Geniza Lab

Letter from Netanel b. Ḥalfon to Moshe Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 1 Nisan 1485 Seleucid, which is 1174 CE. Describing the plight of the bearer Yeshuʿa and requesting charity on his behalf. Praising Mamionides' munificence, prays that God will make him into a "malja' li-kull malhūf wa-satr li-kull makshūf (the one who 'covers' all the 'uncovered') wa-ahl li-kull maʿrūf." Ed. Israel Lévi, Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 69 (1925), 375–77, cf. Med. Soc., 2: 498, App. C 82a (1174). Information in part from Cohen, Poverty and Charity, p. 43. The sender is likely identical with the sender of T-S NS J384 + T-S AS 151.33, an earlier letter.

Copies of letters, perhaps. Catalogued as pertaining to Maimonides and R. Ḥisday. Needs examination.

Recto: Circular letter in the name of Moses Maimonides. The recto preserves only an eloquent introduction. Verso gives the name of Moses Maimonides and preserves the address to the notables of Damirah, Jujar, Samanoud, Damsis, and Sumbat. Also on verso is a Judaeo-Arabic note at 180 degrees about the story of Ya'aqov and Leah. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.) BL OR 5533.1, T-S 12.238, and T-S 16.9 are all versions of the same letter.

Letter from a judge to Avraham Maimonides, reporting about a case that came before him in Adar I 1529 Seleucid (which is 1218 CE). About 32 lines, partly effaced but mostly legible. There are 6 lines of (autograph) response in Avraham's hand, but these are mostly torn away or effaced. Mentions people including Ismāʿīl b. Maʿālī and Abū l-Ḥassan al-Levi and someone's first return from the Levant. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

A query directed to Maimonides (d. 1204). Responsum.

Deed in which Abū Isḥāq Abzārī gives the Nagid Avraham Maimonides the right to buy back the burj, a tower in the ancient Byzantine fortress of Fustat, for sixty dinars for a period of five years. The rent was waived. The deed is dated Tevet 4974 (1213/4) with the day of the month and week left blank, and no space is left for signatures. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein MedSoc, Vol. 4, p. 87.)

Letter from al-Fayyumi b. Saadia, probably addressed to Moses Maimonides.

Deathbed will. Dated: Wednesday, 18 Nisan 1493 Seleucid, which is 24 March 1182 CE. Testator: Abū l-Faraj b. Moshe known as Ibn al-Kallām. He leaves to his wife, the daughter of his maternal uncle, one third of a house, if she does not marry again. If she does, she will receive only what was still due to her from the delayed matrimonial gift. This man owed 2 1/2 dinars to Maimonides, 4 1/6 dinars to al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq (perhaps the physician Ibn Jumayʿ) for a capitation tax paid on his behalf, 1 dinar and 12 dirhams to the poet and judge Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk, 4 dinars to the faqīh Ibn Ṣawla, and 5 dirhams to Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥayfī. Scribed and signed by Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya. Also signed by Elʿazar b. Mikhael. (Information from Goitein's notes and from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 31.) Translated and discussed at length in S. D. Goitein, “The Moses Maimonides-Ibn Sana Al-Mulk Circle: A Deathbed Declaration from March 1182,” in Moshe Sharon, ed., Studies in Islamic History and Civilization in Honour of Professor David Ayalon (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 399-405.

Letter from the tailor Yaʿaqov b. Ṭahor to Yehuda al-Ḥalabī. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 24 Elul (4800 +) 197 AM = 4997 AM, which is 1237 CE (the numbers for 4800 are implicit in letters from this period). The letter concerns textiles and asks the addressee to give 26 dirhams to R. Ḥananel (the father-in-law of Avraham Maimonides [d. 1237], who is also referred to in the document as 'our lord'). (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 409, and from Goitein's index cards.)

Legal document. Dated: Thursday, 17 Nisan 1483 Seleucid (1172 CE). Inventory of the estate of the physician Abū l-Riḍā al-Levi, which was designated for the benefit of the orphan daughter of ʿImrān by order of "the great Rav Moshe," that is, Maimonides, who had recently been appointed head of the Jews. Also mentions the dead man's female slave named Musk. Join by S. D. Goitein. Join awaiting transcription. Goitein's notes say that Westminster Frag. Cairens. 25+ is another copy of this document, but the shelfmark must have changed (this should correspond to L-G Misc. 25, and nothing in the L-G Misc. folder appears to be related to this document).

