitein). The Hebrew term ransom of captives was also applied to many different states of hardship, e.g. a man in prison for failure of paying taxes. [Abu] Sa'd the katib (government official) pledges a quarter gold dinar. Around 1100. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 507, App. C 135.) There are numerous fragments in the hand of the same scribe, e.g., T-S Ar.34.186; see Penn catalog (https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0002/html/h466.html) for the list.

Letter addressed to Sulaymān the beadle. In Judaeo-Arabic. Regarding fundraising for captives, asking the addressee to take charge of it, and also "to collect something from the women." There is some sort of registration mark at the top of the page, which resembles those used by the offices of Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355) and David II Maimonides (d. 1410). The handwriting resembles that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. Needs examination

Letter from Yehuda ha-Levi in Toledo to Ḥalfon b. Netanel regarding a collection in the cities of Spain for the ransom of a captive woman. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat to Abu al-Faraj Daniel b. Allan ha-Kohen in Alexandria, discussing the problem of the ransom of captives and noting that owing to the lack of funds prisoners have to be redeemed one by one, ca. 1045-1096.

Letter fragment to the congregations of Fustat and in particular to the dayyan Elazar. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, ca. 1025. This letter describes a difficult and very brief visit to Jerusalem involving a controversy about some Jewish captives. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: fragment of a letter mentioning ‘the Nasi of the Exile’. The sender wants the addressee to speak to 'the captives' to take him with them and to give a small amount for the price of a boat. "Your brother Mevorakh" may have helped the sender in the past. Verso: unrelated business accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, listing names and numbers. Dating: Likely 11th century. (Information in part from CUDL)

Recto: legal document, in which eight persons, Levi b. Yaʿaqov ha-Levi, Avraham b. Sahlān, Efrayim b. Shemarya, David b. Aharon ha-Levi, Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq, Shelomo b. Seʿadya, Shelomo b. Ḥakīm and Shelomo b. David undertake to refund Ismaʿīl b. Ṭalyūn (=Shemuel b. Avṭalyon) the sum guaranteed for the ransom of two captives. Dated: 1333 Seleucid, which is 1021 or 1022 CE. Verso: list of contributions in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from the Qaraite Jews of Ashqelon to the Qaraites and Rabbanites of Fustat. Dating: Summer 1100 CE. The letter deals with the ransoming of Qaraite captives from Jerusalem following the Crusader conquest of the city. (Qaraites represented a large percentage of the small number of Jews who still lived in Jerusalem after the Seljuk conquest[s] in the 1070s.) The letter also explains that the fortified city of Ashqelon had not yet fallen, but the residents are struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and the need to make large payments to the Crusaders to ransom back Jewish captives - men, women and children - as well as books and scrolls pillaged from the synagogues of the Holy Land. Despite the terrible circumstances, they take solace in the fact that that the Crusaders appeared not to have mistreated the women. The writers report that they had received the suftaja (bill of exchange), at least the second substantial donation from the Jews of Fustat to the campaign to redeem captives and books. This letter is a request for further donations. The community in Ashqelon had spent over 500 dinars; ransomed over 40 captives; continues to bear the high expenses of caring for the 20 redeemed captives who remain in Ashqelon; and is now in debt for more than 200 dinars. The writers also mention Jews who had escaped from Jerusalem on their own, and others who had been given safe-conduct with the wālī. Of the refugees who arrived in Ashkelon, many had died of the epidemic they encountered there: "The attacks of these illnesses (amrāḍ), the falling of that plague (wabā'), that pest (fanā'), that disaster (balā')" (recto, lines 17–19); later, describing how the refugees perished, "Some of them arrived here healthy, and the climate turned against them (ikhtalafa ʿalayim al-hawā'), and they arrived at the height of that plague (wa-waṣalū fī ʿunfuwān dhālik al-wabā'), and many of them died" (recto, lines 42–44); then, twice more, the writers emphasize their great expenses caring for those who have survived but are still sick, who need not only food and clothing but medicines and syrups (recto, lines 53–55 and right margin 19–20). There are notes by the writers and forwarders of the letter in the right margin on verso, including Yehayyahu ha-Kohen b. Maṣliaḥ, David b. Shelomo and Ḥanina b. Manṣūr b. ʿUbayd. See DK 242 + T-S AS 146.3 for a letter written one year earlier from the Rabbanites of Fustat to the Rabbanites of Ashqelon, also having to do with the campaign for the ransoming of captives. (Information CUDL and from Goldman, "Arabic-Speaking Jews of Crusader Syria" (PhD diss., 2018), 49–58. See also Goitein, Med Soc 5:537; Goitein, "New Sources on the Fate of the Jews during the Crusaders' Conquest of Jerusalem" (Heb.) Zion, 17 (1952), 136; Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, pp. 241-242; and Goitein's notes attached to Bodl. MS Heb d 11/7 (page 9f). ASE/MR