Geniza Lab

Letter from a cantor or teacher to his boss in Cairo. The cantor had been “accused of having assembled a group of young men and danced a zuhdī dance with them" — presumably an allegation of homosexual behavior. The cantor lived in a small place outside Cairo, but on learning that his boss had been informed, he immediately set off for the city. “I contracted fever and, following it, dizziness. When I was about to recover, I received a note from you that you had heard about me that I assemble young men and dance a zuhdi dance with them. When I learned about this matter, I became alarmed and relapsed. I decided to go to Cairo to clear my honor from that talk about me; but when I arrived at the Nile, I fainted. Such an occurrence is not unknown. But I wish to clear my honor against the one who told this about me. If people have indeed given witness about this, whatever I shall be obliged to do, I shall [not] dodge.” On the reverse side, where the sender would normally include well wishes for the deliverer, the cantor wrote “Cursed be he who does not bring this to the attention of R. Joseph.” Information from Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, Volume 5, 202-203, and from Alexandra Kersley ('19), seminar paper on homosexuality in the Geniza, Fall 2018.

Letter from Avraham b. Abī l-Ḥayy, in Alexandria, to his brother Mūsā, presumably in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1075 CE, several months after the death of their father. Avraham describes his financial difficulties, as he depends on the wheat that Mūsā sends him. Evidently Mūsā has been instructing Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn to send Avraham wheat only once a month. Apart from that, he works hard as a teacher. Avraham's wife insults him because he is unable to support his family. His woes are such that "I fear that I will develop a serious illness, for I no longer have the wherewithal to bear the preoccupation of my heart" (r14–15). He expresses his willing to come to Fustat but he has no company for his travels and he is worried about the tax collectors in Fustat. Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #471. VMR. ASE.

Recto: Letter fragment in Arabic script. Only the last three lines are preserved, then two lines in Hebrew, 'may I be the ransom of the brother (al-akh al-shaqīq) from all evil.' Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic with rudimentary handwriting and spellings. "As for what you you mentioned that I should send you a boy, I send you a boy every day. As for other matters, I feared to introduce worrry (ghamm) into your heart and make you relapse (tantakis), for you are from [...] illness (wajaʿ), may God complete your recovery. As for the copper. . . as God is my witness, I was sick (ḍaʿīf)." ASE.

Letter from Al-Mubārak b. Yiṣḥaq Ibn Sabra to his "father" (paternal uncle?) Abū l-Ḥasan Surūr b. Ḥayyim Ibn Sabra. He reports that Ibn Siman Ṭov (בן סימנטב) arrived and told him that the addressee had purchased a sack (tillīs) of wheat for 7 dinars, which saddened him, because Mubārak could have gotten him 2 sacks of superior wheat from his supply in Tinnīs. Indeed, Mubārak is struggling financially, and that would have helped him. He has been worrying so much about his goods in Tinnīs that he suffered an attack of yellow bile and broke out in pustules (fa-min kuthrat mā ḥamaltu ʿalā qalbī laḥaqanī khulṭ ṣafrāwī wa-ṭalaʿa ʿalayya bathr). People are in state of fear due to an unspecified situation. Mubārak had sent a letter with Maymūn al-Maghribī concerning garments that the addressee is supposed to send, because he hasn't even been able to afford a שראשי(?) to wear. He hasn't gone to the synagogue for several Shabbats (it seems due to his financial straits and lack of decent clothing). ASE

Letter drafts from Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1139 CE. This fragment contains three different drafts of letters. The first draft is partial and appears to be an incomplete version of the second draft. This is a letter addressed to an unnamed Jewish courtier in Fustat. The third draft is likely addressed to the Head of the Jews, probably the new Nagid Shemuel b. Ḥananya. In this letter, Ḥalfon apologizes for not having presented himself in person or having written earlier. He blames this on his wretched condition in the wake of his illnesses (v16–18) and the tribulations of his four-year journey to the Maghrib and to al-Andalus. In particular, he has been shaken by the deaths of his brother and the death of 'our diadem and crown and master and head' (v19–21); Goitein concludes that the references are to Ḥalfon's brother ʿEli and to the head of the Yeshiva, Maṣliah Gaon. Presumably, Ḥalfon wrote these drafts during the period he spent in Alexandria upon his return from the West to Egypt in April 1139 CE. "God knows how I wrote this, with a downcast heart and trembling fingers." Description based on India Book 4, #58. ASE.