Letter sent by the cantor Sheerith to Maimonides, in which the writer excuses himself for being unable to do a certain service for the recipient, since he had to officiate at a circumcision ceremony for a poor man. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 89, 541)

Legal document. Dating: probably ca.1185. This is the only known document that refers to the majlis of Maimonides. It is a draft of a statement (tiqrār) to be signed by Maimonides, the Judges and the Elders, to the effect that Avraham b. Yaḥyā ha-Levi, called al-Najīb, should get the payment of his capitation tax (jizya) to the amount of 1 2/3 dinars out of the revenue from the rents of a "block" (rabʿ) which was a pious foundation earmarked for poor people. Thus Avraham's capitation tax will be paid from the revenue of the qodesh, not as charity, but as compensation for fees which he once renounced for supervising repairs in the funduq. The text stresses the great benefit which would accrue from his continued presence at such repairs. This payment was to be in the place of a daily salary of 1/2 dirham to which al-Najīb was entitled for his supervision of the building of the Funduq ('hotel' or caravenserai), erected by Abū ʿImran Beḥir ha-Kohanim, certainly also a public building. The remuneration of 1/2 dirham normally was paid out of a daily emolument of 2 dirhams which the Wakīl or administrator of the building received. The statement is not signed, perhaps because Maimonides objected to such a vague agreement made in respect of the spending of money destined for the poor. (Information from Goitein's notes and from Gil, Documents, pp. 323 #77.) On verso there are 6 lines of verses in Arabic script.

Letter from Ṣadoq (b. Shemuel or b. Yehuda) Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to Moshe b. Ḥalfon ha-Kohen Ibn Ghulayb ʿAyn ha-ʿEda Paqid ha-Soḥarim etc., in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 11 Sivan, 159 = 4800 + 159 = 4959 AM, which is 1199 CE. The first part of the letter conveys the information that the "rebels" (המורדין) in the congregation of Alexandria have drawn up and signed a decree (taqqana) stating that they will never accept a muqaddam who is not a native of Egypt. They plan to send the decree to Maimonides ("Rabbenu") and ask him to appoint either the judge Yiṣḥaq b. Sasson or the judge Shemuel ha-Levi b. Seʿadya. The congregation offers a hefty initial payment of 50 dinars. (This decree may well be the same one mentioned in T-S 18J3.15, a letter from Barakāt b. Abū l-Ḥasan to Eliyyahu the Judge ca. 1221 CE upon the death of R. Anatoli.) The second part of the letter conveys Ẓadoq's request for Moshe ha-Kohen to intercede with Maimonides so that the new muqaddam will not deprive Ẓadoq of his profession of wirāqa (i.e., his appointment as a warrāq, a copyist and notary of legal deeds). Ẓadoq wants the present arrangment to continue: half of the wirāqa jobs for Ẓadoq and half for the muqaddam. Ẓadoq complains about his difficult financial straits and that he has to sustain two "households," i.e., his two wives. If Ẓadoq loses his income from wirāqa, he will have no choice but to abandon his family and move to Byzantium. In the end, Maimonides did not heed the taqqana of the community, and instead he appointed. R. Anaṭoli b. Yosef of Marseilles as the muqaddam of Alexandria. Ẓadoq's request, however, was accepted. We hear again of the division of the wirāqa between Ẓadoq and Anaṭoli in the year 1216 CE in the document T-S 10J25.3. Information from M. A. Friedman's article on this and related documents.

Autograph fragment of Maimonides' epitomes of Galen. Belongs together with T-S Ar.21.112 and JRL SERIES A 1019, ed. Hopkins, "A New Autograph Fragment of Maimonides's "Epitomes" of Galen ("De Locis Affectis")," BSOAS vol. 57 no. 1 (1994), pp. 126–32. (Information from Amir Ashur.)

Notes from a lesson given by Maimonides. There is a fingerprint. See analysis and edition in Friedman, "Notes by a Disciple in Maimonides' Academy Pertaining to Beliefs and Concepts and Halakha" [Hebrew], Tarbiz (1993), p. 570f.

Praise poem for Maimonides (FGP)

Diagram of the structure of Rambam's commentaries on the Talmud's "Tractate Middot" – undated – Bassatine Cemetery – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 236) – in Hebrew. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 38). MCD.

Recto: autograph medical recipe in the hand of Moses Maimonides, prescribing an emetic and other drugs. The ingredients used include sticky sugar, lemon juice, oxymel, melissa, and green mint. The fragment includes dietary advice to avoid unripe dates, jujube, green almonds, carob, green broad beans, carrots and vinegar; whereas raisins, pistachios, figs and nuts should be eaten for dessert. Verso: draft of a witness statement related to a court procedure. (Information from CUDL)

Verso: Autograph note from Moshe Maimonides to al-Shaykh al-Wathīq. In Judaeo-Arabic. Informing him that there will be a gathering of the elders on Shabbat and warning him not to be late. He says that the addressee's note arrived but was too wet to read.

Letter by Moshe Maimonides. A copy. Following the responsum, there is a copy of Maimonides' letter to Pineḥas ha-Dayyan of Alexandria. (Information from Amir Ashur via FGP)