Geniza Lab

Recto: Informal note in difficult Arabic script, scrawled basmala on top, possibly a memorandum to do with land tenure? Needs further examination. Verso: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic from a sick man to his son's teacher informing him that his son behaves outrageously and needs to be disciplined. "A teacher must tell the boy if he tries to leave, 'Don't go around to the houses and the markets.' The gist of the matter is that if the boy comes this Friday afternoon and if he behaves thus (?) at that time, please inform me in your response to this note, in large Hebrew letters, because I am sick (wajiʿ), prostrated beneath my bed (or bedcovers? rāqid taḥt al-firāsh). Uncover his legs and give him a good beating." Perhaps the note on recto is from the teacher, and the man had a hard time reading it, so asked for the next one to be in Hebrew script?

Recto: page 7 of a literary composition on parashot petuḥot and setumot. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Draft? The recipient's son Efrayim is living with the writer, who seems to be responsible for his education. The writer describes how greatly they miss the recipient and then provides a detailed, interesting update of their prayer and study schedule on Shabbat. On Friday night they read the parashah (qera ve-targum) and the haftarah, then study some of the Guide for the Perplexed ('the Dallāla), then sleep until midnight. From midnight until dawn, Efrayim reads psalms. In the morning, they recite the 'shir', the mizmors, the amida, the parasha (kera ve-targum), the prophets, and the psalms. Then they read some of "the Ḥibur" or the Halakhot, then pray Minḥa, then they study Kitab al-Amānāt by Saadya Gaon. The rest is cut off.

Contract. Location: Fustat. Dated: 2[.] Ḥeshvan 1352 Seleucid, which is 1040 CE. In which Yiṣḥaq b. Seʿadya al-Manbijī agrees to teach Fahd ha-Levi the liturgy in evening courses to be continued over a period of 3 years. Witnesses: Shabbat b. Elʿazar; Natan b. Yeshuʿa; Maṣliaḥ b. Shemuel; Efrayim b. Shemarya. Also concerns figures from a town in the Nile delta. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card)

Copy of a portion of Ezekiel, vocalized. Concludes with a dedication or colophon of sorts: "the dear teacher Yehuda b. Shemuel wrote this for Petaḥya and Yosef the Leviim." (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly addressed to 'the dear brother al-Kohen Hadar ha-Soḥerim." Dating: Early 13th century. The writer mentions things that were lost during this travel (the ḥalīb/milk? and the 'qāriṣ'?). He advises the addressee to look after the boy and not to beat him (lā tasṭū ʿalayhi bi-ʿunf) and to tell him to look after his sister and mother (at least if "your mother" refers to the boy rather than the addressee). He complains about al-Raḍiyy. Regards to Samḥūn and his siblings and father; to Eliyyahu and his son; to Abū l-Faraj and Bū Mubārak and their wives. The letter ends: "Do not tell anyone our secret."

Letter from an unidentified Torah scholar. Dating: Likely 11th century. The writer mentions the city of Fez and people who have become affluent and are honoring him ('and the station of the Torah'). He very happily reports on the birth of a son to him—"may God keep him alive and preserve him and send him a speedy recovery(!)"—whom he named after his late father. The letter may be addressed to a woman, based on the verb endings in the margin of recto, but this part is difficult to read. On verso, it seems that the writer's brother had died without offspring. He prays that God will keep his son alive so that he can 'toil over him like my father toiled over me.' There seem to be blessings for a female family member around here (wa-razaqakum tanẓurū awlād awlādhā). The writer says he is always praying for the addressee during Birkat Kohanim. He greets Abū l-Khayr Ṣadaqa ha-Levi and his two sons Moshe and Yeshuʿa.

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef Yijū, in al-Maḥalla, to Abū l-Fakhr Saadya b. Avraham Ibn al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. Dating: 1161–72 CE. Peraḥya conveys his happiness to have learned that the family members of Abū l-Fakhr who had been sick are now recovered (and for this reason opens the letter with Deut. 7:15, "The Lord will ward off from you all sickness"). Peraḥya is supervising the production of kosher cheese and encountering difficulties: "I have already perished from the cheese and have become perplexed as to what I should do." He writes that he would like to travel to Sicily or Damascus {al-Shām}, but since 'the little one' (his cousin and wife, Sitt al-Dār) was grown up and "had no one in the world except God" (that is, her father was dead), he could not do this. Peraḥya thanks Abū l-Fakhr for his generosity with his brother Shemuel, and he urges him to help convince Shemuel to come to Peraḥya's town, where the congregation will accept him as a schoolteacher with a salary of 20 dirhams a week plus gratuities (nawāfil), a generous salary for a teacher. Information from Goitein and Friedman India Book 3.

