Geniza Lab

Court notebook. Location: Fustat. The tall pages are unusual for court notebooks. Contains 7 entries. Dated: 1532 Seleucid, which is 1220/21 CE. The scribe seems slightly dyslexic (e.g., writes fādiya for fāʾida and ḍamān for ḍāmin). (1) Partnership in a shop. Between [...] Futūḥ and Sulaymān. (2) Lease. Property: Ṭabaqat al-Burj (referring to a tower? or to a dovecote?). Period: 10 years. Lessor: Bū l-Faraj Ibn al-Abzārī. Lessee: Bū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Ṣabbāgh. Rent: 12 dirhams/month. (3) Involves Makārim b. Bū l-Riḍā. Details are difficult to discern; involves a house, an inheritance, and a sale. This one is signed: Ḥalfon b. Saʿīd ha-Kohen; עזראהל(??) b. Yefet ha-Melammed. (4) Difficult to read and crossed out. Maybe about a partial payment of a debt. (5) Betrothal (shiddukhin). Fiance: Bū l-[...]. Fiancee: Mudallala bt. Mufaḍḍal al-Ṣāʾigh. Delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar) is 50 dinars. This entry is incomplete and crossed out. (6) Debt contract. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ and Ismāʿīl the tax farmer of Minyat Ghamr acknowledge that they owe Bū Naṣr the brother-in-law of Sayyidnā (probably Avraham Maimonides) 773.5 dirhams. They will repay the debt over a period of 4 months. Apparently they will pay (the verb used is NQD, "assay") the 73.5 dirhams now, to make it a nice round figure. Eliyyahu (b. Zekharya) and Yeḥiel (b. Elyaqim) were the judges present. (7) This entry has been discussed and translated by Moshe Yagur as follows: "On the margins of the leaf is the first paragraph below, mentioning the birth of a mamzeret (lit. “a bastard girl,” referring to a Jew whose lineage is tainted according to rabbinic law). A paragraph clarifying the reason for the newborn’s legal state is given in perpendicular, noting the conversion of her mother. Thus the document serves as an example of some of the social and legal problems that could result from the marriage of a Jewish apostate. In addition, it suggests enduring ties between converts and their former community, given the prospect that the “bastard” daughter might choose to retain her place in the Jewish community. Translation: A daughter was born to the “son of the known one” (ibn yaʿlamū?) from Bint Ṭuwayr al-ʿAshāʾ, and she is a “bastard” (mamzeret). [It happened] in the year 1532 [of the Seleucid era, corresponding to 616–17/1220–21]. And [she is a bastard] because her mother had apostatized while she was married to Efrayim al-Damīrī, and he did not write a bill of divorce for her, and she married Bu ʿAlī “son of the known one” in a Muslim court [lit. “by non-Jewish law”]." (Information from Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam" (2020).) On the odd name Ṭuwayr al-ʿAshāʾ, perhaps "evening moth/butterfly," see the same name in T-S NS J293c from 80 years earlier and BL OR 5566C.9 (recto l. 26) from slightly earlier than that, and see Goitein's index card #19543 where he wonders if it might be a profession related to the evening meal—but it is clear from the identical name appearing in 3 unrelated documents that Ṭuwayr is part of the name.

Petition from Naṣir b. Bū l-Faraj, who converted to Islam (ihtadā) under (ʿalā yad) Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn(?) (but perhaps different from the actual Saladin?) in the district of al-Gharbiyya. The addressee is probably Saladin himself (al-maqām al-ʿālī al-malikī al-nāṣirī al-ṣalāḥī, [may God extend] his reign). The other known petitions to Saladin in the Geniza are T-S K2.96 and BL OR 5566B.12. This one has many fewer titles than the others and refers to him only as 'malik' and not 'sulṭān,' so it may date to his period as Fatimid vizier (1169–74). The petitioner introduces himself as having converted, apparently on 19 Ramaḍān 55[.] AH (corresponding to the range 1155–64 CE). The remainder of the petition is lost. Maybe he is seeking to register his exemption from the capitation tax. ASE

Responsum of Maimonides addressed to his brother-in-law al-Shaykh al-Thiqa. Answers a legal query about how to deal with the ketubba of a divorcee who had converted to Islam. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) Translated by Moshe Yagur as follows (with transliterations slightly modified for PGP): "Shall his honor, my father and patron, al-Shaykh al-Thiqa al-Amīn, send for al-Shaykh al-Ḥaver, [may his] r[ock] p[reserve him], and inform him that he is not permitted, under any circumstances, to testify at the [court of] the Muslim qāḍī regarding the dowry (ketubba) of that apostate woman (poshaʿat). Instead, he should claim that this is a bill of dower (ṣadāq), and we do not know the witnesses. I do not allow, under any circumstances, deviation from this. Also, the witnesses are not allowed to testify regarding this bill. May your peace increase." (Information from Moshe Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam," (2020).)

