Geniza Lab

Calligraphic get (bill of divorce) dated the 19th of Kislev 1661 CE (5422) from Damascus. Moshe b. Avraham known as Ibrahim repudiates Malkah known as Muluk bt. Eliyahu known as Khidr. Signed by Elazar b. Noah and Hayyim b. Eliyyahu.

Letter from Moshe b. ʿOvadya, in Aleppo, to a Nagid, in New Cairo, who receives 20 lines of eloquent Hebrew praises but does not appear to be named (he may be identifiable on the basis of the titles, or if the writer or other people mentioned in the letter prove to be dateable). The writer also conveys his longing for a R. Moshe and for the entire community of Cairo. When the Nagid's third letter arrived in Aleppo, the "season/period" (epidemic?) had already begun in Aleppo and numerous Jews died, including R. Avraham ha-Dayyan the author of Etz Hayyim. Trade came to a standstill. Then the rains began: four months in which they did not even see the sun, and two-thirds of Aleppo "fell" (flooded? buildings collapsed?). Now it is the period of the capitation tax. For all these reasons, the writer was not able to respond sooner. The writing now becomes messier and somewhat trickier to understand. Possibly someone named al-ʿAjami and his son were in Damascus for 10 days, and the "deputy of al-Sham" confiscated all their property, amounting to 1000 dinars. Furthermore, a Jew from Aleppo who was in Damascus at the time reported that someone got their hands on all the money and all the books that Avraham ha-Dayyan had left in the possession of his daughter (possibly her husband was the villain). The writer plans to send another letter having to do with legal/judicial matters (?) so that the recipient can advise him. Noaḥ ha-Levi b. Shemuel ʿAḍʿāḍ added a postscript stating that he was present when this letter was being written and that he sends his respects. ASE.

Marriage contract from Damascus, 956, which records a marriage gift of 225 dinars (of which only 25 were advanced) and a dowry evaluated at 395 dinars. (Friedman, Jewish Marriage, vol. 197-9) EMS

Legal deed drawn up in Damascus, September 1084 CE (25 Tishrei, 1396 Seleucid), both qiyum and shimush written by Shemuel ha-Nasi 'the third' b. Daniel ha-Nasi.

Letter from Zakkay b. ʿAzaryahu the Nasi to the community of Damascus. Only the introduction is preserved. This may be a draft that was abandoned. On verso there is a guide to Arabic prosody, in Judaeo-Arabic.

Marriage contract of a ransomed captive woman, Damascus, possibly [10]82/3 or [11]82/3.

Letter sent from Jerusalem in later medieval times by a woman named Jamila, the widow of Yehuda, addressing two brothers-in-law in Cairo, explaining that she could not come with the last caravan since she had visitors from Damascus who had fled from the plague, but promising she would come with the next caravan. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 115)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The handwriting is very likely that of Mūsā b. Yaʿqūb/Moshe b. Yaʿaqov writing from somewhere in the Levant in the 1050s CE to an addressee in Fustat. Compare the documents edited in Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, #514–#517, all of which are addressed to Dāʾūd b. Shaʿya (and two of which also suffer from a milder version of the wet-ink problem). The distinctive feature of the present letter is that the ink was still wet when it was folded/pleated, so almost all of the text is obscured by mirror-image imprints of other lines. (Goitein glanced at it and wrote, "Letter in Hebrew characters on which decorative patterns were printed. (?)") Probably most of it will be illegible until someone devises a clever way to subtract the reflected text. Some of the phrases that can be read are as follows: "... selling the pepper of my master the elder, and I did not know the intention of my master the elder, and Ibn Hillel already received his share... in Damascus and the letter arrived... the caravan already departed from [...]... from Tyre to Egypt... it is not concealed from my master that... 200... if my master the elder has bought some merchandise, its price returned... what he collected from the comb traders (? al-mashshāṭiyyīn) and the Sindis (?! אלסינדיין - this would be exciting but is probably wrong)... (verso) ... in Damascus it is 2/3 dinars per qintar... Damascus... this week... the rosewater... the caravan from Damascus...[skipping to the end]... may your peace increase... if you see fit to write and for the agent to pay for the [...] and charge you(?) for it... writing harshly(?)... for he will come around by being gentle (ʿalā l-mulāṭafa)..." ASE

Most of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, probably from the Levant, to a dignitary in Fusṭāṭ. It begins by extolling the favor (iḥsān) that the Amīr ʿAlā al-Dīn b. ʿAlam Dār (or Alemdar = "the standard-bearer") bestowed upon the writer. "It was he who was our friend in Damascus." The amir was very sad to say farewell to the writer. The writer then asks the addressee to convey his regards and obedience to David [Maimonides?] the Great Nagid. He also sends regards to ʿOvadyah and al-Shaykh Munajjā "and the rest of the masters," including al-mawlā al-Asʿad Abū Saʿd al-Ṣayrafī and his father, and al-Mawlā al-Makīn Abū l-[...] and his brother . . . and others.

Letter from Meʾir b. ʿEli ha-Kohen, in Damascus (חדרך סוריא), to his brother Ṭoviyya b. ʿEli, in Fustat. Dating: beginning of September 1127 CE. The letters deals with financial matters and the purchase of flax and indicates that the Gaon (Maṣliaḥ) was by then in Egypt. "Mutual affection was expressed by kissing the eyes" (Goitein, Med. Soc., viii, C, 2, n. 117). Cf. T-S 10J17.8. Also mentions someone who got very sick (balagha kathīr) but God sent health (recto, 8–10). Mentions the same Yaḥyā b. Najm who appears in T-S 6J2.13.

Letter, first part, flowery, from the Qaraite community of Egypt to that of Damascus. Later than the classical Geniza period.

