Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter from a woman to her distant husband, al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab, who has been away for many years, urging him in various ways to return. She appeals to his charitable deeds; how the Jewish community has been bereft of his presence; and how at this rate, his children will only know him through those charitable deeds (8–11). She urges him not to listen to anybody else but to her only, "Get up! Rise! And earn the World to Come" (14–15). By repenting and returning he will also earn [the merit of saving] her life, "for as long as this continues, I have become very weak. Every hour I wonder if my weakness will increase. [If you return,] you will not have grief in your heart that you did not see me and that I did not pray for you before my death. I do not doubt in your love for me, as you must not doubt in my lasting love for you. Even if you have changed with the separation for all this time, and have been absent from my sight, my heart too has been absent" (17–23). She then reiterates her old age, her weakness, and her poverty. This letter is noted by Oded Zinger in his dissertation, p. 54, in the context of other letters from women to distant husbands. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic tafsir, Psalms 113:4–116:6 (Neubauer-Cowley Catalog). ASE.

Letter from the wife of Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Fustat, to her husband Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Alexandria. The letter was dictated to Abū l-Faraj, who gives his name toward the end of the letter (v9-10); Gil suggests that he is their son. The writer conveys her concern for what she heard of her husband's illness (wajaʿ). She describes her father's and her own misfortunes, and discusses the famine in Fustat. The sugar and the rose preserves that Yehuda said he sent never arrived. Dated September 26 (18 Tishrei), 1070 CE (Gil's suggestion based on the similarity between events described in the letter and those known to have transpired in 462H). ASE.

Letter (likely a draft) dictated by the wife and written by the son (Zayn al-Dār) of the India trader ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, beseeching him to return. She has just weaned the infant, who has been sick. The only other adult male in the family has also been absent. The family is in financial straits and has had to sell household furnishings and lease the upper floor in order to pay the physician and buy medicine and two chickens every day. (Information from Med Soc III, 194, where there is also a translation.) "When a boy writing to his father abroad sends regards from his mother, grandmother, maternal aunts, the widow of a paternal uncle, and the maidservant, and adds, ‘The travel of Grandpa coincided with yours so that we have become like orphans," one gets the impression that all the persons mentioned formed one household.’” (Goitein, Med. Soc., 3:39 at n. 28.) "Adult children showed their reverence toward their parents by kissing their hands, or hands and feet—at least in letters." (Goitein, Med. Soc., viii, C, 2, n. 116; see also T-S 10J17.3, CUL Or.1081 J5, T-S 16.265 and T-S 13J24.22.)

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

Family letter in Arabic script, from a distant man to his children and wife. Dating: Probably Mamluk era, or possibly early Ottoman era, based on handwriting, names, format, and formulary. The letter goes into detail about previous correspondence and other family matters. One of the sender's sons, who is mentioned a couple of times, is Yāʿqūb and the mother is Umm Aṣīla. He narrates his longing to see his family and may mention recovery from an illness which brought someone close to death, but God dispelled it (wa-l-ḥamdu lil-lāh kunnā(?) aḥad(?) man(?) ilā l-mawt wa-lākin lak ṭāl(!) al-ʿumr lā budd fa-infaraja(?) Allāh taʿāla...)

Family letter addressed to a certain Ibrāhīm. In Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary handwriting and orthography. The spellings are so unusual that the letter is hard to understand. It seems that the addressee is being chastised for his prolonged absence and the meager sums of money he sends home to support his wife ("even if you earned a dinar a day in your absence, the money wouldn't be enough"). The addressee is greeted by his wife and by Rivqa {and?} Abū Saʿīd. On verso the addressee is told to send a number of items for Passover, especially wheat. May mention "the one who beat your son." (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Abū ʿAlī b. Barakāt to his son Abū Naṣr ʿAlī b. Abū ʿAli b. al-Quṣayr, in the alley of the candles, presumably in Fustat. The unemployed father can send nothing to his son and cannot travel because of the dangers on sea and land. He promises to return home as soon as possible when it becomes less dangerous. He gives advice about the running of the shop in his absence, and says multiple times that his son should tell all his customers and associates that he is coming back as soon as possible, and he has not run away or gone bankrupt or died. It appears that his wife had written that she was languishing in his absence, to which he responds that God has brought deliverance for greater crises than this, and as soon as he heard that, he vowed to fast in the day until he is reunited with them. In another place, he says he does not sleep at night due to longing for them. His son should not speak to Hiba the collector of the capitation tax, because Abū ʿAlī owes him money and needs to sort out the matter in person. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards, and Goitein, Mediterranean Society, I, p. 467.) ASE.

Letter from Abū l-Faḍl and his mother, perhaps in Fustat, to his father Abū Naṣr, in Asyūṭ. In Judaeo-Arabic. Much of the letter is in the voice of the mother, though Abū l-Faḍl is presumably taking dictation. The letter complains about the hardship of the family after the father/husband had fled to Asyūṭ in Upper Egypt and left them without support. There is no one who can buy even a pound of meat for the children. A certain woman is still sick (right margin, ll. 3–4). It seems that Abū Naṣr had deposited some gold with a certain Abū l-Faḍl (a different person than the son who wrote this letter) in Alexandria "for the orphan girl." But the family has heard no news of this gold and fears it is lost, because Abū l-Faḍl's wife has died and Abū l-Faḍl himself is very sick (ʿalā khuṭṭa) (last lines of right margin, continuing into the upper margin). (Information in part from CUDL and Med Soc, IV, pp. 245, 439, 440; V, pp. 88, 89.) ASE

Letter from an unknown writer, probably in Hebron, to his wife (addressed as al-Sitt al-Jalīla), probably in Fustat. Addressed to al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab al-Khayyāṭ (the tailor), possibly the wife's father. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer reports that he developed a serious illness (ḍuʿf ṣaʿb) in Hebron. He is sustained only by her prayers and his knowledge of her righteousness. He departed on this journey because business had ground to a halt and he needed to gain a living. (Information in part from Goitein’s note cards.) EMS. ASE.

Letter from the wife of Baṣīr the bell-maker (al-jalājilī) to the Nagid David, asking him to help return her husband, who was living in a Sufi community, to his family and to the Jewish faith. She also asks for medicine for her child. "Our Lord has promised the little one a medicine for the ear, for he suffers from it. There is no harm in trying it out, seeing that even the barber is playing with it without experience. May God have mercy!." "[This very night.]" (Information from CUDL)