Letter from Efrayim b. Ya'aqov. A man named Ibn al-Qābisī, who was banned from the Jewish community in four different cities in Iberia, arrived in Alexandria, and his relatives in the city demand that the local judge also apply the ban against him; the judge hesitates to do so, since he was informed that the man had threatened to embrace Islam if he was excommunicated again. The judge turned to Masliaḥ, the Head of the Yeshiva (probably Masliah ha-Kohen Gaon b. Shelomo, head of the Jews 1127–1139), in Fustat and asked him to place the ban on al-Qābisī. The writers of the letter ask other relatives to hurry and collect incriminating evidence again the newcomer so that the ban can be declared. (Information from Frenkel).

Testimony regarding the proselytizing of two sisters. A new edition with English translation to be published by Amir Ashur

Letter from the physician Yosef, in Alexandria, to the physician Abū l-Faraj b. Abū l-Barakāt (c/o Abū l-Faraj al-Sharābī), in al-Sūq al-Kabir, Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Hebrew script and Arabic script. Dating: 13th century, according to Goitein. The sender calls himself the son of the addressee, but this is not literal. Goitein surmised that the sender and the addressee were paternal cousins and that the sender was married to the addressee's sister (thus his own paternal cousin)—but Goitein did not explain his reasoning. The subjects discussed include: (1) obtaining books from the addressee's warehouse; (2) the capitation tax; (3) an incident translated by Moshe Yagur as follows: "As for what happened on the Day of ʿArava [last day of the Feast of Tabernacles]: Yaʿqūb b. al-Muʿalim argued with his crossed-eyed son and beat him in the middle of the market with his shoe. And so the boy cried out [in the name of] Islam, and the Muslims gathered in his support (wa-ʾinna al-muslimīn taʿaṣṣabū maʿahu), and they took him [the father] and brought him before the governor. He [probably the boy] said to them, “The punishments of Islam (ḥadd) are not applicable, since I am not mature yet.” The qāḍī Ibn Ghāriḍ deliberated [the matter] and ratified his conversion to Islam (rajaʿa jaddada ʿalayhi al-islām). And there were many debates concerning this, [which] will be too long to elaborate"; (4) lancets (ruwayshāt) for bloodletting that the addressee promised to send; (5) a report that friends and family speak well of the addressee (he had asked to be told what people were saying behind his back); (6) a bakers' strike translated by Goitein as follows: "On the second day of the Sukkot feast there were great disturbances in Alexandria because of the bread, which could not be found all over the city, until God brought relief by the end of the day; the governor (al-amīr) and the superintendent of the markets (al-muḥtasib) rode out and threatened to burn down [the houses of] the bakers because of the bread, after they had inquired with the people at one oven in the east and one in the west. At the end there remained fifty hundred weights of bread in the ovens that night. So do not worry"; (7) the sender's brother has been sending letters asking everyone he knows to pray for him (likely because he is about to depart on a journey). (Information from Goitein's index cards, Med Soc IV, p. 238, and Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam" (2020).)

Letter from Yūsuf b. Faraḥ al-Qābisī, in Alexandria, to his nephew Abū l-Surūr Faraḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: September 6, 1056 CE, based on Gil's assessment. The letter contains a wide array of news and business matters. Yūsuf describes an attack by Ibn al-Thumna's soldiers on merchant ships and the requisitioning of merchandise (r10–12). He passes on the news (r14–15) that the addressee's uncle (ʿamm) Sulaymān was seriously ill in Sūsa but recovered (פק, to be read fāq); that Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī died (r16–17); that the writer's own cousin (ibn khālat{ī}) Abū l-Faḍl is critically ill (ʿalā khuṭṭa) in al-Mahdiyya (r17–18); that the customs tax (ʿushr) has become more stringent (r18); and that Yosef b. Shabbetay al-Ḥazzān converted to Islam in Palermo, a grievous day (r19–20). Amidst the bad news, and a business partner's complaint that his goods never reached him, Yūsuf complains, "My boy, by God, before this trip I was very strong, but now it is the opposite, by God, my spirit is weaker than a thread of silk" (r21–22). He continues with news of Qayrawān, al-Mahdiyya, and Sfax (v1–4); instructions regarding the purchase of flax in Būṣīr (v8–11); and information on the movements of ships. (Information in part from Gil.) ASE.

Notes on halakhic matters (lecture notes? draft of a treatise? responsa?). One side discusses a gentile converting to Judaism.

