Geniza Lab

Legal document, mentions ziqnei ha-yishmaelim. Deed of authorization of son to represent mother before her two brothers concerning the collection of debt at Efrayim b. Shemarya's court. Written in Tyre, confirmed in Fustat.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim (Misr) to Abu Ishaq Barhūn b. Salih at-Tahirti (Busir).

Letter sent from Fustat by Barhun b. Salih al-Tahirti to his cousin Barhun b. Musa. The letter deals with business dealing with Muslims and the collection of debts. Dated ca. 1053. (Information from Gil)

Nearly complete letter in Arabic, written by a Muslim and/or addressed to a Muslim (concludes with prayers for the prophet Muhammad), sent to somebody close to the India trader and Nagid Maḍmūn b. al-Ḥasan (active 1131–51). Unfortunately, the beginning of the letter and the address are lost. The writer reports meeting with [Abū?] l-Faraj b. al-Surūr and learning that the addressee had directed his business (? taklīfak) to the West (bilād al-gharb) and has been left without strong connections in India (bilād al-hind). He then brings up Maḍmūn b. al-Ḥasan and (it seems) how Maḍmūn has bestowed his favor on the addressee more than on others. He then explains why he has been unable to travel: his East African slave (al-ʿabd al-zanjī) died, and the [In]dian slave who was with him in Sunkhalā (= present-day Songkhla) had already departed. . . . "and I remained cut off" (? wa-baqītu munqaṭiʿ). Despite this, he is doing well (qalbī ṭayyib), and he requests a favor from Maḍmūn. In the margin he mentions the ship-owner (nākhudhā) Abū ʿAbd al-Qahhār (? this word is uncertain) Abū l-K[...]. Merits further examination. ASE.

Accounts of a woman named Umm Abū l-Riḍā. For the month of Nisan "143." This probably means 4800 + 143 = 4943 AM, which is 1183 CE. (The other possibility is 5143 AM = 1383 CE.) Her associates include many Muslim and at least one Christian woman, who evidently work for a Jew: Sitt ʿIzz; Fakhriyya; Qaḍīb; the wife of al-Asʿad; ʿĀʾisha; Umm Jashm; Zaynab; Khātūn; Mīra; the Christian woman (al-Naṣrāniyya); Nasab; al-ʿAsāliyya(?); Fāṭima; Hinda. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and CUDL.) ASE