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

Fragment of a decree mentioning the funds of a dīwān in exchange for something. Late Fatimid (paleographic dating), same chancery hand as some of the docs from Cambridge. The preserved text reads as "wa-l-īrād ḥāfiẓan lī amwāl al-dīwān bādilan fī ".

Report on fiscal matters, draft.

Document tied to finances that according to FGP could be connected to state procedures. Dating: Ottoman-era. This designation seems feasible given the appearance of "diwan" on both the recto and verso (l. 3r, 11v). On the verso, the first few lines mention the act of payment and "miqdar/مقدار" or an "amount" or "quantity" (l. 3v). It may be from a literary treatise concerning financial relations with the state. It is filled with bureaucratic jargon referring to several different bureaus (e.g., Dīwān al-ʿUmūm and Dīwān ʿUmūm al-[...]," which is opposed to Nuẓẓār al-Furūʿ) and to "protecting interests" (عدم تعطيل المصلحة) and "necessary expenses" (المصاريف الضرورية). Needs further examination. MCD. ASE.

Legal document (iqrār) in Arabic script. Ḥammād b. Hiba al-A[...] makes a declaration concerning the jahbadh of the diwan and a sum of 70 dinars. Dated: Rabīʿ al-Awwal 435 AH, which is 1043 CE. Reused for Judaeo-Arabic midrashic text on the 10 commandments.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Likely in the same hand as T-S 13J7.24. Describing some kind of dire period of war or the like. "The slave of the king came . . . 30,000 dinars on the two wakālas(?) and the dīwān and all the merchants, and the country is closed (maghlūqa), and the exchange is 42.5 [this is tentative], and no one has a dinar any more, and the collection (istikhrāj) of all the remaining capitation taxes, and the poor are in perplexity, I have informed the master [this]." The surviving portion of the letter on verso is much more quotidian, consisting mainly of the standard closing salutations. Mentions the fatwā (jawāb al-faqīh) for the writer's cousin (ibn ʿamm) Maʿānī. Needs further examination. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragmentary (horizontal strip cut from the middle section). Concerning the sender's efforts to 'liberate' an estate/inheritance from the diwan.

Fragment torn from what seems to be the same Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic letter (but a different sheet of it) as F 1908.44W, with the verso reused in the same manner. See join. The content of the letter remaining on this sheet includes an eloquent Hebrew introduction, greetings to "our rabbis," and then perhaps the beginning of a letter of recommendation for Men[aḥem?], from the important men of a certain city. The dīwān charged him. . . 17 Nāṣirī dirhams. . . and now he is penniless and cannot support his children.

Mysterious document in Judaeo-Arabic. In blocky handwriting. One side mentions "al-bāqī... wa-l-dīwān nafadha dhālika."

Fragment of a letter from Abū l-Thanāʾ to his "father," possibly named Abū Saʿd Ibn [...]. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script (note that the bottom line of the address was originally the top line; it appears where it is now because of how the letter was glued shut and cut open). Dating: Probably late 12th or 13th century, based on handwriting. The sender says that the holiday was no holiday at all due to the addressee's absence. He reports that there is no longer any need (wajh, spelled וש) for the addressee to stay away (fī bilād al-ghurba), because the diwan has received in full (istawfā) whatever was owed to it (the capitation tax?), and "al-Ḥazzāzī has taken for us its writ/document (or even receipt? ḥujja)." Join by Amir Ashur.

Letter from a father in Cairo to his son, Abū Manṣūr, in the Fayyum. The recipient is told not to get involved in any banking deals with the government. The writer illustrates his warning with examples of people who had suffered physical torture because of their dealings with the diwan. Addressee is advised to pursue a modest, safe living as a moneychanger. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 240, 269, 460, 467; IV, p. 161)

al-Nusayr b. al-Hakim, a Muslim, declares before Yosef b. Yefet the teacher (who wrote the document) and Ya'ish Zayn al-Tujjar, that he would transfer to the diwan a document stating that Yefet b. Yehoshuaʿ (alias al-Makin b. Abu al-Majd) owed him around 4160 dirhams, for he owed the diwan 100 dinars. When asked how much Yosef still owed him, he replied that he owed him around 100 dirhams. Dated 1217 (Friday 4th of Av. Year 1528 Seleucid Era. Place: al-Mahalla. (Information from Goitein's index cards; also Mediterranean Society, I, p. 242; II, 402)

