Geniza Lab

Letter from a man entitled “segan ha-yeshiva” to Aharon the Cantor. Dating: Possibly ca. 1035 CE, based on Goitein identification of the addressee with Aharon b. Efrayim, who is the addressee of T-S 8J33.1, ca. 1035 CE. The writer has been confined to his house with the remnants (baqiyya) of a serious illness (maraḍ ṣaʿb, alam, ʿillal). He cannot stand, and he can hardly write. He asks Aharon to bring the Nasi and Abu ʿAlī to treat his illness, and to go with Abū l-Khayr Mevorakh to collect money from 'aṣḥābunā' for a man in need and naked (insān mastūr wa-ʿaryān), i.e., himself. They are also to get a half dinar for the writer from Abū l-Ḥasan. Information in part from Goitein's note card. The scribe has cut and reused a classical Arabic text in calligraphic script with full diacritics and vowels. ASE.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to one of his brothers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner). The remaining text suggests that the addressee had suffered an attack of colic (qawlanj) but is now feeling better. Yefet also mentions "the large notebook of seliḥot."

Letter from a parent, probably in Fustat, to their son Isḥāq b. Saʿīd, probably in the Rīf. (It is also possible that the locations are reversed.) In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 14th century. The handwriting is exceedingly similar to, if not identical with, that of the clerk of Yehoshua Maimonides. The writer has heard that Isḥāq has had a relapse: "You have fallen ill with the same illness that you had in Fustat." The writer is in distress from this news and wants Isḥāq to return to his family immediately. If it were not for their own frailty (wa-lawlā anā qalīl al-[nahḍa or equivalent]), they would come in person to fetch him. It ends, "[Come] immediately. Do not be reckless with your life." ASE.

Recto: Informal note in difficult Arabic script, scrawled basmala on top, possibly a memorandum to do with land tenure? Needs further examination. Verso: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic from a sick man to his son's teacher informing him that his son behaves outrageously and needs to be disciplined. "A teacher must tell the boy if he tries to leave, 'Don't go around to the houses and the markets.' The gist of the matter is that if the boy comes this Friday afternoon and if he behaves thus (?) at that time, please inform me in your response to this note, in large Hebrew letters, because I am sick (wajiʿ), prostrated beneath my bed (or bedcovers? rāqid taḥt al-firāsh). Uncover his legs and give him a good beating." Perhaps the note on recto is from the teacher, and the man had a hard time reading it, so asked for the next one to be in Hebrew script?

Letter, possibly from the physician Abu Zikri (identification based on handwriting and style), to unidentified addressees "who are to me like my parents." Fragment. The writer excuses himself for being unable to fulfill a duty on account of his ophthalmia (ramad). He sends regards to "the noble physicians" Seʿadya, Sar Shalom, Yehuda ha-Ḥazzān, Moshe, and Yaʿqūb and ʿAbdūn and their little brother. He closes with good wishes for the high holy days and begs the addressees to forget all rancor against him, "for how close is the death of man . . . The measure of a friend is how he bears the pain (or offenses, ḍarar) of his friend." The transcription is tentative in several places. Merits further examination. ASE.

Letter about an unexpected happy turn in a serious affair and about the farming out of a concession for bee-keeping (Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Naḥḥāl died and left behind him 300 hives). He also mentions in passing that he fell sick in Benha. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from a certain Yehosef to Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Written on parchment in a crude Maghribī hand. In Judaeo-Arabic, with ~7 lines of possibly unrelated Arabic script on verso (some of this might be part of the address, though there is also an address in Judaeo-Arabic). Dating: Probably 11th century. The letter opens with sympathies for the addressee's illness ("Your letter arrived... and it was like seeing your dear face. When I heard you were sick, I went out of my mind, until I received your letter and was reassured") and continues with various business matters, e.g., small quantities of garments. Mentions Abū Yūsuf. Further notes in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly in a different hand (accounts of the addressee?) on bottom of verso. Recto is hair side.

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.

Letter from Yehuda b. Salama, probably in Ṣahrajt, to a certain Abū Saʿīd, in Fustat. Dated: Elul 4808 AM, which is August 1048 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic. Gil identifies the writer based on his handwriting (and mentions that he had previously identified the scribe as Zekharya b. Gedalya b. ʿAyyāsh). The writer excuses himself for his late response on account of his illness (ll. 3–4), and he conveys sympathy for the addressee's illness (ll. 12–13). He expresses his worries because of the events in Qayrawān, as no information has arrived from there for seven and a half months. The addressee is about to travel to Ṣahrajt and the writer asks him to buy and bring an Ashkelonian cotton cloth. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #718.) VMR. ASE. NB: The text of the transcription below is backwards (left-to-right) and belongs to a different, unidentified fragment.