Letter addressed to the judge R. Yeshuʿa in Fustat. The sender's name may be legible: [...] al-[Iskan?]darānī b. Ibrāhīm. The sender asks the addressee "to help him get rid of his wife to whom he has already sent the bill of divorce but needs an official confirmation of its being received before being allowed to marry another woman (on this see Friedman, Polygyny, 241). The sender writes: I have heard that she is in Fustat and the bill of divorce reached her, but you did not send me an answer. Do not neglect the small one (i.e., the writer's child) and do not allow him to travel down to Alexandria. May God deal with her as she has acted. She separated me from my son. If there is Paradise, it is Damascus. I have heard that the son of R. Moshe arrived in Jerusalem. By your faith in God! do not listen to her, for [or: claiming that] she will come to Syria (Bilād al-Shām). For she has broken me and exhausted me, behaving like an idiot (taballadat) in the land (fī l-balad). I swear I have been sick for 30 days..." Translation based on Oded Zinger's translation in "If There is a Paradise, It is Damascus" (2012). ASE

Addendum to a letter. Addressed to a woman. The sender reports that after finishing the letter, al-Bazzāz al-Ḥajj arrived and insisted that the sender's son owes him 11 dinars and that he knows that the son arrived in Damascus. The sender is asked to write to her own son and tell him to send whatever he can. The sender is ashamed to ask this and says that (s)he shouts at Barakāt to write an Arabic letter to the son who owes the 11 dinars. The entirety of this document is devoted to this issue, and the sender is worried.

Letter from a woman, probably in Damascus, to her distant husband. Written in Judaeo-Arabic and some Hebrew. She chastises him for abandoning her for the last 15 months, in violation of the oath he swore over a Torah in front of the judge of Damascus. "I thought you were a religious, praying man. . . ." She also mentions that her mother died. Needs further examination. ASE

Letter from al-Mufarriḥ(?) b. al-Ḥusayn to 'the father' Ismāʿīl(?). Concerning a deposit (wadāʿa, line 8). Mentions travel to Damascus (ll. 10–11) and the danger of the roads (l. 13). Regards to many people at the end. Needs further examination.

Bill of sale, faded, of a house from Damascus, 1113–14. There is a rashut statement for Hisdai ha-Nasi. Some of the names are quite interesting: Safiya the wife of Karam b. Avraham known as Siraj al-Hanukka (i.e. Hannuka lamp). Also mentioned is Meshullam b. Yishaq ha-qosem al-Ma'ari.

Letter from an unknown writer, either in Gaza or near Jerusalem, to Yishmaʿel, in Fustat/Cairo. In Hebrew. Dating: Second half of the 16th century. The writer describes his persecution at the hands of judges and police in Palestine, specifically in the city of Gaza. It began with a debt owed to the writer by a shāwīsh/çavuş, who denied owing anything (r10–12). The matter came before a judge from Jerusalem, who came to Gaza (r10), and, thanks to bribes and false witnesses, ruled against the writer (r12–15). The shāwīsh continued persecuting the writer, trheatening him with imprisonment or extradition to Damascus for the sake of bringing the case before the Basha there (r15–18). The shāwīsh maintained that the writer owed him 427 Venetian gold coins (peraḥim banādiqa) (r32–33). But the community of Gaza came to the rescue of the writer and agreed to stand security for the loan (r28, v14) that he would need to take out in order to pay off various people to avoid being dragged off to Damascus (r19–31). The writer is now in unbearable financial straits (r31, v6) and asks the addressee to help defray his debts to the community of Gaza (v7–38). The writer has also turned to Yaʿaqov de Villareal and Moshe Porekh(?) for help in transferring the money (v22–25). Information from Avraham David's edition on FGP.

Hebrew letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Zeraḥya known as Faryol (?), a physician, to Avraham Talmid (known from other letters, fl. ca.1600). The first part of the letter deals with business matters. The writer mentions that he wished to examine some books, but the bookseller refused to untie them. He then asks the addressee to look after and mentor R. David ha-Kohen who is visiting Damascus with 200 gold pieces to exchange them for other gold and silver. The second part of the letter conveys information for al-Shaykh Ghāzī who left his wife in the hands of the writer to cure her from her illness. Thanks to the medicines sent by the husband and others that the writer gathered, the cure has been successful—her face has completely healed, and her legs, thank God. "Please remind him to send me a suitable gift, something suitable. In truth it has been nine months since I have seen my home (or: wife). Now, for Purim, they have begged me to come, but the sick woman, his wife, did not wish to let me go, and I could not go against her will. Copy out these words for him. . ." Information from Avraham David's edition. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: probably early 13th century. The writer complains that the Rayyis does not trust him to deliver letters for him, thus he gave leters to R. Yūsuf to deliver, who then lost them. The writer gathered the courage to write to Rabbenu Avraham and al-Ḥaver about this matter, but he has not received a response from 'his Majlis', thus he writes the present letter. On verso he discusses the case of a (his?) wife, the daughter of Bū Saʿd b. Maqdūnsa (an Ibn Maqdūnsa is also mentioned in T-S Ar.54.91). Her husband sent her a get from Damascus with Muẓaffar. She then remarried in Fuwwa (?) Yūsuf b. al-Yaqṭīn. "And the purpose of your letter to Damascus is that perhaps you can give him a ruling regarding (re-)marriage. The story is confusing and would likely be clarified by the missing part of the letter. An Abū Zikrī is mentioned in the margin. ASE.

Verso: Letter addressed to ha-Kohen ha-Parnas. In Judaeo-Arabic. This is a recommendation letter or a request to help the bearer, a young man from Damascus. Evidently something bad happened to the bearer with the Ghuzz. He wants to travel but doesn't have money. AA. ASE.