Geniza Lab

Letter fragment to a certain ḥaver ("... ba-sanhedrin gedolah...") describing the writer's financial distress. He also provides a recommendation for the bearer of the letter, who is in still greater distress from the capitation tax and is intending to travel to al-Shām and needs help. There is a postscript implying that the recipient or someone in his family is sick or in distress and conveying the writer's worry.

Two letters of recommendation in Italian for a certain rabbi Barukh Löb Heilpern, apparently the former head of the old Universita Israelitica in Livorno, the first signed and dated in Livorno, 28 October 1852 (15 Heshvan 5613), the second signed and dated in Torino, 17 December 1852. There is also the remnant of a binding and a fragment of a facing page, with more Italian writing.

Letter of recommendation in German for Rabbi Barukh Löb Alpern, mid-19th-century. The place name appears to be Agram, which turns out to be the German name for Zagreb in the Habsburg era. Bears a red wax seal. See AIU VII.E.239 for the LORs Rabbi Barukh collected in Livorno and Turin.

Recto: Form letter of recommendation for charity. In Hebrew. Yemeni hand? Filled in with the name of Yaḥyā b. Sulaymān. Dating: Late, probably 17th–19th century. Verso: a legal query and its responsum.

A long letter of recommendation on behalf of Obadiah the Proselyte, by Barukh b. Yiṣḥaq of Aleppo, written in elegant and vocalized Hebrew. For more information, visit https://johannes-obadiah.org/navigator.php?Manuscript=Epistle%20of%20R.%20Barukh%20of%20Aleppo&PageNum=1.

Letter from Ṣedaqa b. Aharon (?) the druggist to Abū Saʿīd the druggist, ordering materia medica, including, fine Iraqi saffron; aloe wood (ʿūd); aged camphor (kāfūr); Iraqi turpeth (turbid); Iraqi sulfur (kibrīt); and something Hamadānī (?). He adds a recommendation for the bearer ('from a good family') in a postscript. ASE.

Letter from one of the Sughmār family to Nahray b. Nissim. Around 1080. The main part of the letter is a recommendation for a person named Isḥāq, the student of Isḥāq al-Ifranji. The writer also mentions business matters: dinars exchange and a request to pay the rent for two houses that he rented to Nahray in Alexandria. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #626) VMR

Letter of recommendation for a cantor, preacher, and scholar Shemuel b. Yehosef, who had sojourned many years in Palestine ("arḍ al-Quds") and "Baghdad and Iraq," and had seen the tombs of the saints and the places where the prophets had wrought miracles and wanted now to proceed to (where?). Five signature and the rest of a sixth visible. Information from Goitein's note card.

Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The main part deals with business transactions, including shipments of Marāzībī tutty and walnuts. Abū l-Faḍl b. Maʿlā is mentioned, probably identical with the Abū l-Faḍl Yūsuf b. Maʿlā of T-S 13J14.12 and T-S 13J15.3. The margin contains part of a recommendation for a poor man (the bearer of the letter?), naked and lost, "yatīm al-aḥyā'." ASE

Letter from [ʿAll?]ūsh b. Yūsuf to Efrayim b. Yefet. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Recommending the bearer for charity.

Small fragment of a letter of recommendation for a poor teacher who has lost his living and now needs charity.

Letter of recommendation, likely a draft, from Fustat. Dated: 5735 (מעֿשֿהֿ) AM, which is 1614/15 CE. The bearer, Avraham b. Shemuel Ashkenazi, fell into Ottoman captivity eight years ago. His captors brought him to Istanbul, but he refused to convert to Islam, managed to escape, "and took shelter in the Beit Midrash of Shem and ʿEver." He has been living in Fustat for the last two years, exerting himself in service of the community. He now wishes to return to his native land, and the anonymous addressee is asked to help him. (Information from FGP)

Fragment torn from what seems to be the same Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic letter (but a different sheet of it) as F 1908.44W, with the verso reused in the same manner. See join. The content of the letter remaining on this sheet includes an eloquent Hebrew introduction, greetings to "our rabbis," and then perhaps the beginning of a letter of recommendation for Men[aḥem?], from the important men of a certain city. The dīwān charged him. . . 17 Nāṣirī dirhams. . . and now he is penniless and cannot support his children.

