Geniza Lab

Document dated 21 December 1817 (12 Tevet 5578) in which Mordekhai Romano details the plan for medical treatment for the children of his niece Raḥel, who is the daughter of his brother Shemuel and the wife of Yāqūtī Yuʿbaṣ. Mordekhai will bring Dr. (al-Ḥakīm) Kaspa (?) to treat Raḥel's children who are blind from birth. The doctor is to receive 150 qirsh in advance (la-qūddām) and another 150 if he is successful. The last few lines are trickier to understand and may say that the second payment of 150 will come out of Raḥel's ketubba.

Letter from Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq al-Andalusi, Jerusalem, to his partner Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef b. ʿEli ha-Kohen Fāsī, Fustat, ca. 1052. This was Avraham's first sojourn in Jerusalem. He was anxious not to have received word from Yosef for a long time, but just now encountered a Maghribi who came from the West on the same boat as Yosef, and showed Avraham some letters he brought from Yosef. Avraham was saddened to hear of Yosef's financial loss with Barhūn [b. Mūsā al-Taherti]. He thanks Yosef for concening himself with the sale of the garments. "But here we cannot wear more than patched, flax garments, for the land is 'exhausted from the events' and neither stores nor houses are open." (Gil glosses 'li-l-aḥdāth kalāl' as due to armed bands roving the country and notes that Chapira translated it as 'the farmers are wretched.') "As for what you asked regarding my situation here and whether I am making a living, the land is dead; its people are poor and dead, especially in Jerusalem; no one slaughters an animal either on a weekday or on the sabbath, and there is no fowl to be had. It is very cold, and God willing I will depart after the small fast." He asks Yosef to use part of the 10 dinars to purchase for Avraham's orphan cousin (bint khālatī) two scarfs (miʿjarayn), one blue and one green, and a mantle (mandīl) for a Torah scroll, and to send them with Barhūn—or with anybody else—to Qayrawān. He asks Yosef, for the sake of the ʿaṣabiyya between them, to look after the dukkān and take Avraham's place there. He sends regards to Isḥāq, Mūsā, Avraham al-Kohen, and Nahray. He especially sends his congratulations to Nahray on recovering from the illness that he contracted in Barqa. Here, at the end of the letter (v15–19), Avraham recounts that he was desperately ill, bedbound for one month in Ramla and for even longer in Jerusalem, but he recovered, barukh gomel le-ḥayavim ṭovot. No one had any hope for his recovery, neither he nor those around him. (This is also how Chapira understood "mā ṭamaʿa binā aḥad lā anā wa-lā man ʿindī" and "mā ṭamaʿa lanā aḥad bi-l-ḥayā." Gil seems mistaken in reading this as an idiom for "let no one be envious of us," because it is a common trope in Geniza narratives of critical illness to emphasize how everyone had despaired.) Yosef would not even credit it if Avraham told him how much money he had lost from the time he left the dukkān to the present moment. He concludes again with greetings to the same friends as before, and to their families, and to Abū Zikrī Yehuda. The address is in Arabic script: to Fusṭāṭ, to al-Maʿārij (?), at the gate of Dār al-Birka. There follow at least four (Muslim) names of the deliverers. ASE.

Late letter that begins in Hebrew and transitions into Judaeo-Arabic from an unidentified merchant to Yosef Muḥibb. He writes that he traveled this year to Tripoli (Libya?) to look for a Jew who took 100 peraḥim from him and fled to Venice. He was not successful. He has purchased garments and sent them with Saadya Kohen and Yaʿaqov b. Hīnī (also mentioned in ENA NS 50.25) to try to sell. Recto is damaged, but deals almost entirely with business matters. He mentions R. Yosef Nahon (?) who died after a year of being bedridden and consuming half of his wealth. In his will, he left 200 peraḥim for the study of Torah and for the visiting of the ill and for the poor. The writer also mentions the addressee's brother Khubayr, his own nephew Yosef, and Shelomo Abulafia. The addressee's sister Maḥbūba sends her regards and urges him to take care of their other sister and find a husband for her. On verso he returns to business matters and requests a Cypriot commodity (קוברסי/קוברסיין) and orders tin (קזדיר) from a place called גמאע אלטיילון. He mentions Yaʿaqov Bū Saʿda and David al-Ashqar. ASE.