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

Letter by the son of the judge (dayyan) of Minyat Zifta to a certain Peraḥya, requesting his intercession with a certain sayyidnā David. Dating: If this David is David Maimonides, the letter would be dated 1237 CE at the earliest. The letter is a litany of the the troubles of the writer's father and the acts of his enemies against him. The father's troubles include the following. His creditors are demanding that he turn over his house to the Muslim authorities (sulṭān). He fell sick one week (parshat Ki Tetze) and wished to take out the Torah scroll and say the blessing—evidently this was thought to be helpful against illness. But his rival humiliated him and took out and made the blessing over the Torah himself. Information in part from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Informal note from the cantor Abū Sahl Levi to his son Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (identification based on handwriting and typical content). In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Prior to 1211 CE. The writer gives repeated assurances that Moshe's brother Abū l-Ḥasan (Yedutun) is doing well. Abū l-Ḥasan even asked to write this letter in his own hand, but the writer feared this would tax him and make him weak. Abū l-Ḥasan is administering his own medicine. Another note on the same topic: ENA NS 32.14, in which the recipient is identified as Moshe and Abū l-Ḥasan is identified his brother. ASE.

Letter of condolence from a certain Yaʿaqov to Eliyyahu the Judge ("wherever he is"). Dating: Early 13th century. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. The orthography, including of biblical quotations, is phonetic and idiosyncratic. It is not clear who died. The main text consists almost entirely of condolences and exhortations to have patience (ṣabr). Four lines from the bottom, Yaʿaqov writes, "As for Abū Zikrī, the world very nearly departed him. But he is still wretched. He had patience and was consoled. He was hardly able to write to you after the terrible blow, had we not made him him write to you. . . . He lay sick in bed for a period of three months. [. . .] took up his treatment . . . until God saw fit take to His trust." (For the strange-seeming phrase "lahu marīḍ," see also ENA 2738.37.) The context is unfortunately quite difficult to decipher. It is possible that Abū Zikrī died, or, perhaps more likely, the 'taking of the trust' refers to the same person whose death provided the occasion for this letter. There is no way to know for sure, but it is plausible that this letter is connected to T-S 24.72, a letter of condolence from Abū Zikrī to his father Eliyyahu in which he describes the terrible illnesses that afflicted him after he learned of the death of his brother. ASE.

Letter of condolence to Abu al-Faraj Yeshua b. Shabbatay on the death of his father. The letter starts with four Bible quotations (line 1, Dt. 32:4; line 2, Dt. 32:39; line 3, Lam. 5:14; line 4, Ps. 145:17). "The reason for his death was his 'movement' and agitation and distress (ḥaraka, tanaqqul, inziʿāj) in the state he was in of weakness and illness." ASE

Letter from Abun b. Sedaqa in Jerusalem to Nahray b. Nissim in Fustat. Dating: November 1064 CE. The main subject is the tension between the writer and Nahray's cousin, Yisrael b.Natan. Other subjects include details about the burning of ships in Sicily. Opens with a vivid description of the general grief following the death of Sittāt, the wife of R. Natan, who left a boy of 2 years. "How terrible is our grief! It has destroyed us (haddatnā) and sickened us (amraḍatnā).” A government edict threatened to make a dignified funeral impossible, so the mourners considered simply burying her within the walls. “We contracted from this a terrible convulsion (rajf ʿaẓīm),” Abūn writes, “and we gave a bribe and brought her out at night.” ASE

Letter from Yefet to Abū l-Barakāt the physician, in Fustat (bāb qaṣr al-shamʿ). which the writer alludes to some bad news ("ever since I heard the news, I have fasted in the daytime and prostrated in bed") and urges the addressee to keep him informed.

Letter of condolence written by a man to his sister, Rayyisa, on the occasion of their mother's death. "If you cried for a thousand years, it would have no benefit except to sicken you, and no one would perish other than you. My sister, I ask you by God to have endurance, and for all that you endure, there will be a great reward. My sister, read Ecclesiastes, the word of Solomon, for he will counsel forbearance (taqwā) to you. I am sending you al-Faraj baʿd al-Shidda to occupy yourself with it. Know that I wrote this letter only after softening my eyes with tears for she whom I have lost. . . . . My sister, by God, I ask you not to make yourself perish for something that will not benefit you. Look at others who have lost their mother and father and children and who endure the judgment of God. . . . Occupy (shāghilī for shaghghilī) yourself so that you do not perish." (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 22 and Goitein, Hadassah Magazine.) ASE.

