Geniza Lab

Letter from Mūsā b. Yiṣḥaq in Sfax to Yehuda b. Moshe Ibn Sughmar in Fustat. Contains details about shipments of coins, oil and soap from the Maghreb to Fustat. The recipient is asked to buy goods, mainly flax, in Fustat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom)

Letter from Barhun b. Musa al-Taharti, probably from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dated: June 1, 1054. Mentions shipments and details about ships. Also mentions details about storing goods and some details about coins. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #347) VMR

Letter from Musa b. Abi l-Hayy from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1055. Mentions details about changing coins and business between the two of them. Also mentions money that was sent to Alexandria to Yisrael b.Natan (Sahlun), Nahray's cousin. On the other side Nahray wrote a comment about a mistake in Musa's calculation. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 480-483, #446). VMR

Letter from Yosef b. Farah, Fustat, to his brother Farah b. Ismail in Busir, December 1055 (Gil), or to his nephew Ibn al-Surur Farah b. Ismail b. Farah before 1058 (Ben Sasson). The letter discusses commercial matters (i.e., exchanging checks and coins) and the departure of ships containing goods to Sicily. (Information from Gil and Ben Sasson)

Informal note to a certain Abū l-Ḥasan. The writer was forced to go up to Cairo, so he informs the addressee that he is sending him the quarter-dinar (rubāʿī) that he had obtained (?) while in Fustat. He asks that the addressee send him 'the note' (al-ruqʿa) in return.

Deed, commercial, attesting to Alexandria's importance in international trade. The document mentions traders from Venice and Constantinople, as well as Sicilian coins. Apparently the deed is from the beginning of the twelfth century, to judge by the names, which appear in documents from the circle of Nahray b. Nissim. The document also contains an important report on a dispute between people from the Maghrib and local Alexandrians, headed by the Alexandrian Ben Nahum family. (Information from Frenkel. See also Goitein, Med. Soc. 3:159)

Letter from Yosef b. Eli Kohen Fasi, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. June 27, 1057. Mentions ships, shipment of dates, coins and trades, as well as family matters. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #396) VMR

Two letters (attached to each other), from Farah b. Isma’il b. Farah and from Yosef b. Eli ha-Kohen Fasi, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1054. Both letters are in the handwriting of Farah and probably were written separately and were attached later. The first letter contains details about shipments of coins and importing metals as copper, iron, and lead, as well as wax, and Persian fabrics. The other letter contains details about deals with Muslims, different instructions to Nahray, and some information about ships. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #395) VMR

Letter from Yosef b. Eli Kohen Fasi, from Busir to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. The writer deals with purchasing flax. He approves that he received coins but he cannot weigh them because he does not have a scale. Writes several instructions for payments. Expresses his opinion that the flax market in Busir is not in a good condition. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #401) VMR

Letter from Zekharya b. Ya’aqov b. al-Shama, from Tripoli (Libya), to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The letter deals with shipments of goods and coins. The writer asks Nahray to take care of two Muslims that are delivering this letter. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #667) VMR

Letter from Farah b. Isma’il from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1057. The letter contains details about shipments of coins, including coins that Nahray ordered from Alexandria and needs to pay for their exchange. The writer asks for the prices in the linen market (al-Kalus) in Fustat and the spices’ prices as well. There is a mention of the situation in Sicily. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #506) VMR

Legal document in Hebrew. Dating: 1517 CE(?). Stating that 93 peraḥim (ducat equivalents) of the coinage of the Sultan Selim which were destined for the Yeshiva in Jerusalem were given to another Yeshiva. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Account of burial expenses of a dead man who belonged to the lower middle class. The account lists the expenses in three coins: dinars, qirats and dirhams. Besides a tunic, two robes and a cloak, the dead man got a scarf, which also covered a large part of the body. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 160)

Shipping certificate from Nahray b. Nissim probably to Moshe b. Yahya al-Majani. Around 1065. Detailed the coins that were in a coin packet. Verso: Details about several dinar amounts, as well as the name b. al-Majani. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #301) VMR

Legal document. Court record. Dating: 1232. Record of three tannery partners, Rāḍī ha-Kohen, Mufaḍḍal ha-Kohen, and Ṭāhir, who worked in Minyat Ziftā. The total amount of the partnership was fourteen hundred dirhams. Rāḍī and Ṭāhir may have held their portion of the partnership jointly, and Rāḍī seems to have been the managing partner. Rāḍī attests to having paid out seventeen dinars’ worth of hides to Mufaḍḍal, leaving him (Rāḍī) owing three dinars. Lieberman thus infers that Mufaḍḍal’s share of twenty dinars represents roughly one-third of the total value of the partnership. Prior litigation on the same matter in an Islamic court led to a ruling requiring Rāḍī to pay Mufaḍḍal 1.5 dinars each month. Rāḍī seems not to have accepted the ruling, and while Mufaḍḍal seems to have been willing to compromise and accept only one dinar a month, Rāḍī brings "an Islamic document" to challenge him. The case then comes before the court of Abraham Maimonides (though testimony was not admissible as one of the litigants was a relative of the witness). The document does not record any final settlement. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture," 264)

Expenditure of 427 1/2 bakhaya dirhams on clothing for communal officials, on payment of a balance due for the distribution of wheat and other items. Superscribed: 'Collected 427 1/2. The expenditure entirely in bakhaya' (= dirhams bearing the inscription bkh). The lists on verso (see App. C 87) was written by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu (ca. 1220). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 449, App. B 38 [dated 1210-1225]).