Geniza Lab

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer complains, "I suffer from this city and its inhabitants unspeakable suffering. May God for the sake of His great name see fit to deliver me from it speedily." He then reports that a man named R. Shemuel has arrived from the land of the Franks. Information in part from Friedman, Dictionary, p. 751 (ضجر).

Complaint against a Jewish teacher cursing the Jewish faith and Jews in front of the non-Jews in the Jewish school in ʿAbbāsiya, and also the request for his punishment before the non-Jews and his dismissal from the Jewish community – 1946 CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 240) – in Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 32). MCD.

Complaint from an Egyptian Jew to the head of an iron foundry – January 31 1947CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 268) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 56). MCD.

Complaint of the Cairo Jewish community to the "Jabila" council regarding the given neglect for slaughter and a lack of commitment to the Jewish legal precepts – March 23 1942CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 8). (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 36). MCD.

Letter of complaint from the administrator of the Quppa (the bread basket of the community) in Alexandria to R. Avraham the Nagid. Alexandria had a charity collection out of which it was customary to distribute loaves of bread to the needy. The writer of this letter was the 'Mufarriq al-Quppa,' the official in charged of distributing the bread. The addressee was R. Avraham the Nagid and the letter includes a complaint against an Alexandrian Ḥaver who took it upon himself to distribute the loaves of bread against the instructions of the Nagid and the local judge. Apparently, the letter was composed during a period of food shortage and the Nagid decreed that bread will be distributed in small portions in order to stock up for an emergency. The Ḥaver's decision to distribute all the bread of the collection must certainly have been popular among the needy. The manager of the quppa decided not to bring charges against the Ḥaver but to wait for explicit instructions from the Nagid or for the return of Shemuel, the Judge, who was at the time absent from the city. (Information from Frenkel; see also Goitein Med. Soc. 2:492). Verso: Note conveying festival greetings, citing Isaiah 56:7. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in which the writer complains of things that have been worrying him, saying he didn't know they would continue as they did.

Letter addressed to two judges. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer complains about people who are interfering with his business and damaging his clientele. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from a merchant addressed at least in part to his mother ('wa-yā ummī'). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Perhaps 12th century. He complains about the wretched quality of his food and drink and sleep and how 'nobody suffers what I suffer from [long]ing.' He mentions the towns of Minya and Qūṣ and repeatedly mentions the price of wheat and bread. The mother should borrow the money she needs to purchase wheat, and he will pay it off when he can. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter of complaint to Maimonides regarding funds for the Qodesh. Written in the hand of Meʾir b. Hillel b. Ṣadoq Av. The plaintiff asks why arrangements made for him by the mutawallī Isaiah ha-Levi b. Mišaʾel have become void; and if they are void for him, why should not the other leases and deeds of rent of ruined lots be discontinued as well. The complaint was probably submitted in 1171 or somewhat later and it emerges that the agreement made with Isaiah stipulated that the plaintiff was to rebuild a ruin of the qodesh and live in it until his investment in repairs was balanced out by a hypothetical rent, in the meantime paying only the ground rent (ḥikr) to the government. Maimonides was apparently opposed to this agreement, possibly because of legal principles regarding permission to make deals with properties of the qodesh. In the second part of the letter, the writer requests Maimonides to answer various questions on the study of the Law which he had previously asked him, and to which he now adds a question on the attitude to astronomy. He also asks him for some of his books, to be copied for him, the cost to be paid from the money due to him, if the debt is recognized. Below on verso are rhymed Hebrew wedding verses in a crude hand. (Information from CUDL and Gil, Documents, pp. 363 #94)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly in the hand of the court clerk Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya. The letter opens with condolences for the addressee's loss. Then the sender goes into his own problems: his son Abū Manṣūr does not pay attention to what he says nor accept advice from him. The son has married, or plans to marry, a bad woman. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 122.) On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals. OZ. ASE.

Letter fragment addressed to 'sayyidnā.' In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer complains about a certain person who drinks and defrauds the poor(?). He wouldn't have said anything if he thought the man would repent on his own. He presents as the proof of his judgment something (some sort of fight?) that he witnessed on Purim between this man and R. Yehuda al-Zaqen al-Bilbaysī al-Kohen and Abū Naṣr the mohel. If the addressee wishes to verify this story, he can make his own inquiries.