Letter from Avraham b. Abū l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria, to his brother Musa, probably in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1075 CE. 10th of Elul, a few weeks after the death of the writer's father. Avraham writes that Abū l-Ḥayy died after his ~6-month illness. Avraham writes that his expenses amounted to 25 dinars. He had to give his turban as collateral; and he still owes 32 dirhams to various parties (r12–14). Avraham complains to Mūsā that ʿAllūn, who was in charge of the money of the family, refused to disburse any money without word from Mūsā, and then covered only a small part of the expenditure after Abū l-Najm Hilāl had intervened in the writer's favor. Avraham needs more money to pay the debts and expenses. Information from Gil, Kingdom, III, p. 574. ASE.

Legal query addressed to Avraham Maimonides. Reuven b. Yaʿaqov married a widow. He sickened and died, when she was 6 months pregnant. He left behind household goods such as earthenware and copper pots (birām). His father Yaʿqūb demanded the household goods. Reuven's widow refused to hand them over, arguing that she had to pawn them to raise money to pay for syrups and chickens for Reuven in his illness and also to repay his debts. Yaʿqūb continues to demand the goods, and she continues to refuse. What should be done?

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic from Avraham b. ʿAṭā' (=Natan), in Malīj, to Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Mūsā. The writer is not the same person as the Nagid of Qayrawān with the same name. The letter seems to be a response to Yehuda's request that the writer take good care of a certain Abū Isḥāq (al-qawām bihi). Avraham reports, "Our companions (aṣḥābunā) did not fall short with him even before your letter arrived. When it arrived, I took him into my own house. I will look after him (aqūm bi-ḥālihi) until he recovers. He is doing better than before. Whatever I [have to] spend, he is secure (muthbat) with me until he recovers. [I would do this] even if I did not owe you anything and you asked me to do it." ASE.

Letter from a woman named Archondou, in Alexandria, to her son Fuḍayl, in Fustat. Her main purpose in writing emerges at the end: she wants her son to come and fetch her, as she wants to go to Fustat. The woman's name, the use of a Greek word (τυλάριν, ?mattress, r12, 19), and the spelling of the proper names 'Archondou' (ארכודו) and 'Alexandria' (אלכסדריאן) all indicate a Greek-speaking milieu. Archondou expresses her sympathy for her son's eye disease, "from the day I heard that my eye has flowed and I have wept day and night without case" (r9–12). She too has an eye disease: "My eyes hurt very badly and I give three zuz every week to the doctor, and I cannot move from this place. If God is good to you, do me a favour and come quickly to fetch me out of here so that I do not die" (v10–14). Information from de Lange's edition. ASE.

Recto and beginning of verso: Letter from a sick man to a physician. In Judaeo-Arabic. He reports that he has collected the prescription that the physician gave him and that he used it earlier in the day, but it had no effect. He is still in great and unmentionable distress whenever he leaves the toilet (murtafaq). He has sent the (substantial amount of) 109.5 dirhams that the physician charged him. He asks for further instructions, because he is in great distress. He is unable to leave the house but cannot bear sitting in in the house. Lower part of verso: The physician responds that the medicine has [not had enough time to] work, and that he should take another dose. There is then a cryptic instruction about doing something first that should be done first, "from whichever hand possible," for that is the greatest requirement for this illness. ASE.

Letter (likely a draft) dictated by the wife and written by the son (Zayn al-Dār) of the India trader ʿAllān b. Ḥassūn, beseeching him to return. She has just weaned the infant, who has been sick. The only other adult male in the family has also been absent. The family is in financial straits and has had to sell household furnishings and lease the upper floor in order to pay the physician and buy medicine and two chickens every day. (Information from Med Soc III, 194, where there is also a translation.) "When a boy writing to his father abroad sends regards from his mother, grandmother, maternal aunts, the widow of a paternal uncle, and the maidservant, and adds, ‘The travel of Grandpa coincided with yours so that we have become like orphans," one gets the impression that all the persons mentioned formed one household.’” (Goitein, Med. Soc., 3:39 at n. 28.) "Adult children showed their reverence toward their parents by kissing their hands, or hands and feet—at least in letters." (Goitein, Med. Soc., viii, C, 2, n. 116; see also T-S 10J17.3, CUL Or.1081 J5, T-S 16.265 and T-S 13J24.22.)