Business letter by a young Spanish merchant writing from Fez to his father in Almeria, Spain, revealing that he preferred not to use his father's house in Fez but to stay with friends instead in order to be able to declare his merchandise as destined for a local merchant. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 61-62 and Goitein's translation, attached.) After he was forced to pay the governor (qā'id) and customs inspector (mutawalli al-ʿushūr) and sundry others, "I was sick for three days out of anger and sorrow. Had I possessed here the same courage as I usually have in Almeria, I would have escaped with less than this. But I consoled myself with the solace of one who has no choice."

Letter from a woman, probably in Alexandria, to her paternal uncle. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1030 CE. The writer's family, a family of merchants that had emigrated from the Maghreb, has been left without any males (l. 9) after the death of both the writer’s father (l. 3) and grandfather (l. 4). The writer describes the wretched state of the family. She fears that her mother will fall sick from severe grief: "she has no eye or body left," and she is either literally or practically fainting from her excessive weeping (ll. 6–7). They are worried that their property will be confiscated when the government finds out that there is no man in the family. She appeals to the uncle to help them. Despite the difficulties, she also mentions that the family has received a shipment of merchandise. On verso there is incidentally a note in Judaeo-Arabic about the hafara for Ha'azinu (but no address or continuation of the letter on recto). (Information in part from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #227.) VMR. ASE.

Letter on behalf of a Byzantine woman named Rachel, in Alexandria, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. The main part of the letter (in Judaeo-Arabic) is scribed by the teacher and court clerk Yehuda b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī; there is a postscript (in Hebrew) added by Shemuel (a.k.a. Kalev) b. Yaʿaqov. Dated: 19 Adar 1538 Seleucid, which is 1227 CE. The letter concerns Rachel's husband, Yosef of Barcelona, who is about to marry a local woman, leaving their children orphans in their lifetimes (and "pieces of meat"). Eliyyahu is asked to relay her case to the Nagid Avraham Maimonides (1205–37), to intervene and prevent Yosef from doing this to her. Yehuda switches to writing in his own voice on verso, line 3. He sends various respectful greetings and adds that Rachel's eyes (or those of her mother?) have developed ophthalmia (ramad) from all her weeping. The postscript in the hand of (and signed by) the French rabbi Shemuel b. Yaʿaqov corroborates the story in the body of the letter and blames the husband's mother, who tempted him to do these bad things, and also "his wife, the snake, who married him against his will"—which makes it sound that Yosef has already married the local woman. Shemuel seems to conclude by saying that he has taken on the name "Kalev" (or vice versa?) on account of his illness, evidently an effort to change his fortune by changing his name. ASE

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Moshe, the muqaddam of Sunbāṭ (see T-S 24.25v, dated 1149 CE), to the Nagid. Yiṣḥaq reports that the chief cantor died after four months of lying in bed with terrible pains. He complains that the widow ("the wicked Zeresh") is threatening, as soon as her son arrives, to accuse him before the local chief of police (wālī) of being the cause of her husband's illness and death. She says, "The muqaddam excommunicated him and killed him before the entire congregation." Defending himself, Yiṣḥaq writes, "You know the ḥamas of the Rīf. A person may die from less than this." Goitein understands "ḥamas" to be the Hebrew word variously meaning violence, anger, injustice, or false witness (but usually referring to governmental persecution in Geniza documents). The writer is thus referring to his own sufferings, countering the claim that he killed the cantor with the claim that the distress caused by such a false accusation puts his own life in danger. The writer admits that popular opinion is against him (anā taḥta safeq fī l-amr). In the bottom, fragmentary portion, he seems to complain that he is not being paid; he also mentions a blanket and "three sick people, and I am the fourth." He is prepared to come to Fustat if the Nagid wishes. Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 74, 537. ASE.

Letter probably from Shemuel b. Daniel b. ʿAzarya (the eldest brother of David b. Daniel). Describing his grief over his father's death. Dating: 1062 CE or shortly thereafter, if Goitein's identifications are correct (since Daniel b. ʿAzarya died in August/September 1062). "After describing his pain—also physical—over the loss of his father and his state of disconsolation (quoting Lamentations 2:13), he continues: 'You, the illustrious elder, have already learned how God the exalted has afflicted the people of Israel and, in particular, myself with the eclipse of the honored position (jāh) possessed by me through the vanishing of the crown, the glory, the power, the splendor . . . the nasi. . . and Head of the yeshiva....'" (Information from Goitein's index card and Med Soc V, pp. 258, 578.)

