Geniza Lab

Letter from Umm Abū ʿAlī, in the Rif, likely near Damīra, to her son Isḥāq, in Fustat. The latter may live with his aunt and uncle, as the letter is addressed to the writer's sister’s son, Abū l-Munā. The writer is ill, and she repeatedly tells Isḥāq to tell Umm Abū l-Munā to send myrobalan and a medicinal syrup back with the messenger, presumably to be furnished by Abu l-Muna’s father who is a maker of syrups (sharābī). Isḥāq's wife seems to be pregnant (the writer is waiting for "khalāṣ zawjatak"). The writer invites her sister Umm Abū l-Munā to visit her in the village by promising plenty of watermelons to eat. This letter is mentioned in Mediterranean Society, I, p. 121. The Arabic address reads: "yaṣil hādhā l-kitāb ilā waladī al-shaykh Abū l-Munā b. Abū Surrī al-sharābī min khālatihi Umm Abū ʿAlī ... dār al-wāzīr (or wāzīn?)." ASE.

Family letter in Hebrew. May be in the hand of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. The writer sends wishes for the recovery of a woman in the care of the addressees (possibly from an illness of heart rather than a physical illness—ואתם חכמים תדעו לרפות את לבה . . . הקבה ישים רפואתה על ידכם). He adds the conventional "may I be a ransom for you." He discusses the matter of a קוטרוס—a qonṭres or writing-book? On verso he mentions someone who needs to pay the capitation tax but does not have any money; sends regards to his uncle ʿImrān and his wife and her "gevira"; and sends more well wishes to the ailing woman, רפאה שוכן {מ}רומה; and sends regards to his uncle Moshe. ASE.

Letter in which a physician, probably named Abū l-Baqā', writes from somewhere outside of the capital to his son-in-law (?) Abū ʿImrān, probably in Fustat, who shared living quarters with him (?), complaining that a Christian physician is ruining his livelihood, writing: 'he behaves like a charlatan.' The letter also touches on several small business matters. The letter starts with two biblical quotations (line 2, Prov. 3:26, line 3, Dt. 7:15). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 164, 462, Goitein's index cards, and CUDL.) Further interesting elements: The writer is upset about the lack of letters ("is this anger? why this great hostility?"). He supplies the addressee with a potential excuse by saying that he is very worried on account of his eye illness, and became still more worried when the messenger Raḥmān b. Ḥaydara returned with no news. "He who is absent imagines the worst. . . . If only the lady of the house [my wife] were with you. She is in the most dreadful state, fasting and weeping day and night. After describing the charlatanry of the new Christian physician, he asks the addressee to find out if the head physicians in Fusṭāṭ will do anything about it: "Go to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd al-Ṭabīb. . . so that he will tell our lord ʿAlam al-Dīn, who will not approve of this, for he is against their (charlatans'?) purposes. If you hear anything from our lord ʿAlam al-Dīn, write to me." Apparently moving on to the matter of grain that has yet to be "released" (already mentioned earlier in the letter), "The judge Jalāl al-Dīn, the fiscal adminstrator (ṣāḥib al-dīwān), has arrived and seen the situation for himself. I have explained this matter to him, and al-Faqīh al-Mudarris has also met with him regarding this. He wished to release the grain, but had to travel suddenly. May God make the end good." Umm Sulaymān sends her regards and rebukes. The writer sends regards to Sitt Misk and inquires about her daughter and about R. Menaḥem. Goitein does not explain why he identifies the addressee as the writer's son-in-law or when/where they would have shared living quarters. It also seems possible that this is his actual son, particularly with the description of his wife's heartsickness on account of what they fear about the addressee's illness. ASE.

Astrological instructions for a doctor regarding how to know the illness of a patient by using the constellation of the stars at the time of the visit. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from a husband, probably a merchant belonging to the elite, to his wife of a second marriage. In Judaeo-Arabic. He expresses his yearning and describes his depressed state in great detail, seeking to refute her assumption that he is remaining away because life is good for him. He alludes to his "many illnesses and sundry pains" but doesn't go into them to spare her. He received her letter about her "sickness of heart which brings the sickness of the body," but chides her for writing about such things, because he is not the kind of man who needs to be aroused to "tenderness and compassion." ASE

Letter from Manṣūr b. Sālim, in Alexandria, to his son Abū Najm, who has gone on an adventurous journey or had run away to the army. The father mentions that he has sent to his son twenty letters and then twenty more, but the son never replied. The father states ‘I have never seen a character or religion like yours and never heard of the like’ and closes his letter with an exhortation ‘return to God and bring your mind back to yourself.' Abū Najm's mother perishes on account of his actions, and her vision is fading (alternate readings are possible, but "inḍarra baṣaruhā" seems likely as inḍarra derives from the same root as ḍarīr/maḍrūr, both meaning "blind"). Several other letters by the same man are known, all of them either addressed to Manṣūr's contacts in Fustat, asking them to help him find his son, or directly to his son (like this one). See tag. (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society, II, p. 379; V, p. 189.)

Letter in Arabic script from a blind man, Barakāt al-Jiblī, to the man with whom his son Ḥassūn lives, Sābiq al-Kohen b. Maḥfūẓ, dictated to Yaʿqūb, the cousin (ibn ʿamm) of the addressee. The purpose of the letter is to rebuke Sābiq: "I think of you what I think of my son Ḥassūn, namely, that I have written him many letters and not received a single response. All this time he has not thought of me or inquired about my health (iftaqad ḥālī) at all. His mother passed away one year ago with a great fire (or: grief) in her heart on his account. I am an old man, and I have lost my vision and ceased earning a living." In the remainder of the letter he beseeches Sābiq to respond and to urge his son to behave properly and remember his father. Information in part from Goitein's note card and Med Soc, V, p. 124, n. 423. ASE