Letter in the hand of Yehuda b. Ṭoviyyahu (muqaddam of Bilbays, active 1170s–1219). In Judaeo-Arabic. Containing a complaint about illness. The purpose of writing seems to be that the sender is unable to support a Ḥaver who came to stay with him. “[I was] constrained by my great expenses for medicines and chickens… An illness came upon me, on top of my chronic illness: shortness of breath and fever...” Mentions the boy Abū l-Bayān and al-Shaykh al-Muhadhdhab. Cites Berakhot 3b: “A handful cannot satisfy a lion, nor can a pit be filled up with its own clods.” Goitein read the word farrūj as surūj (meaning lamps -"perhaps he stayed up at night"), but see, for instance, Halper 410 and DK 238.3 for the formula "the medicine and the chicken." Regards to "our rabbi Avraham (Maimonides)" in the margin. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.) Join: Alan Elbaum. AA. ASE.

Two letters. (a) Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Yosef [..]ān al-Barqī to Shemarya b. Shemuel. He decribes the difficult winter they have had, not to mention the illness and inkisār (debts to the diwan? see T-S 13J3.6v) of Nissim; the illness of Ezra; the "arrival of that [woman]" and their expenses on her behalf. He mentions the arrival of Barakāt b. Khulayf (mentioned in several other letters) and having purchased two robes (shuqqatayn) for the addressee. ʿAwāḍ is also seriously ill, as well as his elder daughter. He has likely become dependent on public charity (inkashafa), and he even put up his ghulām for sale, but there are no buyers. Faḍl bought a donkey and has gone wandering about. "As for ʿAwāḍ [finding relief?], here no [travelers?] enter or leave." Mūsā b. ʿAllūsh has run away from his family. ASE.

Verso, with the address on recto: Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Salmān, in Alexandria, to his sister, in Qayrawān. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address written in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. The writer describes his fortunes ever since arriving in Egypt, including his month-long illness in Fustat, which exhausted much of his capital. But he was able to recuperate from the illness and enter business again. He is now torn between whether he should bring his flax merchandise to al-Mahdiyya or al-Lādhiqiyya, or whether he should return to Fustat to take a job with Abū l-Faraj b. 'Allān. He refers to his wife as "the mistress of my heart," and to his daughter as Sutayt (little mistress). This letter ought to be read together with Mosseri IIIa.11, written by the same writer to his mother (ed. Gil, Ishmael, #661). Gil published eight other letters by the same writer: Palestine, III, #506–07 and and Kingdom, IV, #660–65. Information in part from Goitein's index cards. ASE.

Recto: Accounts with the header "What was sold before the death of Abu Ishaq b. Abu Sahl known as Ibn al-Ahuv, in the presence of al-Mawla al-Ratzuy and Abu 'Ali his brother-in-law." There follows a short list of goods, and "that was in Cairo in the presence of the Judge [...]." Another list of goods is headed with "And in Fustat, in the presence of al-Mawla al-Ratzuy and [...]." The chidren of Abu 'Ali b. Dawud are mentioned, as is Hibah b. Dawud. Abu l-'Ala al-Sabbagh bought a chest. Verso: "What Abu 'Ali expended for the deceased in his lifetime and after his death" including payments to various officials and for food and pullets (presumably for his final sickness). ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity addressed to Abū ʿImrān al-Kohen. Written in Hebrew (the opening poem and formulae) and Judaeo-Arabic (the body). The writer cites the illnesses in his household and the price of medicine among his other expenses.

Hebrew letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Zeraḥya known as Faryol (?), a physician, to Avraham Talmid (known from other letters, fl. ca.1600). The first part of the letter deals with business matters. The writer mentions that he wished to examine some books, but the bookseller refused to untie them. He then asks the addressee to look after and mentor R. David ha-Kohen who is visiting Damascus with 200 gold pieces to exchange them for other gold and silver. The second part of the letter conveys information for al-Shaykh Ghāzī who left his wife in the hands of the writer to cure her from her illness. Thanks to the medicines sent by the husband and others that the writer gathered, the cure has been successful—her face has completely healed, and her legs, thank God. "Please remind him to send me a suitable gift, something suitable. In truth it has been nine months since I have seen my home (or: wife). Now, for Purim, they have begged me to come, but the sick woman, his wife, did not wish to let me go, and I could not go against her will. Copy out these words for him. . ." Information from Avraham David's edition. ASE.

