Geniza Lab

Letter from Barakāt b. Manṣūr, unknown location, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Arabic script, with the address on verso written once in Arabic script and twice in Judaeo-Arabic. The Arabic hand is reminiscent of a chancery hand. Fragment (top part of recto). The address reads, "to Fustat, the Market of the Perfumers, to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekhariya known as Ibn al-Rayyis al-Iskandarānī (of Alexandria) from his slave Barakāt." Eliyyahu served at the beginning of the 13th century (dated documents in Fustat range from 1222–36; his dated documents including those from Alexandria range from 1204–41.) For this judge, see also T-S AS 151.153 (a letter apparently from his wife) and the cluster of letters from Manṣūr b. Sālim (incl. T-S 10J16.14 addressed to Eliyyahu himself) about a runaway son (an internal Jewish affair, not the kind of thing about which one would approach the state, even if you knew how to write like a chancery official), and also Motzkin's dissertation on him and his family. The sender's full name in the tarjama is difficult to read; he is probably identical with the sender/scribe of ENA NS I.1.

Letter from Avraham b. Abū Zikrī to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Describing business travel and reporting on transactions. Mentions someone called al-Rashīd and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ b. Sulaymān. (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter from Abū Zikrī to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Late 12th or early 13th century. The letter conveys eloquent greetings for Hannuka (recto). Abū Zikrī was sick ever since arriving in [...], but he has started to recover, and now he suffers only the remnants of the illness. He sends regards to numerous family members and friends (verso). In a postscript, he writes, "You know, my master, that the reason for my illness is the death of R. Avraham." And he claims that the reason he has been unable to come in person is that he does not want to [see?] a Fustat that is bereft of Avraham. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 395 and from Goitein's index cards.) ASE

Recto: Letter from Daud (identified by his hand. AA) in Qalyūb, to Eliyyahu the Judge, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1232 CE (1543 Seleucid). The letter gives a complicated tale of a dispute over a house between a brother Abū l-Manṣūr and his sister-in-law Sutayt bt. Avraham. (Abū Thanā' is mentioned, together with R. Yehuda in Cairo, and Surur. AA). Verso: Addenda by other people, one by Tamīm b. Yosef, adding further details to the case described in the letter on recto. (Also few lines are written by Eliyyahu the Judge himself. AA)

Letter sent by Yiṣḥaq the Jerusalemite to an old friend, judge Eliyyahu b. Zechariah, excusing himself for traveling from Bilbays directly to Alexandria, without making the detour to Fustat to pay his respects to him on the approaching holidays. The writer asks the judge to submit the matter of an old man who was supported by his nephew and lost this support when the nephew died to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides for redress; otherwise, it will end up in the hands of the Muslim authorities. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 397; V. pp. 279, 584)

Letter from Meir b. al-Hamadani to the judge Eliyyahu, asking that he provide a person the writer had met with certain supplies. Dated to the early 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 577, and Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Simḥa ha-Kohen (Alexandria) to his father-in-law Eliyyahu the Judge (Fustat), explaining a recent incident involving two cloaks worth 109 dirhams and a brush with the police. He congratulates Eliyyahu on the upcoming wedding of his son Abū l-Barakāt (=Shelomo). Simḥa has been unable to fulfill an obligation to Eliyyahu because his wife (Eliyyahu's daughter) has been sick for the last year, and he has been unable to travel. See also T-S 13J24.10.

Letter from Eliyyahu the Judge to his son Shelomo (Abu l-Barakāt). The writer asks Shelomo to come immediately to his mother, who is ill, because he has to travel to Alexandria to find a bride for R. Yishaq. (Information in part from Goitein's index card). VMR. ASE.

Letter from Avraham b. Rav Shelomo the Yemeni, in Jerusalem, to Eliyyahu the Judge in Fustat. Avraham lives with Eliyyahu's son, the physician Abu Zikri, and he conveys the good news that Abu Zikri has recovered from his febrile illness and has not relapsed for forty days. Avraham's family recently arrived from Bilbays. On verso are jottings and accounts in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Same writer and recipient as T-S 13J21.5, which was written not long after this one (Goitein's note cards suggest ca. 1214). Alan Elbaum.

Letter from Yefet b. Ḥalfon to Eliyyahu the judge, requesting him to obtain a legal decision (fatwa) from the Nagid Avraham and to pass it on to Yefet; he also sends greeting to Yehi'el the judge. EMS

Letter from Ibrahim b. Miṣbāḥ to Eliyyahu the Judge (spelled אליהוא). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: early 13th century. The sender had previously sent with the bearer Ismāʿīl a legal query (fatwā) and other documents (masāṭir). Evidently Eliyyahu brought these to Avraham Maimonides (Sayyidnā al-Rayyis), who wrote his response at the bottom of the query but who did not sign the masṭūr or the pisqei din. The sender now asks Eliyyahu to get Avraham to write his signature on these documents. (Information in part from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Yeshuʿa ha-Melammed b. Avraham, in Minyat Zifta, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1236 CE (Iyyar 4800+196 = 4996 AM, line 16). The writer reports that the income from the ‘quppa’ was used as a school fee for poor children. Goitein also makes note of the greeting for an old man in precarious health in a high position: "May God not wound Israel through him" (line 4), i.e., may God not wound Israel by causing him illness or death. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:105-6, 515, 544.) EMS. ASE.

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to a certain Abū l-Surūr (probably an elder relative, since he is addressed as "father"). In Judaeo-Arabic. Faded and damaged, and only the upper part is preserved. Verso: Draft of a generic legal document—a "trial of style," according to Goitein. Location: Fustat. Dated: Thursday, 29 Tammuz 1536 Seleucid, which is 1225 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. Probably written by Judge Eliyyahu b. Zekharya (AA). (Information from Goitein's index cards) EMS.

Letter from Abū l-Najm to Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking him to send the crimson red silk in his possession (al-maftūl wa-l-shaqīq) with a third person. The letter is torn off here, and the bottom part is missing.

Instructions in Avraham Maimonides' hand to R. Eliyyahu to give them bread for Sabbath. Also: List of contributors (in the judge's hand) and names of recipients of alms. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 466)

Letter to Joseph al-Talmid from Elijah b. Zekharia. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Abū Niʿma to Eliyyahu the Judge. Concerning a complaint filed by the daughter of the late Abū l-Maḥāsin. Mentions Bilbays and Muslims. There is one line of faded Arabic script on verso, likely the address. (Information in part from CUDL)

Note/order in the handwriting of Avraham Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. He tells Eliyyahu the Judge to go together with Abū l-Faḍl al-jābī (the collector) and the messenger of the amir to the house of the glassmaker (or 'the house of glass (manufacture?)'), to honor the messenger, and to fulfill the order of the amir by paying the rent of the מכנאס(?). AA. ASE.

Most of the page contains series of poems. On one page there is a short note addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge from an in-law of his. "In which I inform Rabbi Eliyya: If I were to describe the severity of my illness and my pain, you would say, 'How can this one walk on the earth?!'" The sender goes on to complain about the difficult circumstances in which he sent this poetry (so maybe he is the author of the poetry on the other three pages). Greetings to Eliyyahu's wife (called Umm al-Rayyis Abū Zikrī), her daughter, her son, and her siblings.

list of commodities and prices, written by Shelomo b. Elya or his father Elya b. Zekharya. AA