Geniza Lab

Legal document detailing how Ṣāfī, the slave (ghulām) and agent of the Jewish Academy in Fustat, insulted a notable in ʿAydhāb, Ibn Jamāhīr, in the presence of Jewish merchants. Ṣāfī accused the man of having a child with a female slave and then disposing of her, in Berbera, on the African coast. Ibn Jamāhīr filed a complaint of slander against the ghulām, although the governor tried to convince him otherwise because of Ṣāfī's special status. Ṣāfī was ordered to be flogged and jailed, although after intervention by a Jewish merchant from the Maghreb, he was set free, although “not without loss of money.” Goitein dates the document to 1141 CE. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:133, 432) EMS

T-S 13J22.6 was published By Gil, Palestine, #404. It is the left hand side of the letter. T-S 13J7.6 is the right hand side of the same letter, published by Gil (transcription of the whole document) in his 1991 article of corrections and additions to his 3-volume Palestine. This is a letter of complaint to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat (mid 11th century). The writers complains about the Christian governor Ibn Gorgas who built a church next to a mosque, a controversy arose, and now the Jews are in danger.

Letter, top and bottom missing, referring to a dispute between Jews and Muslims, the synagogue, a certain Binyamin, and two physicians, one of them called Yosef. No bibliography; merits further examination. (Information from CUDL and from Marina Rustow)

Letter from Avraham b. Saadya the Hebronite, (the muqaddam of?) Bilbays, to Yiṣḥaq b. Shemuel the Sefaradi, Fustat, beginning of the twelfth century. Discusses in detail the communal problems that arose around the proposal of tearing down the synagogue and rebuilding it. The Muslm governor said that a synagogue may not be built under the reign of al-Mawla al-Afḍal. Verso has been reused for drafts of Arabic medical writings. CUDL description: Recto: letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic from Abraham b. Saʿadya he-Ḥebroni, on behalf of refugees from Hebron that are now in Bilbays. Abraham writes to Isaac b. Shemuʾel ha-Sefaradi (active ca. 1090-1130 CE) in Fusṭāṭ, concerning the building of a new synagogue in Bilbays, replacing an old synagogue that had been torn down. The entire community joined forces to dismantle the synagogue and rebuild the new building. The letter lists the donations given by members of the community, and describes in detail the surrounding properties and their owners. A muslim judge initially objected to the construction of the new synagogue, so the community tactically rebranded their construction as a ‘home’, to which the judge had no objection. Verso: jottings of an Arabic philosophical text. (Information from CUDL)