Letter written to "my brother," apparently from Qus, dealing primarily with family members' medical issues. There are many eccentric spellings. Recto 4-12: The writer has sent several letters before this one asking the recipient for help. Recto 12-15: Yusuf (apparently the writer's son) has been sick for 6 months with tertian fever; his mother (apparently the writer's wife) has been sick for 8 months with ophthalmia, "like a piece of flesh" (the same phrase is used for women in wretched states in CUL Or.1080 J24 and T-S 12.575). The little boy's eyes are even worse than hers: his ophthalmia has progressed to trachoma (reading ואגראבו as a creative spelling of وأجربوا). For the relationship between these terms, see Ali b. Isa's Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn, translated into English by Casey Wood as Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist (1936). Trachoma (jarab), pp. 85-89. Ophthalmia (ramad), pp. 126-135. Progression from ophthalmia to trachoma, p. 133. Recto 16 - Verso 5: The writer tells the recipient to pawn a table for 5 dirhams and to bring the money for a consultation with Abu l-Ma'ruf b. al-Taffal; the writer has also written Abu l-Ma'ruf a letter describing the wife's ophthalmia. The recipient is to obtain the ophthalmic medicines and send them urgently to Qus with a trustworthy messenger, to Abu l-Mansur b. al-Meshorer. Abu l-Ma'ruf should label each ophthalmic with its name, and he should also send dry kohl (antimony) for the wife and for the son. Verso 5-13: The recipient is to go to Abu l-Makarim from the well known Ibn Nufay' family (a man of the same name in Alexandria is mentioned in T-S 13J21.36) and have him expose the leaves of the codices (? מצאחף) to the air and turn them, so that they do not decay. The recipient is to go to Abu l-Surur (b. Al-Kaf?) and give him the same instruction, both for the codices that are with him and the garments, because they contain high-quality silk and must not be allowed to rot even a little bit. Verso 17-19: The writer gives instruction regarding the ground floor or courtyard of his home. ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to an unidentified benefactor. Shelomo asks him to help him out with the payment of the capitation tax, as he had been ill and had to spend all the money he could save from school fees paid to him on medicine and chicken. (Information from Halper Catalogue and from Goitein's notes in margin)

Calligraphic letter sent to a notable, possibly the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya, asking him to help Natan ha-Kohen, the legal representative of the writer's family, to obtain a favorable settlement in court for a widow and her children. She is owed 10 months' worth of maintenance payments, including for the price of the treatment of her ophthalmia. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from Goitein's hand list)

Letter from Saʿdān to ʿEli. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The sender reports that he is prostrated in his house (maṭrūḥ fī l-bayt) and the doctor comes twice a day and "cuts his flesh with scissors" (wa-yaqṣuṣ laḥmahu bi-l-miqaṣṣ). Even worse is the poverty. The sender seems to be asking for money -- perhaps some of the money owed him by Abū Saʿīd -- in order to pay the doctor's fees. ASE

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Salmān al-Ḥarīrī, in Alexandria, to his mother and father, in Qayrawān. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. The address bears the name of the writer's father Salmān b. Ibrāhīm, whom Yaʿaqov addresses at the end of the letter, but he addresses his mother for the bulk of the letter. The writer expresses his disappointment in the Maghrebis in Egypt, who did not assist him as he expected when he was newly arrived in Fustat and very ill for one month. He recovered and is now healthier than ever. When he returned to Abū l-Faraj Ibn ʿAllān who had previously promised to employ him, he found that Abū l-Faraj had lost his mother and his sister, "and was too preoccupied for me" (ishtaghala ʿannī). Yaʿaqov set out on his own and started to trade flaxes. He is planning to travel to the north, perhaps to al-Lādhiqiyya (a plan he carried out: see CUL Or.1080 J17, which he wrote from Tripoli, and T-S 8J19.27, which he wrote from Ramla). But he will wait in Alexandria until he learns what his family thinks of this plan, and he will follow their counsel. The end of the letter has the curious line, "Abū Yaḥyā is well, in complete health, and aṣḥābunā are in complete health, no one died except Abū l-Khayr b. Barukh in Tinnīs" (verso, lines 22–23)—which, along with the illness of Yaʿaqov and the deaths in Abū l-Faraj's family, suggests that there was then an epidemic. Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #661. See also ENA 2738.34, a very similar letter which Yaʿaqov wrote at the same time and addressed to his sister. VMR. ASE.