Legal document. Dated: First decade of Elul 1458 Seleucid (July/August 1147 CE). In which Abū l-Riḍā Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, "the noble and generous," takes over the tax farming of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā from Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and his son Abū l-Khayr. The nature of the tax is not specified; Goitein presumes that it was for the tax on the manufacture, dyeing, and sale of silk. The declaration begins, "I had intended to take over the tax farming of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā, which is in the hand of the elder Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and of his son Abū l-Khayr. Then I pondered over the straitened circumstances of these people, their liabilities and indebtedness to the dīwān and thought that if I took that thing from them through machinations, force, and getting the better of them, they would suffer damage, both from the side of their relation with the dīwān and their loss of income. Thus, considering their welfare prior to my own and confident that with God's favorable decree and help the welfare of all us would be served, I make this proposal." The value of the tax farming lease is 335 dinars per year. The proposal is that they will transfer the rights to the tax farm to Abū l-Riḍā, and he will pay their debt of 80 dinars to the dīwān in four annual installments of 20 dinars. If the superintendent (mushrif) and director (ʿāmil) of the diwan raise the sum owed for the new tax farmer, the amount of the 'rise' (ziyāda) will be deducted from the 80 dinars. Signed by: Zakkay b. Moshe (the Jewish judge of al-Maḥalla in this period); and ʿAmram b. Yaʿaqov. In the margins of recto and on verso, there is a philosophical (?) work in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning natural science, astronomy, etc. (Information from Goitein's index card, Goitein's attached translation, and CUDL.) EMS. ASE.

Decree (manshūr) issued by the caliph al-Hafiz on 21 Rajab 528/1133 to stop two cases of malpractice which were adversely affecting the Delta province of al-Nastarawiyya. Merchants from al-Nastarawiyya who traveled to the neighboring coastal regions to buy goods were being mistreated by government officials and their business was being disrupted; and fishermen from al-Gharbiyya province were fishing illegally along the shores of Lake Burullus within the territory of al-Nastarawiyya, causing financial harm to the ḍamān for fisheries held by ḍāmins from al-Nastarawiyya (and thus to the fisc). (Khan, 1986, p. 441) This version of the decree was copied onto a bifolio in the chancery for storage in its archives; for more on this process and the relationship of compact archival decrees to monumental rotuli, see Rustow, The Lost Archive, 326–34.

Recto: Bottom part of a letter in Arabic script, from a man to his 'brother.' He spells والساعة as والسعا numerous times. He mentions people including Sulaymān b. al-[...]āmī and the poor man (al-faqīr) Ibn Faraḥ and sends regards to Umm Yūsuf. Needs further examination. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic letter from ʿEli b. Shelomo to his father. The writer is in terrible straits and full of regret. The issue seems to be that a group of Alexandrians have banded together to have the writer fired from his position as slaughterer, cantor, and teacher. "Woe is he who can only depend on God. I have already entered with my qumāsh (garments? furnishings? wife's dowry?)." He then mentions the diwan catching him and having to sell a garment. His intention is to come to Qalyub with his wife. His heart is preoccupied on behalf of [...]. ASE.

Recto: Notes for drawing up a legal document. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerns a woman, half of a house, what will happen when she sells her shares, "renting from the dīwān," and so on. Verso: A similar digest of a legal document in Judaeo-Arabic. Different hand (hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe?). Involving a house, various sums of money, and renovating a bustān. This was written on top of a reused fiscal account in Arabic script.

Letter, or rather a legal query, from [...] ha-Kohen b. Avraham to a communal authority addressed as 'exilarch.' In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Unknown, perhaps 13th or 14th century. This very long letter conveys the tale of a legal dispute involving a codex, a pawn, and a debt. The writer details his travails with various adversaries and his imprisonment at the order of the Muslim court and the physical violence that came to pass. He wants the addressee to make a judgment in this case and exert his authority to help secure the writer's rights. Needs much more examination.