Legal query probably addressed to a Muslim jurisconsult. In Arabic script. Concerning a Jewish woman whose husband converted to Islam and later traveled to India, where he seems to have disappeared. "Concerning a Jewish [man] who converted to Islam (aslama) and was attached to a Jewish woman, after he had converted, for a year. Then he wished to travel, and the aforementioned wife said to him, “You will not leave without giving me my bill of divorce,” to which he replied, “I won’t be gone but for a little while.” And he left and has now been missing for ten years. And she requests to [re]marry, seeing her dire economic condition, for she lacks support due to the hardships of the hour and the difficulties of the time. Is it possible that she will marry after all this time, and no news were heard from him, since he is in India (fī bilād alHind)?" Information from Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam" (2020). Verso contains piyyutim; Goitein's attached edition suggests that they may be in the hand of Ben Yijū.

Recto: Letter in Hebrew. Dating: early 13th century, based on the mention of the Judge Anaṭoli in the penultimate line. The sender is apparently a Byzantine Jewish man. He married either a Christian woman or a Jewish woman who converted to Christianity (along with him? והלכ[ה] אחרי אלי נכר). Then he tried to persuade her to return to Judaism. She said, How can I leave here (Byzantium) and eat and live? He arranges to support her with four pounds (ליטרין) of bread and one pound (רטל) of meat each week. With this, she was supposed "to sit and to make Rūmī garments" (on such garments see Goitein, Med Soc IV, 191–92). The letter becomes more fragmentary around here; mentions a Jewish woman; a Christian man; someone quarreling a lot with the sender (probably his wife); Muslims; giving some people a bribe; and perhaps accusing a man of sleeping with his wife (וחטאת עמה). Then he went to the Judge Anaṭoli and confessed. (Information in part from Goitein's index card, Goitein, Med Soc IV, 236, note 82, and de Lange, Byzantium in the Cairo Genizah, 40.) This document has also been edited by Ze'ev Falk in Sinai 85 (1979), 147–48.

Accounts by a communal official. In Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Fustat. Dated: Middle decade of Iyyār 1461 Seleucid, which is May 1150 CE. Described by Moshe Yagur as follows: "The account records the inheritance of a deceased woman, which was spent to cover the expenses of her funeral and of the suits of her converted children. The deceased's sister, who was supposed to inherit what had remained, was left with nothing, since her converted nephews, and the various figures involved in the compromise settlement with them, took all that was left. The case relates to the different and contradicting opinions in both Jewish and Islamic legal traditions regarding inheritance of non-Muslims by their Muslim relatives." Partially translated by Moshe Yagur as follows (with transliterations slightly modified for PGP): "[. . .] for the testimony of the qāḍī—ten silver coins. Payment for Abū Muḥammad— 1.5. This was on Sunday, in the middle ten days (al-ʿashar al-awsaṭ) of the month of Iyyar 1461 (mid-Muḥarram 545/mid-May 1150), in the presence of Barakāt al-Kohen, Khūlayf b. al-Ḥazzan, and Furayj b. Mūnīn. Abū Muḥammad took it [the sum] in their presence when the apostate (poshʿim) children of her [deceased] sister demanded their share. The next day they took forty silver coins by way of compromise (ṣulḥ). In addition—six dirhams to the representative. In addition— two dirhams to the messenger [. . .] in the presence of Khūlayf b. al-Ḥazza[n . . .] and for the document to the second qāḍī—five coins. In sum: sixty-four and a half, out of a total of one hundred and sixty-four. Taken from our pocket: four coins." (Information from Moshe Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam," (2020).)

