Geniza Lab

Letter about the Mongol invasion. Mosul, December 1236.

The opening of a letter in rudimentary Judaeo-Arabic (e.g. ממלוכה אלאצרג), from one Barukh, to Shelomo (?) Nasi Galuyot Kol Yisra'el.

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla. Dated: 1237 CE. Concerns in part a negotiation between members of the Jewish community and Christians about preventing Jews from entering Jerusalem. The writer mentions that the Christians welcomed him and his companions, and also mentions the town's ruler. VMR.

Letter addressed to the Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay-Jesse from the town of Bilbays containing local news and sending greetings to the Nagid David b. Avraham b. Moshe Maimonides and members of his family.

Letter (end only) referring to difficult events that happened to Sayyidnā and the people of Fustat and Cairo, apparently delivered with an item of clothing that al-Shams/Shammās R. Yishaq had worked hard to mend. The handwriting and contents resemble the letters of Jalāl al-Dawla the Mosuli Nasi to his brother Shelomo, in which case it would date from the first half of the 13th century. Reused for a note in a different hand addressed to the writer's brother, who is instructed to send something urgently. The writer informs the recipient that sayyidnā al-rayyis came to the synagogue to raise money for (?) and then returned to Fustat. ASE.

Memorial list? Dating: Mid-13th century. Names Hodaya b. Shelomo the Nasi (from Mosul). Also Abū Saʿīd b. Netanel. (Information from Goitein's index card.) NB: Goitein refers to ENA 4011.25 as ENA 4011.24.

Letter of Yoshiyahu ha-nasi to Elazar ha-sar. generous spacing between the lines. On the back is some text that is hard to make out.

Letter from Jalal al-Dawla in the name of Yishai b. Shelomo to the Nasi (president) Yishai b. Jesse, Fustat. January 10, 1254. The letter regarding a book that was found in Abu al-Fatah’s estate after his passing. Yishai declared that the book belongs to his uncle, the Nasi Yoshiyahu b. Yishai so it cannot be sold, but ha-Kohen Nafis al-Dawla is interested in buying it for his son. They ask the addressee, which is in Damascus, for instructions what to do. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #101) VMR

Responsum to Hodayahu ha-Nasi who lived around Avraham Maimonides' time. See a parallel in T-S 10G5.3. The question deals with a last testament and an inheritance

Letter. From a woman (see lines 13–15), possibly in Bilbays, to the Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay. Dating: ca. 1240 CE. This letter was likely dictated. The hand and format is the same as that of T-S 13J21.24 and perhaps ENA 2592.3. The writer excuses herself for not coming to the addressee's location in person. Her "temperament is scattered" (mushattā al-mizāj) due to a hidden illness (maraḍ bāṭin), which has made it impossible for her to ride. Instead, she insists that the addressee come to spend the holiday with her. At the end of the letter, the excuse is repeated. "Sharaf al-Nasab (a man, perhaps the bearer) will inform the master her excuse, that she was unable to ride and that otherwise she would have come to serve him." ASE.

Letter from a certain Peraḥya to the Nasi Shelomo. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Reporting that he had intended to pay him a visit on the occasion of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, however the Nasi Yoshiyyahu came to visit the community for Sabbath, thus he had no time for the visit. He sends greetings in the name of his two sons, Moshe and Shemuel. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in Hebrew from the exilarch [ʿAzarya] b. Shelomo b. Yoshiya to [...] b. Ḥusayn. Large space between the lines. Verso contains the address, inverted, along with a great many jottings in large Arabic script. There are also Hebrew pen-trials on both sides. Information from CUDL.

Notice from Eli 'Keton ha-Ḥaverim' to Josiah ha-Nasi b. Shelomo ha-Nasi. Informing Josiah ha-Nasi that his opponent Abu al-'Ala had not appeared in the synagogue. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter. Postscript to a letter addressed to the Nasi Shelomo by the scion of the house of David in Mosul who also wrote Bodl. MS Heb. a 3/24. Mentions that he acquired for his son a permit to practice a profession and travel to Bilbays in Egypt. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) The writer mentions that he intended to travel that week, but his son fell ill; he also mentions that the rayyis is ill and cannot read or write letters, but that the sons of Rabbenu Menaḥem have been helping. Circa 1236 based on Bodl. MS Heb. a 3/24.

Legal query and responsum regarding joint ownership of a house. The person who holds three quarters of the house demands from the man holding one quarter to either sell his share to him or to buy his three quarters. The answer is signed by Shelomo b. Yishai ha-Nasi. In the line below, the name Faraḥ b. Yūsuf appears. Information in part from CUDL (via FGP). Needs further examination

Letter addressed to Nasi Yoshiyahu. The writer has many debts. Abu Sa'd and the son of al-Rayyis Sulayman are mentioned. In the last lines, the writer asks to know with whom the commentary on the Prophets had been pawned. Likely from ca. 1230s, as Yoshiyahu and al-Rayyis Sulayman are mentioned in the correspondence of Jalal al-Dawlah and Shelomo b. Yishai. ASE.

Letter to Shelomo b. Yishay, a nasi originating from Mosul but residing in Egypt. Dating: ca. 1237. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 19)

Fragment of a letter sent to the nasi Shelomo b. Jesse with complaints about Yosef and Yehuda of Cairo who did not answer the writer's letter but instead wrote to his adversaries. Akko (Acre) and Damascus are mentioned. Dated 1237. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla, in Cairo, to Shelomo b. Yishai the Mosul Nasi, in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1240 CE. The writer had sent a pair of red woolen children's shoes with Muʿammar al-Dimashqī intended for the addressee's son Yishai. He devotes much of the letter to a vivid description of his illnesses. “As for my state, I inform the masters that I came down with diarrhea, and I endured it. When it increased and multiplied, it became an illness. A physician was treating me, al-Rayyis Sulaymān al-Ḥakīm al-Fāḍil of the family of Rabbenu Menaḥem (ZL). They concocted the medicine in the house of Rabbenu (ZL): every day, roasted seeds and the like, and a pullet, and he visited me frequently. And R. Eliyya the Judge was also generous. When I recovered after some days… [I came down] with what was worse than it… ophthalmia in my eye on the night of Shabbat Shoftim… a painful scream, against my will, all night…. May God afflict my enemies [with what I was afflicted with]. The illness became public. What I suffered cannot be [described].” In the continuation, he sends regards to the judge Peraḥya and praises him as the most learned and powerful judge in the country. He concludes, "As for my eye, fog and darkness were upon it." There is a postscript in the same hand but in the third person (perhaps meaning that a secretary wrote this letter for Jalāl al-Dawla or that somebody later copied it): "After he wrote this letter, he entered the bathhouse (meaning, he was fully recovered) on the 26th of Elul, so be glad of heart." ASE

Letter sent by Eli b. Natan the physician to the Nasi in Cairo, probably Shelomo b. Yishai, complaining that the Hazzan returned only two of the three dinars Eli had deposited with him. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 41, 530, 607, and from Goitein's index cards)