Geniza Lab

Recto: a few lines of a Judaeo-Arabic letter, partly having to do with commercial matters (mentioning silver and glass) and the somewhat opaque phrase "if you are intending אכראג ידך, inform me at the beginning of the year." It also quotes verses of consolation and mentions al-ʿazā' in the margin. Verso: a list of materia medica in Judaeo-Arabic. ASE.

Letter of condolence. In Judaeo-Arabic. The hand may be known. It is not out of the question that this could be a formulary.

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 the wife of Wahb, Tiberias, to her brother Khalfa b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṭabīb b. al-Ṭabarī, Fustat, eleventh century. She dictated the letter to her son Mubārak b. Wahb, who has an excellent hand. She refers to herself in the letter as Sitt Wahb, interestingly spelled סיד והב. She sends condolences to Khalfa on account of the tragic news of Abū l-Ḥasan and Bint Abū ʿAlī (presumably they died). Her brother had inquired about economic conditions in Palestine, and she reports that bread is a raṭl for a dirham and everything is cheaper in Tiberias than in Ramla. She encourages him to join her in Tiberias but exhorts him to bring Sitt al-Dār with him, for she has no one in the world except God and him. His letters are to be addressed to Sitt Wahb in Sūq al-Yahūd. She mentions some textiles. Her sister (or possibly Mubārak's sister) Umm Bundār sends her regards. Information from Gil. ASE.

Draft of letter of condolences from Efrayim b. Shemarya on the death of Toviyya b. Daniel, February 1043 (Gil's dating).

Letter of condolence on the death of a woman. From an unidentified sender, probably in Qūṣ, to Abū l-Karam and his son Abū Isḥāq b. al-[...], in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The sender was staying in the funduq of Ibn al-Muṭiyy (בן אלמטי) in Qūṣ. There is also a deceased man, as the sender writes in the margin of recto that "your letters distract me from reading the letters of the deceased man (al-marḥūm)." Verso contains greetings to and from various people, including to Fakhr al-Dawla. In the margin of verso, he asks the addressee to forward a letter to the wife (? ṣāḥiba) of Ibrāhīm b. Amīn al-Mulk, one of the Yemeni traders "who burned in the ill-omened funduq." ASE

Letter of condolences to Hillel b. ʿEli on the death of his wife (?), wishing him to find consolation in the marriage of his son. The writer, possibly Yiftaḥ ha-Kohen, asks for information regarding the return of the nagid Mevorakh b. Saʿadya from the Upper Egypt to the capital. Second half of the 11th century. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 114.)

Letter from Abū l-Riḍā, it seems in Fustat, to his wife's brother Me'ir, perhaps in Damīra or at least nearby in the Rīf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 21 Heshvan קנא, which would normally be 1551 Seleucid = 1239 CE. But there are enough unusual features (format, language) of the letter that it could plausibly be 5151 AM = 1390 CE. In any event, the writer's father recently died. He thanks the addressee for his letter of condolence, though in a backhanded sort of way ("I knew that you would not have honored me with a letter if this calamity had not occurred to me"). He is preoccupied with the failure of everyone in his in-laws' family to write to him or to ask about him in letters to his wife. At the end, he brings up various business matters to be conducted by al-Shaykh al-Sadīd together with the writer's maternal uncle Abū l-Munā. These involve textiles (a wasaṭ, yarn, and silk) and roasted flaxseed oil (zayt bizr kattān muqlā) from Damīra. ASE

