Geniza Lab

Letter from an unidentified sender, in India, to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 12th century. This fragment begins cryptically: "...and he prays to God day and night to deliver him from you (pl.). His character is not unknown to you—that he does not like anybody to rely on him—for you brought him up and know him best, and he is fair in his dealings. He commutes (yatarakkaḍ) from Malabar to Ceylon and his goods are in Aden every year. His aim is to exchange(?), hopefully, and leave, but there is no escaping failures (ijāḥāt). This is not unknown to you. If you can be patient until such time that he leaves, then good, and if you want your goods (sooner), simply send him a letter in your hand, and he will give them to whomever you tell him. The slave (= I) asks from your beneficence to send the account...." When the letter resumes in the margin, it refers to a quantity of several thousand buhārs (likely the total number of bales carried in the Kārim fleet at the time of the writing of the letter); something which is not readily found in India; and mace (basbās). The letter continues on verso with a "ḥasbī Allāh"; a report on the price of clove; the sender says he didn't go out to Aden this year, but rather sent a bit of lac with Yūsuf b. Abū l-Munā. (This could also mean that he *only* went out to Aden this year with a bit of lac with Yūsuf but that makes less sense.) If Yūsuf is now in Fustat, the addressee should help him send the sender's goods, "for I know that you are good to foreigners." Regards to various people, including Ibrāhīm. Information in part from Goitein's description in his notes to India Book VI, 50 (unpublished). OZ, AA, ASE

Letter from Farajūn b. Hilāl, in a provincial town, to an unidentified addressee, in Fustat. Dating: 11th or 12th century. The sender may be Abū l-Faraj b. Hillel, who is the sender of T-S 13J26.19 (1094–1111 CE). Farajūn b. Hilāl reports that he leased the addressee's shops and house. He further reports on Abū Yaʿqūb and the wine; apparently Abū Yaʿqūb has not gone to Fustat as ordered by Sayyidnā, citing his inability to get a ḍāmin to draw up a capitation tax receipt for him. A certain Khalaf wants to empty the shop and set it up elsewhere, but the sender asked him to delay until he had a chance to write this letter. He talked to the amīr, who agreed to permit either the addressee or his son, but not both, to leave the capital. He urges the addressee (or his son) to come quickly with a letter from the rayyis. Khalaf has sent the addressee 1.5 dinars and wants good-quality lac. The sender then reports in detail about the nagid’s beehives, complaining about all the trouble he has had with them, and asks for instructions. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Toviyya to Eliyyahu the judge. Sent to Fustat, to the qāʿa of the faqīh Abū Manṣūr. Toviyya informs Eliyyahu that he found no buyers for lac in al-Mahalla and so he sold it in Damietta. Reused on verso for a poem in Judaeo-Arabic about mortality.

Letter(s) in Judaeo-Arabic. The portion on recto deals with the sending of various goods to be purchased and/or sent with Hiba, including lac, 2 pairs of tefillin, an ounce each of silk-white pearls and blue pearls for embroidery (raqm) and an ounce of 'muqallad blue' for ṭirāz, and white and blue knives. The portion on verso is an informal note in a different hand. Dated: 42nd day of the Omer, 1547 Seleucid, which is May 1236 CE. This is probably a postscript from somebody else in the household addressed to the same person as the letter on recto, because this person asks Hiba to purchase 10 nice ebony pens.