Geniza Lab

Letter of condolence on the death of a woman. From an unidentified sender, probably in Qūṣ, to Abū l-Karam and his son Abū Isḥāq b. al-[...], in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The sender was staying in the funduq of Ibn al-Muṭiyy (בן אלמטי) in Qūṣ. There is also a deceased man, as the sender writes in the margin of recto that "your letters distract me from reading the letters of the deceased man (al-marḥūm)." Verso contains greetings to and from various people, including to Fakhr al-Dawla. In the margin of verso, he asks the addressee to forward a letter to the wife (? ṣāḥiba) of Ibrāhīm b. Amīn al-Mulk, one of the Yemeni traders "who burned in the ill-omened funduq." ASE

Legal document. Dating: probably ca.1185. This is the only known document that refers to the majlis of Maimonides. It is a draft of a statement (tiqrār) to be signed by Maimonides, the Judges and the Elders, to the effect that Avraham b. Yaḥyā ha-Levi, called al-Najīb, should get the payment of his capitation tax (jizya) to the amount of 1 2/3 dinars out of the revenue from the rents of a "block" (rabʿ) which was a pious foundation earmarked for poor people. Thus Avraham's capitation tax will be paid from the revenue of the qodesh, not as charity, but as compensation for fees which he once renounced for supervising repairs in the funduq. The text stresses the great benefit which would accrue from his continued presence at such repairs. This payment was to be in the place of a daily salary of 1/2 dirham to which al-Najīb was entitled for his supervision of the building of the Funduq ('hotel' or caravenserai), erected by Abū ʿImran Beḥir ha-Kohanim, certainly also a public building. The remuneration of 1/2 dirham normally was paid out of a daily emolument of 2 dirhams which the Wakīl or administrator of the building received. The statement is not signed, perhaps because Maimonides objected to such a vague agreement made in respect of the spending of money destined for the poor. (Information from Goitein's notes and from Gil, Documents, pp. 323 #77.) On verso there are 6 lines of verses in Arabic script.

Fragment from the beginning a letter in Judaeo-Arabic, in lovely and distinctive handwriting. The writer has been forced to stay in a funduq due to an illness, and there is no one there to help him. At one point he visited the house of al-Kohen al-Ṣiqillī, presumably a physician, to take a medicine. Most of the rest of the letter is lost. He mentions Umm Muslim and in the margin reiterates that he has been living in the funduq. ASE.

Two drafts of the same letter to the "holy congregation" about Yosef Saftawi (trader in "safta," it seems an Indian spice) who had been given shelter in the community's hospice after having arrived in Fustat penniless and burdened with debt. He behaved, however, in a way which was an offense to God, to his wife, and his child. The drafts were written on a page which had served as the beginning of a treatise by Avraham b. Ezra ("the Philosopher"), referring to the year 1165/6 [561 Hijri]. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Legal/official document in Arabic script. Drawn up in the majlis al-khidma of an amir with grand titles (...majd al-khilāfa ʿizz al-dīn jamāl al-[...] fakhr al-mulk sayf al-dawla wa-[...]hā b. al-M[...]m ṣanīʿat amīr al-muʾminīn...). Dated: 16 Rabīʿ II 504 AH = 1 November 1110 CE. In which Rawʿ b. Ḥammūd, a Muslim funduqānī (proprietor of a caravanserai), undertakes to transport to the Ṣināʿa ("the Arsenal"), the river port of Old Cairo, all falat (goods that had evaded the payment of dues) and all those for which customs had to be paid, whether they had been brought to his own place or to other caravanserais, or had otherwise come to his knowledge. Reused on recto for Hebrew poems. (Information in part from Goitein's note card and Med Soc I, 189–90.)

Piyyuṭ; marginal note in Arabic, announcing the writer’s arrival at the funduq in Cairo on the 13th Shawwal 680 AH (= 1282 CE); beginning of an address to al-Diwān al-Maʿmūr. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Small fragment. Mentions a hotelier (al-funduqānī) (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter mentioning the servants (ghilmān) of the amīr, going to Caesarea, and a Ḥaver. Also mentions "I sent him back to the Morning Breeze Inn" (funduq rīḥ al-ṣabāḥ). (Information in part from CUDL)

List of revenue from rent ca. 1200. A fragment of a double leaf from a notebook. The revenue listed refers mainly to the funduq and to three compounds of the qodesh. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 375 #99)

Letter from the Gaon Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Ramle, to his son Abū Isḥāq Avraham, in Tyre or Damascus (Shelomo does not know which, so he arranges for the letter to reach Avraham in either case). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: June 27, 1033 CE, based on Gil's assessment. Shelomo had traveled from Jerusalem to Ramle to see his daughter, because she had given birth prematurely to a boy at 7 months. It seemed at first that the newborn would survive (kānat ʿalāmatuhu khayr), but he died soon afterward (r4–6). Shelomo's daughter remains ill with an intermittent fever (r19, where the word "nawba" is probably to be understood in its technical sense of "paroxysm"), however it seems not dangeorusly ill, since Shelomo plans to return to Jerusalem in two days. Shelomo had sent two previous letters with the same content: he had sent one copy to Tyre, to be forwarded to Damascus, and he had given the other copy to a Damascene Muslim in Abu Musa's caravanserai in Ramleh, who was to pass it on to R. Moshe al-Ḥaver (r6–10). Information in part from Goitein's note card and in part from Gil ASE

Legal document. Dating: Late. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Many names appear. One of the witnesses is named M[oshe] b. Maymūn. The document mentions "al-ishāʿa fī l-funduq."