Letter from Avraham Karyo, Hayyim Moshe Pianti, Rahamim Shelomo ha-Levi, and a second Pianti, in Hebrew, recommending a certain poor man for charity. There is one line in Judaeo-Arabic on verso.

Interesting, late letter in Judaeo-Arabic from "the land of the Christians" to al-Muʿallim Yūsuf, the shammas of the synagogue, Cairo. The writer narrates in brief how he left Cairo with spices to sell overseas, was detained in Alexandria for a time due to an illness, spent 6 months (!?) at sea, getting lost and nearly getting drowned, first stopping in Turkey and then continuing the land of the Christians. At some point they also stopped in Tripoli (Lebanon?) and purchased more goods. "When we entered the city, the representative of the Amir was deposed (?) and the elders אתפרת (?)." (This sentence is not at all clear. The word נאיבו in fact looks more like נציבו and could even be the name of the city. What the elders did is also not clear.) The writer then describes his difficulties selling the goods from Cairo and Tripoli, mentioning the currencies dinar and muayyadi. He sends regards to Muʿallima Sara. He tells Yūsuf to expect the arrival of ʿAmmī Zikrī al-Quṣamṭīnī and his wife, who are poor. He asks Yūsuf to help them with the capitation tax and to help them get settled. He sends regards to the family (dār) of Rashīd; and the family (bayt) of Ḥakīm Shams Ḥanūna (?); and the cousins of the Muʿallima; and R. Avraham; and Khalaf; and the family of the syrup-maker (? ṭābikh al-sharāb spelled טבך אשרב) and his wife (ahlihi). The writer's wife and children send regards, as does the addressee's brother Barakāt (at the beginning of the letter). He concludes with greetings to Hārūn Jamal and his wife and children and reports that Hārūn's mother and brothers and sisters and maternal aunt are all well. Someone else added underneath the letter, "Greetings to ʿAyyād!" ASE.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, very deferent. The writer has been slandered by somebody and wishes the addressee to write to Abū Kathīr Efrayim b. Meshullam (dated documents 1142–59 per FGP) to the effect that the writer is a good man and that his slanderers do not fear God. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Autograph letter by Avraham Maimonides to Moshe b. Peraḥya. It is a recommendation for the bearer, the French rabbi R. Yeḥiel [b. Yiṣḥaq Ẓarfatī], to the community of rabbis (ʿulamā' al-sharīʿa) in Palestine and Jerusalem. Moshe b. Peraḥya served as a judge in the Rīf, including in Minyat Zifta and Minyat Ghamr; he was the brother of Yosef b. Peraḥya. On verso is a donation list with many names, conceivably for a fundraiser on behalf of the bearer of the letter. Information entirely from Mordechai Akiva Friedman's edition and discussion.

A letter of recommendation from the office of the Nagid Yehoshua Maimonides, for a poor man Shelomo to be read in the synagogue in Fustat. It is very similar to his letter T-S NS J258 for a poor man Moshe. There is an interesting marginal note in which the writer seems to admit that he has not actually met Shelomo. There is a header added after the letter was complete, similar to those found in T-S Misc.8.18, T-S NS J201, and Bodl. MS heb. b 13/44, of which the second word is probably אמת.

Letter. Request to Avraham Maimonides to write a recommendation to the head of a yeshiva in Damascus for Barakat b. Isma'il the clothier, from Alexandria, who is a relative of the writer. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Letter addressed to Avraham Maimonides, asking for a letter of recommendation to the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva (which at that time had its seat in Syria) for a relative of the writer called Barakāt b. Ismaʿīl al-Bazzāz (the cloth trader), who intends to travel to Damascus. This letter is crossed out. Verso: A second letter, possibly a copy or draft, possibly related to recto. This letter appears to be in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel (who could have scribed it for somebody else). It may be addressed to a Rosh Yeshiva (right side, l. 2). It is filled with profuse apologies ("I have never felt such pain as the pain that I felt because I was late...). The sender is also upset about how people have judged him harshly, which was only because of his great humility (qillat al-makbara wa-l-anafa). But the fault is no one's but his own (he says). He specifically asks for intercession with al-Shaykh al-Rashīd. He has enclosed the remainder of the rent. (Information in part from CUDL)