Letter addressed to Moshe b. Ghālib ha-Kohen. Dating: Probably 11th or 12th century. Discusses the education of 'the children of the community' (awlād al-ṣibbur). Only the upper part of the letter is preserved here.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from a man to a woman regarding the education of the writer's son, who either lives with or is merely the pupil of the addressee. He first thanks her for her care and attention that she has lavished on his son, which have fulfilled his hopes for this arrangment—and then transitions into his chief disappointment. He has tested his son several times and found that he cannot sing (fa-lam ajidhu yaʿrifu yulaḥḥin wa-lā ʿindahu khabar min al-laḥn) and that he can hardly even read (wa-lā yuḥsin yatahajjā ḥarf wa-lā ʿindahu khabar min al-hijā' ra'san). He states that he is not happy with this result, not least because of all the favor (karāma) and money (not only dirhams but dinars) that he has given her. "For the most important thing for me is a beautiful and correct melody and pronunciation (al-laḥn al-malīḥ al-ṣaḥīḥ wa-l-hijāya). Do not allow him to mingle with youths or walk with youths in the street." The writer concludes by demanding that she teach him how to sing a couple nice qinnot (?) with cantorship (qiṭʿatayn qīnā milāḥ bi-laḥn ḥazzānī malīḥ. . . . wa-yakūnū min aḥsan qawl wa-aḥsan laḥn). He must be prepared to recite them in front of al-Shaykh al-Kabīr. No bibliography. ASE

Letter from Yehuda Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 23 Nisan 1532 Seleucid, which is 1221 CE. There is a lengthy opening with expressions of longing and pleasantries. The addressee is asked to convey a legal query (fatwā) to Avraham Maimonides. Yehuda reports on the death of Hilāl b. Thābit b. Munīr, the brother of the cantor Bū l-Majd (Meʾir b. Yakhin). “[Hilāl] went to rest in the evening and did not awake in the morning. It was the first day of the holiday, and he was buried on the same day; he left a fine boy of sixteen, who studies with me" (trans. Goitein, Med Soc II, 220 and V, 155.) There are photostats and an edition in Goitein's notes (to be uploaded).

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer wants the addressee to meet with somebody. The writer may be a teacher. He describes what a certain mother and father wanted for the son and the son's progress in his studies.

Announcement from the educational committee about the morning and evening classes for the summer of 1953, and a chart naming the teachers and the children who will be studying and the meeting times – (number 108) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa. ed. Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 30). MCD.

Statement from an appointee to a charitable organization on the assistance for the educational level of Jewish students who are learning prayer and interpretation together but ceased doing so for a period of time, therefore the appointee departs on a visit to their houses and asking first about the situation of the students, wrote this statement, the times and dates of these home visits are recorded and the first response on the matter – from 9/16/1954CE to 10/03/1954CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 239) – in Arabic. (Information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 30). MCD.

Complaint against a Jewish teacher cursing the Jewish faith and Jews in front of the non-Jews in the Jewish school in ʿAbbāsiya, and also the request for his punishment before the non-Jews and his dismissal from the Jewish community – 1946 CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 240) – in Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 32). MCD.

Minutes of meetings of the educational committee for the administration of teaching-related affairs, gifts, oversight, and sanitation – October, November, December of the year 1954 – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 255) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 31). MCD.

Minutes of meetings for the school committee organizing the academic schedule and paths of study and various decisions of the council authorizing the educational operation of the school – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 290) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa. ed. Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 29). MCD.

Invitation to the Jews of Egypt to donate and assist 1200 Torah students in the cities of Palestine in their poverty or because they are orphans and their rising expenses – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 34). (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 53). MCD.

Announcement from the council of teachers of the Jews of Cairo to parents on the matters of the beginning of the school year in 1954/55 – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 97) – in Arabic and French. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa. ed. Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 29). MCD.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, in an elegant hand with tall, flamingo-like lameds. The sender appears to be a well-connected physician or medical student. Dating: Probably 1170s–90s, based on the mention of Qarāqūsh. Some excerpts: "... I have not found a stable position... in Cairo until that thing is fulfilled... in Fustat... I sat... our Rabbi... the head of the physicians (muqaddam al-ṭibb)... a physician and said to me... Cairo, and sometimes with Abū l-Riḍā, and I stay with him two nights a week and learn from him... your excellence, for 30 dinars' brokerage... entered to Qarāqūsh (likely Bahāʾ al-Dīn Qarāqūsh, active in Egypt 1169–1201) and told him the situation, and he fired him. Your excellence should be reassured, because everything is going well for you. Your excellence should kindly send a letter to 'our master' (Sayyidnā) thanking him for his advocacy for you... does not open his door to a Jew... your slave Abū Isḥāq (=the sender?)... and Abū l-Riḍā and his mother kiss your feet... and Abū l-Ṭāhir sends his regards." (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Letter from Elʿazar b. Avner to Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān b. ʿImrān. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No later than 1237 CE. The sender chastises the addressee for his inappropriate behavior and speech, somehow concerning Avraham Maimonides and the pietist movement. Verso contains the address and, inverted in relation to recto, a list of names. (Information in part from CUDL.)