Abū ʿAlī b. ʿImrān, Alexandria, writes to the son of his dead sister, to Abū Mūsā Hārūn b. al-Muʿallim Yaʿaqov, Fusṭāṭ, the shop of Abū Naṣr al-Tilmīdh. See T-S 8J17.22, same writer, same recipient. "The troubles caused by agnates—but endured with resignation—are vividly brought home in a letter from Alexandria, addressed to the sons of a dead sister in the capital. The writer must have had a number of children, for he reports the death of the youngest, a boy, only in passing, adding drily: "May God preserve the rest." Two aged sisters lived with him, together with an orphan boy from a niece whose recent death is also reported. Another niece staying with him had a suitor whom she could not marry because she was a divorcee and had not received the legal documents (barā'a) needed for the new marriage, probably proving that she did not possess anything from the property of her former husband. The main purpose of the letter to the nephews was to secure the missing papers (perhaps one of them had been married to the unhappy woman). As though that were not enough: two sisters of those nephews lived in a house belonging to their family in Alexandria. The house was ill-omened (mayshūm), probably because someone had been killed there, or had died an unnatural or premature death. No one came to visit the girls, and they lived in complete solitude, "the most miserable creatures in the entire city with no one to care for them." The writer was prepared to invite these nieces to stay with him, but their brother would not permit them to move, probably in order to have someone to look after the property. Having already been ill for five months, during which time he was able to go out to the bazaar only once, the writer had entrusted one of the sons of his dead sister, Ḥassūn, with some of his business, but he had completely wrecked it. "The complaint is to God alone" (for what can one do against a close relative?). Several other relatives are mentioned in the letter in a rather sarcastic vein." Med Soc III A 3, n.2 (p.34).

Letter from Labrāṭ b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in al-Mahdiyya, to his brother Yehuda, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: January 9 (12 Shevat), 1058 CE (Gil) or 1061 CE (Ben-Sasson). Labrāṭ congratulates Yehuda on the birth of his firstborn son. There may be a prayer for God to protect the infant from the evil eye (r11–12; the first letter of the word is smudged; Gil reads al-ḍaw' rather than al-sū'; neither one is strictly grammatical). Labrāṭ heard from Zakkār that the infant was a girl and was only reassured when Yehuda's letter arrived with the news that it was a boy. Labrāṭ keeps the blessed letter with him and kisses it and puts it before his eyes; he gave it to his sister this week but made her promise to return it (r4–18). Labrāṭ continues with business affairs. There is an elaborate response to what Yehuda said about the pain Labrāṭ caused him by rebuking him about a business decision taken by Yehuda. Labrāṭ only wrote anything because it concerned somebody else's merchandise. As for what is owed to him by Yehuda, what are 20 dinars next to their relationship, which is worth the whole world? If Yehuda was agitated by Labrāṭ's rebuke, Labrāṭ is now agitated by Yehuda's response. Furthermore, this sum is nothing compared to what they already lost in Qayrawān. As the proverb goes, "If nothing is left of your provisions except a single cake, you might as well throw it into the sea" (r18–32). The letter continues with matters of trade between Ifrīqiyya, Sicily, and Egypt. Numerous people are mentioned: the Nagid, Nissim, Abū Hārūn, Ḥayyim b. ʿAmmār, the boy of Ḥassūn, Ḥassūn b. Mūsā, Yehuda b. Mūsā, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the notables of Qayrawān and al-Mahdiyya, Isḥāq b. Bar[hūn?], and Yosef b. Eli al-Kohen. People who came from Palermo said that Zakkār was sick but then recovered (r33–57). Labrāṭ is delighted to hear that Yehuda has been studying Torah, Mishna, and Talmud with 'the Rav' (r58 and margin). Verso consists mainly of greetings. Labrāṭ is surprised at Yehuda's rebuke for Nissim's failure to send him letters. (Gil identifies this man with Nissim b. Moshe ha-Shelishi.) Nissim hasn't even written to Labrāṭ, who is two hours away from him. "He is dying, and he should write you a letter?" (v11–13). Nissim redeemed a Bible codex which belongs to Labrāṭ and Yehuda, and which had been plundered in one of the wars of Ifrīqiyya. Labrāṭ now wishes to make arrangements to reimburse Nissim and get it back (v13–17, 23–24). Labrāṭ concludes with the bad news of Ifrīqiyya, Sicily, and al-Andalus (v35–40). The price of wheat has skyrocketed this summer; Qayrawān is a ruin; the Bedouins are waging war on each other; people are worried about Sicily this year, for the Franks have attacked with a great army; they ('Franks') have also invaded al-Andalus this year and destroyed many of its villages, killed many people, and imposed taxes on all the areas they conquered. (Information in part from Gil, vol. 4, p. 36; Ben-Sasson, p. 36.) ASE.