A pregnant woman, seemingly well-to-do, complains to her sister in the city about neglect and expresses apprehension that part of her house will be taken by the military, the Ghuzz or Turkomans, in billeting (nazl). The ṣāḥib al-dīwān lives now in the neighborhing house and walks over the roofs and knows what is going on—particularly that there is plenty of space for soldiers in the house. The sister, who possibly had a part in the house, should come. Information from Goitein's note card and Med Soc, IV, p. 24. The letter was dictated to Ibrāhīm (the writer's father?) and addressed to Abū l-Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṣā'igh in the market of the goldsmiths in Fusṭāṭ. The first part of the letter is a rebuke for the addressee's silence. "We could all die, and still you would not ask after us. We hear news of you only from hearsay. If it were not for my pregnancy, I would have traveled [to Fusṭāṭ] to ask after you, because I am tired of sending letters without receiving responses. You now write to tell me, 'Come to us,' because my maternal aunt has died. You did not even write to tell me that you were sick [as well]. Even if I were your enemy, that much at least you would owe me. My cousin died, and you did not even write to console me or your paternal uncle. . . What is the solution to (or reason for?) this enmity? Please come and visit, for the house is derelict and empty. We fear the billeting—for the ṣāḥib al-dīwān lives next door in the house of Yūsuf and walks over the roofs—and that the Ghuzz will take it, and we will not be able to say anything. Even Ibn al-Sarūjī sold his house because of the Ghuzz." On verso: "By God, my sister, console the daughter of my maternal aunt on my behalf. I was sick and was unable to write to her to console her about her mother. As soon as you see this letter, send its response and whatever you see fit with whomever will deliver it. I will pay for it. All of my children have fallen sick, and the female slave is also sick, may God make the end good. By God, I do not need to urge you to send the response quickly, for my eyes are on the road and on every person who arrives. When I hear you are healthy, I will rejoice. I have taken a vow not to break my fast during the day until your letter arrives. I have perished from fasting. Perhaps you will come in place of your letter, and look into what you will do with your [share in the house?]. For Ibn Hilāl is not waiting for Ibn al-Qāḍī to arrive. He has already sent and made me take a vow regarding you. . . ." She concludes with sending regards to Abū l-Ḥasan and his siblings and his son, and to Ibrāhīm. ASE.

Letter of condolence in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew to a certain Abū l-Ḥasan al-Mubārak b. [ʿIyad?] on the death of a woman in his family. Verso preserves the address and several columns in Arabic script.

Long Hebrew letter of condolence to Seʿadya ha-Ḥaver upon the death of somebody (his father?). The writer describes the physicial and emotional agony that came upon him when he heard the news, and how the whole congregation cried out and donned black "and the garb of the Ishmaelites" (ולבשו הכל שחורים ויתעטפו בעטיפת ישמעאלים). Some parts of the letter are rhymed, and others are filled with biblical citations.

Letter of condolence addressed to David Maimonides Nagid on the death of his brother.

Letter by Dā'ūd b. Yehuda to the Judge Eliyyahu expressing astonishment that the Nagid (i.e., Avraham Maimonides) had not sent a letter of condolence at the death of a local notable. Early 13th century. See Goitein Nachlass material. Possibly related to Bodl. MS heb. d 66/63, a letter of condolence by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu which he asks Dā'ūd b. Yehuda to pass on to the mourners.

Letter of condolence(?). In Hebrew. Needs examination.

Letter of condolence from the cantor Natan b. Mevorakh ha-Kohen, in Ashqelon, to the father of an Efrayim. The letter contains many biblical quotations. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter of condolence from Eli ha-Mumhe b. Avraham, Jerusalem, to Hesed ha-Tustari, Fustat, end of 1045 or beginning of 1046.

Letter probably addressed to Avraham Maimonides—[the son] of our Lord and Rabbi Moshe the Great Rabbi (ZL). In Judaeo-Arabic. It is written on a reused state document in Arabic script, of which the beginnings of three lines are preserved. The portion of the letter preserved here suggests that it is a letter of condolence on the occasion of the death of al-Ṣadiq al-Ḥasid al-Shaykh [...] (perhaps a man connected to the pietist side of Maimonides's family. On verso, there are pen trials and jottings (or messy accounts?) in Arabic script.

Letter of condolence. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to Seʿadya b. Ṣadaqa ha-Ḥazzan, probably in Manṣūra.

Letter from an unidentified man, in Damascus, to a female family member, in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. On recto, there are elaborate instructions for where to send the letter of condolence upon the death of the sender's father: "to Bilbays (אבלביס!), to the ḥaver Abū l-Waḥsh, who should deliver it to Damascus, to Suq al-Ṣāgha, to Makārim b. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAjamī or to Surūr. Explain in it all that has happened to you (or maybe: all that came over you (from grief)). And greet Abū l-Bahāʾ b. al-Muʿallim and his father. On verso (which seems to be written in the same hand, but the ink and the size of the letters look different), the sender again mentions Abū l-Waḥsh al-Ḥaver (spelled both אבו אלוחש and אבו אלוחס); 15 dirhams; something about the holiday and the journey 'to here'; and that he has sent her 1 Egyptian dinar which Abū l-Waḥsh will forward to her.

Letter of condolence