Letter from an ardent supporter to Daniel b. ʿAzarya. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1055 CE (per Goitein). This is only the first leaf of the letter. The sender puts his money and his friends at Daniel's disposal. The entire letter is also an attack on ʿEli b. ʿAmram, who is never directly named. The sender describes communal strife in Fustat after the death of the gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda (d. 1051) and Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Shemarya (d. after 1053 CE, probably ca. 1055 CE). The other supporters of Daniel b. ʿAzarya wanted to appoint the Rav (=Yehuda b. Yosef) as the successor of Efrayim b. Shemarya, and they did not want ʿEli b. ʿAmram to assume the position. (The Rav was in the camp of Daniel b. ʿAzarya despite being the cousin of his rivals Yosef and Eliyya, the sons of Shelomo ha-Kohen b. Yehosef who was briefly gaon in 1025 CE.) However, the sender paradoxically thinks that their enemy ʿEli b. ʿAmram should succeed Efrayim, precisely because then he will have to pay obeisance to Daniel, and the two camps will be united. The letter's contents are as follows: (1) Condolences for the death of Daniel's sister (r1–12); (2) Praises and seeking forgiveness for the fight that they had in the house of al-Damsīsī—Goitein understands that this is because the sender had advocated for ʿEli b. ʿAmram, Daniel's enemy (r13–21); (3) ʿEli ("the idiot") didn't understand that the sender has long been a supporter of Daniel b. ʿAzarya, even before the death of Shelomo b. Yehuda; and anything the sender has done for ʿEli is like what David did for Saul—serving him despite the latter's intention to kill him (r23–36); an explanation of how the sender supported ʿEli b. ʿAmram over the Rav, against the objections of the rest of Daniel's contingent, including Abū Isḥāq (Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn al-Furāt) (v1–12); ʿEli b. ʿAmram's boorish behavior once he assumed leadership, which alienated the other leading figures of the community (including Abū Sahl al-Kohen, a certain Abū l-Surūr, and a certain Elḥanan) to the point that they boycotted the synagogue (v12–28); ʿEli, fearing that he would be deposed in favor of the Rav, recruited his son-in-law Ḥunayn and started spreading malicious rumors about the Rav, including something he supposedly said to Ibn al-Talmid involving the latter's mother. Then, "Ḥunayn went and gathered some potters and quarrelsome people, and hired about fifty of them, and they wrote legal deeds about the Rav, [saying] that he had apostatized (pashaʿa) in al-Shām and [later] arrived in Egypt to re-Judaize (yatahawwada)" (v29–36). (Information from Goitein's edition. Translation of the last section from Moshe Yagur, "Several Documents from the Cairo Geniza Concerning Conversion to Islam," (2020).)

Possibly a certificate of conversion to Islam. In Arabic script. May be part of a will (says "bi-amri hādhihi l-waṣiyya" in the last preserved line). It is for a Sicilian named ʿUthmān b. ʿUmar al-Ṣiqillī/al-Siqillī al-Anṣārī (or al-Naṣārī?). Lines 6–15 consist of his profession of faith in the tenets of Islam. Much of the scholarship on legal certificates of conversion to Islam has focused on formularies rather than actual documents. E.g., see Linda Jones, "Notarial Forms for the Conversion of Non-Muslims to Islam, by Ibn al-ʿAttār (d. 399/1008)," in Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age (ed. Nimrod Hurvitz), University of California Press 2020. This document differs substantially from the formularies which have been published so far and merits further examination. The same ʿUthmān b. ʿUmar al-Ṣiqillī appears in T-S AS 177.607. ASE

Polemic against the house of the exilarch. Dating: 1040–41 CE. After a disagreement between Kafnai, Bustanay's father, and his father in law, the head of the Yeshiva, the entire family of the exilarch dies (and King David appears to the head of the Yeshiva in a dream). Bustanay is only surviving descendant of King David. The head of the Yeshiva raises him and occupies his place among the elders of Baghdad, but refuses to cede the position when Bustanay turns 16. The case comes before the caliph ʿUmar Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who is impressed that Bustanay does not flinch when a mosquito bites him. The caliph appoints Bustanay as exilarch and marries him to a daughter of the King of Persia, who had been captured in battle. She bears children to Bustanay but is never manumitted and never converts to Judaism. The point of the polemic: all the descendants of Bustanay are compromised, and the true house of King David will be revealed only in messianic times. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4) Join: Moshe Gil. In the hand of Sahlān b. Avraham (per Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 4), copied in the following circumstance: Daniʾel b. ʿAzarya, who was a nasi (from the house of the exilarch), had arrived from Iraq in Palestine and supported the gaonate of Shelomo b. Yehuda. Followers of the rival gaʾon, Natan b. Avraham, including members of the Iraqi congregation in Fustat, among them Sahlān b. Avraham, cast aspersions on Danʾiel b. ʿAzarya presumably also against Shelomo b. Yehuda. (Rustow, Heresy, 314) For a parallel text, see PGPID 35180.

Court notebook, probably. Bifolium. Entries in Judaeo-Arabic. Probably pertaining to the Qaraite court that convened in the Dar Simḥa synagogue (here called Dār Ibn Sameaḥ). Dated: Tishrei through Kislev 1751 Seleucid, which corresponds to the last months of 1439 CE. Includes entries on divorces, marriages, deaths. Also an curious entry documenting that there were rumors about the daughter of ʿAbd al-Laṭīf b. Bashīr(?), somehow connected to the bathhouse of Ibn al-Ashqar, and indeed the rumors were proven true by her pregnancy. "They did to him what was necessary upon the טפטיס (? = taftīsh?). Then, when the קצין told her "go to your father," she said, "No! I don't want to [go to] the religion of the Muslims." The entry is cryptic and these readings are tentative. Another entry mentions the ḥakīm ʿAbd al-Karīm, the head of the court (Av Beit Din). Needs further examination.