Geniza Lab

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Yaʿqūb to an unknown recipient. Written in a good hand and pleasant style. This letter implores the addressee to help the writer buy medicine (?) and 2 ounces of sugar for his ill infant child, assuring him that he and his wife didn't have enough money even for a pound of bread. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 188; Goitein index cards.) Specifically, the writer requests the price of a qirṭās (probably meaning a bag) of nuqūʿ (which can mean infusion, as of a medicine, but also dried apricots, which would more easily go in a bag). The writer's son has a terrible cold (nazla ʿaẓīma). Verso: The beginnings of seven lines of a letter or petition in Arabic script, with wide space between the lines. In between the lines and at 180 degrees, there are a few more lines in small Arabic script, possibly the address of the letter on recto. The name Abū l-Ṭāhir can be read. ASE.

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Dating: March 1062 CE. Among other matters, Yisrael reports that he is in bad shape: he was sick with congestion (nazla), a cough (suʿāl), and eye pain (wajaʿ al-ʿaynayn), although now he is feeling somewhat better. He asks Nahray to obtain bitumen (qifār) from Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa, and send it to him, "for this is the most helpful (drug) for me." ASE