Geniza Lab

Recto: A long, interesting letter from a judge to a cantor. The writer is publicizing the ban of excommunication that the late Nagid (אדונינו ראש ישיבתה שלתורה הקדוש זצל) placed on Makārim b. Manṣūr al-Sammāk who encroached on the rights of the tax farmer of al-Maṭariyya—either Heliopolis (Goitein) or the district with the same name in the Delta—who is named Sālim. Goitein: Letter of a dayyān of Cairo to the ḥazzān of al-Maṭariyya, requesting him to intervene with Nāṣir al-Jazzār who had farmed the taxes of the locality from the Amir Malik al-Umārā' and then asked from Sālim 60 instead of 40 dirham nuqra, after Makārim b. Manṣūr al-Sammāk overbade him. See Med Soc II, 606. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script. Needs further examination

Letter from Farajūn b. Hilāl, in a provincial town, to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The sender may be Abū l-Faraj b. Hillel, who is the sender of T-S 13J26.19 (1094–1111 CE). Farajūn b. Hilāl reports that he leased the addressee's shops and house. He further reports on Abū Yaʿqūb and the wine; apparently Abū Yaʿqūb has not gone to Fustat as ordered by Sayyidnā, citing his inability to get a ḍāmin to draw up a capitation tax receipt for him. A certain Khalaf wants to empty the shop and set it up elsewhere, but the sender asked him to delay until he had a chance to write this letter. He talked to the amīr, who agreed to permit either the addressee or his son, but not both, to leave the capital. He urges the addressee (or his son) to come quickly with a letter from the rayyis. Khalaf has sent the addressee 1.5 dinars and wants good-quality lac. The sender then reports in detail about the nagid’s beehives, complaining about all the trouble he has had with them, and asks for instructions. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Left fragment: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. There is an address: to [...] al-Dawla Moshe ha-Zaqen ha-Sar the tax farmer (ḍāmin), in Damīra. But it is not entirely clear that this address belongs with the note on the other side, which is a letter of recommendation. The addressee is asked to help reconcile the bearer, al-Shaykh al-Makīn, with his wife "and listen to his complaint (shakwā), [because] he is a good boy and his father is a good man. . . and you know his intellect and his piety." The writer later states, "Maybe I will come to Fustat," implying that the addressee of the letter of recommendation is in Fustat (rather than Damīra). But needs further examination. (Information in part from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Right fragment: Small fragment of a ketubba written in the Palestinian style. In the hand of the ḥaver Shemuel b. Moshe, the same scribe as ENA NS 77.354. Location: Probably Tyre. Dating: ca. 1028–54. See M. A. Friedman's edition for further information.

Letter fragment addressed to Ḥusayn al-Ṣabbagh al-Ḍāmin in formal style and in curious script of large characters, asking the recipient to pay 1/6 dinars for the hire of a boat, for which the writer had pawned his clothing with the captain al-Rayyis al-Ḥayfī. The writer is hungry and thirsty. It seems he ate something that gave him a bad case of gas ("wa-alqaʾat al-riyāh fī jawfī"), and he has not eaten anything since. Mentions Amīr al-Juyūsh and Saniyy al-Dawla. Information in part from Goitein's index card. Handwriting is the same as ENA 3360.7 (another letter) and may be the same as DK 344 (literary). ASE.

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, in Qalyūb or Fustat/Cairo, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel, probably in Alexandria. Dating: November 17, 1140 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. Probably written after Ḥalfon traveled to Alexandria to meet Yehuda ha-Levi. Yeḥezqel writes about the fear that gripped him when Ḥalfon left and boarded the boat, while ill and without any companion. The body of the letter deals with business matters, especially recounting disputes with others regarding debts. Yeḥezqel was helpled by Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ. One of these disputes was with the 'youths' (ṣibyān) who owed money to Yeḥezqel. These youths recruited their Muslim neighbors against Yeḥezqel and threatened that their mother would appeal to the state authorities (al-sulṭān) to exempt them from repaying the debt until ('God forbid!' interjects Yeḥezqel) they recover from their illness. Yeḥezqel had already involved two trustees of the court and the Nagid himself, but the youths too appealed to the Nagid. Yeḥezqel continues with the matter of a certain aristocrat named Razīn al-Dawla, who is angry because he had given Yeḥezqel to purchase a garment for the winter, and the order had not been fulfilled. Yeḥezqel asks Ḥalfon to make haste in obtaining the garment, which should be in a beautiful yellow. It may be sent to Yeḥezqel in Qalyūb or to 'the Jew' (the tax farmer) in Shaṭnūf, which is the iqṭāʿ of Razīn al-Dawla. Yeḥezqel asks for news of Ḥalfon's arrival in Alexandria and asks him to convey an apology to Yehuda ha-Levi for not having written to him or come to Alexandria to greet him in person. Information from Goitein and Friedman. ASE. Probably Qalyūb; Sunday, 5 of Kislev; November 17, 1140

Letter from Zakkay b. Moshe to the ḍāmin (tax-farmer) Abu al-Bishr Mevasser ha-Kohen b. Salman. The writer, a scribe in al-Mahalla, describes his work of copying a commentary on the Torah onto vellum in big letters. He asks whether the book should be bound in that town. Dated ca. 1145. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 112; II, pp. 239, 605; Goitein's index cards)

Letter of Abū l-Maḥāsin b. ʿAlī the trader, introduced by citations from Proverbs 3:4, Psalms 37:11 and 119:165. Mentions consingments of medical commodities such as betel palm (fawfal), amomum (qāqulla) and quince (safarjal), a doctor’s visit and names such as Naḥūm the perfumer and Abū Manṣūr Ibn al-Ṣāʾiḡ (goldsmith), cousin of the writer. (Information from CUDL.) The writer excuses the poor appearance of his letter ('my mind is not present') on account of his great preoccupation for his two friends who are sick, Naḥum al-ʿAṭṭār and his cousin (b. ʿammatī) Abū Manṣūr the son of the tax farmer of ברמא. The writer leaves the shop and visits each of them 5 or 6 times a day, because they are 'cut off' from anyone who can go to the physician for them. ASE.

Letter from Yūsuf, presumably in Fustat, to his 'brother' Zakarīya b. al-Rayyis, in Fuwwa. In Judaeo-Arabic. The letter is to be delivered to Yūsuf the tax farmer of Fuwwa, who is to forward it to the intended recipient. The letter contains a rebuke for the addressee who left before the holidays instead of staying as everyone urged him. In the meantime, it seems a letter has arrived that demands an urgent response. Everyone is distressed on account of the addressee's illness. Bū l-ʿIzz al-Ghāsūlī brought a letter and three dirhams. ASE.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Includes expenses for the maks (customs duty?), and the capitation tax (jāliya) in Syria for the years 20 and 21. Names mentioned: al-Shaykh al-Rashīd Ṣayrafī b. al-Dayyan; Ibn Karīm al-Iskandarī Ṣabbāgh; Ibn Bayān; Bū l-Ghayth the tax farmer of Hebron (ḍāmin al-Khalīl); and [...] Ibn al-Ghuzūlī.