Geniza Lab

Recto: (a) List of names in Judaeo-Arabic: Isḥāq b. Khulayf; Khalfa b. Ismāʿīl; Hiba b. Mūsā; ʿImrān b. Mufarrij; Lu'lu'a bt. Ḥalfon. (b) Draft of a letter in Arabic script addressed to an amir. Containing only the opening blessings. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script (with one word in Judaeo-Arabic). Headed by a basmala. Itemizing funeral expenses such as coffin (tābūt), gravedigging (ḥafr qabr), "reception" (qubūl). Most are on the order of 1–2 dinars. ASE

Court deposition. The widow Salāma bt. Furayj b. Abī l-Gharīb appoints the Baghdādī Ḥasan/Yefet b. Ṭoviyya/Ṭayyib as her attorney to claim anything due to her late husband Natan/Hiba b. Ḥakam b. Yosef b. Shumaym ha-Levi, and authorizes the expenditure of money, up to 17 dinars, for the transport of her husband's body to Jerusalem. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Will. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Location: Fustat. Dating: Unknown. The writer specifies his wishes for his grave and shroud (for which he has also supplicated God all the days of his life). He wishes to be buried in between his father and mother, and the site is already prepared for his body. Once he is buried, an edifice should be built over it and painted white. The shroud should have ẓiẓit on it.

Letter from a penniless woman, the widow of Abū Surrī, to Mevorakh b. Saadya (1094–1111). She begs him to come to her rescue in a litigation brought against her by the relatives of her deceased son-in-law for a modest amount. Her daughter was married to Yosef b. Asad b. Qirqas who left her to travel three and a half years ago. That was prior to al-Afḍal's siege of Alexandria in 1094. The daughter was then ill two years while the mother used her dowry (רחלהא) for nursing her in her illness and for the burial when she died. It has recently become known that Yosef was killed in Nastaro (an island between Damietta and Alexandria), and his cousin claimed his estate—which was non-existent. (Information from Goitein's note card and from M. R. Cohen, Jewish Self Government, pp. 221-260.) For a detailed discussion of the geographical situation of Nastaro, see Khan, "A Copy of a Decree from the Archives of the Fāṭimid Chancery in Egypt," BSOAS, Vol. 49, No. 3, 1986, p. 444.

Fragment of a letter composed circa 1236 CE by Abu l-Ḥasan Yedutun b. Abu Sahl Levi, at one time the cantor of the Palestinian synagogue in Fustat, who signs his name Ḥasan b. Sahl. The letter is a detailed explanation of the funeral and financial arrangements following the death of his father Levi and his brother Moshe, with the aim of exonerating himself from the accusations of Abu l-Bayan and Abu l-Fadl (the sons of Moshe?) that Yedutun “took the property of their father and grandfather.” Yedutun’s father, Levi he-Ḥaver, died on the 24th of Tishrei in 1211. His brother, Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, died on the 20th of Adar in 1212. (This is consistent with the information from T-S NS 264.98, a letter written by Moshe, indicating that both Moshe and Levi were alive in 1206.) We also learn that Abu l-Mufaddal the judge died in 1212, only a month or so following the death of Moshe. Yedutun repeatedly refers to his own illnesses, claiming that he was too ill to have had any part in the disposition of the estates, let alone steal more than his share. He notes in the postscript, again emphasizing his physical infirmities, "It has been 24 years since my brother Musa died. [If there is substance to their claims,] how have they ignored this matter for all this time? ... Every penny that falls into my or my wife/family's hands goes to [Abu l-]Bayan... and it is the same with Abu l-Fadl." This letter clarifies an ambiguity discussed by Shulamit Elizur in her article, “Individual Mourning and National Solace in Early Liturgical Poetry,” Ginzei Qedem 7 (2011), pp. 16–24, in which she presents T-S NS 135.3b (Yedutun’s elegy for his father Levi) and T-S NS 325.135 (Yedutun’s elegy for his brother Moshe). Each poem mourns multiple deaths—a father, a brother, and a judge—in addition to the main subject of the elegy, and this letter clarifies that Yedutun indeed lost a father, a brother, and a judge in rapid succession. Join: Alan Elbaum. ASE.

Accounts in Arabic script. Expenditures for a (Christian?) funeral and the meals after the funeral or during the mourning. Information from Goitein's note card.

Various accounts. In Judaeo-Arabic. One section may list the expenditures for a funeral, items include the gravediggers (ḥaffārīn) and the perfume for the corpse or embalming fluid (ḥanūṭ). The same text block, further down, mentions a sick woman.

Will. In the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli. "No wailing women; and of garments in which I shall be buried, no more than these: two cloaks, three robes, a washed turban of fine linen—it is already wound up—new underpants (sarāwīl) of mine, and a new waist­band (zunnār) of mine." He wishes to be buried next to his paternal uncle or his wife. He has released his wife from the requirement of taking an oath before collecting her ketubba. (Information and translation from Goitein, Med Soc IV, 160.)

Letter from an unknown writer in Jerusalem to Yeshuʿa Rofe, Fustat (Ẓoʿan). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Catalogued as 17th century. The writer also greets the Qaraite community of Cairo (Miṣr ha-semukha Ẓoʿan). The purpose of the letter is to inform the addressee that Umm כאסכיה(?) died on the 24th of Nisan. The writer describes her funeral arrangements. Needs further examination.