Recto: Letter/petition, or letter in the style of a brief petition, from "your student Bū l-Majd" to a high-ranking physician. In Arabic script. Dating: Probably ca. 13th century, based on format, typical name, and handwriting. The writer asks the addressee in formal terms to come visit him, because he has developed a pain in his leg. The door of the building is open. Verso: A few words in calligraphic Judaeo-Arabic, mostly "tajriba" repeated several times. ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, perhaps addressed to Eliyyahu the Judge. The writer worries about various family members: a woman whose brothers refuse to support her (r1-5); the niece (?) of the recipient and her daughter (r5-6). Mentions sending to Fakhr things that belong to her (r8). The writer has sent various garments with Suwayd (r13-14). Mentions the troubles of al-Rayyis al-Ḥakīm Abū Zikrī and that he is unable to send his children even 5 dirhams. "Have patience with Abū Zikrī, for he is your only remaining son, and do not do anything to him except what he deserves" (r14-v1). Sitt al-Khayr is preoccupied on behalf of the recipient (v2); Nissim sends his regards (v3); al-Shaykh Hiba sends his regards (v7). The remainder of verso is somewhat difficult to understand. See also Goitein's notes attached to BL OR 10578C.1 (PGPID 6310), where this document is mislabeled as Gaster 1357.8 (rather than 10). ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity. There are 10 lines of flowery Hebrew praises for the recipient followed by a space and then six lines of the Judaeo-Arabic letter have survived. The writer's son is sick and they are in need of clothing and they ask the recipient for help.

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim. Dating: ca. 1060. The writer is interested in buying tin because it is in demand among traders from Palestine. The letter contains some personal details about Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī, who became widowed and was alone for a long time before getting married again to a sister of ʿEzra b. Hillel. He has also been suffering from an illness that affected his hip (wark). Those who visited him 'frightened' him (by despairing of his health). He is doing somewhat better than before and asks for Nahray's prayers. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 18. See Goitein notes linked below.) ASE.

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.

Note from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his brother, the physician Abū Zikrī, written in an extremely cursive script. He informs Abū Zikrī that the turban and ten rings (or seals) have arrived. The old woman (their mother Sitt Rayḥān?) is ill with a cough, headache, fever, and chills. ASE.

Letter from a Spanish community to Egypt concerning an impoverished and aging man from Rhodez, France, who appraoched the ruler of his land for redress after his son was murdered; the ruler instead expropriated his possessions. Wants to go to Jerusalem to spend the rest of his life there. Recto after a long alphabetical exordium.

Letter of Ḥalfon b. Yiṣḥaq to the eminent scholar Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel (the Spaniard). The entire letter is a refu'a shelema for the Rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan (the Nagid Mevorakh?). Ḥalfon reports that the letter of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣayrafī Dihqān arrived with the news that al-Rayyis Abū l-Ḥasan was ill. Everyone is devastated, and the writer's congregation fasts and prays on his behalf. "May he who cured the bitter waters by the hand of Moses and the evil waters by the hand of Elisha cure him." Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter of a son, Yiṣḥaq b. Yaʿaqov, to his father, Yaʿaqov b. Yiṣḥaq, containing 20 lines of polite phrases in Hebrew, another 6 in Arabic, and 3 announcing that he was unable to locate a certain person in the ministry of finance (dār al-zimām) in Cairo; he was told that the official left to visit his father in Dalāṣ. There are also some self-pitying lines about the writer's illness and unemployment. In a postscript the writer asks 'to close the account' and regrets to be unable to travel as he had no weapons to fight with. The writer may have reused a sheet of Arabic accounts, the beginnings of ~8 lines of which are visible on verso. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter (tadhkira, memorandum) on two sheets of paper, written and signed by Menashshe b. David al-Ṣayrafī, probably in Fustat, probably to Nahray b. Nissim, perhaps in Qayrawān. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. Gil deduces that the addressee is Nahray b. Nissim from the fact that the letter mentions that Ukhuwwa (the Muslim ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz) wished to do business with the addressee and with Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tahirtī, and the latter was Nahray's most established business partner (and his cousin). The letter deals with problems communicating with people in Alexandria by letter, and mentions a consignment of oil. Menashshe opens by asking the addressee to intervene on his behalf with Abū Ibrāhīm Ismāʿīl, who had cut off his correspondence with Menashshe for the last year. "If it is due to something I did or a fault of mine, perhaps it is something I can rectify or apologize for, and if it is the 'neglect due to illness' or the like, I have seen his letters to other people, such as to Maṭar and to you, many of them" (recto of the first sheet, lines 6–11). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 499. See also Goitein notes linked below.) ASE.

Letter in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel to his father-in-law. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. He complains about neglect. He mentions al-Shaykh al-Rashīd, whom he forgives for neglecting him because he is usually so generous, and Abū Manṣūr, whom he does not forgive because he cannot imagine his excuse. He concludes by asking the addressee to conciliate his daughter (the writer's wife, ṣāḥibat al-bayt), because, as a result of his pain and his illness and the meager support he receives (or "care," as in the wife being remiss in household duties, which is Zinger's suggestion), his "character became constrained" and he became irritated (ḍāqat akhlāqī wa-ḍajirtu), and they had a fight. The addressee should do this in such a way that she doesn't sense that the writer told him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 188, 189.) Same writer as T-S 13J21.35, which is signed Abū l-Barakāt. There are many more letters in his hand. See Zinger's dissertation, p. 261. ASE