Geniza Lab

Most of a long, very distressed letter from Menaḥem, writing in Fusṭāṭ/Cairo, to a business associate, whose family lives in Fustāṭ/Cairo and who has traveled. The details of the case are difficult to follow and merit deeper examination. Menaḥem's enemies have gotten the upper hand, and they are gloating to the utmost, and he has lost a great deal of money. In what remains of the letter, he first mentions the visit of Lu'lu' ("may the enemies of Israel perish"), who may be identical with al-Raqqī, to a prison (where Menaḥem had been held?). The entirety of the rest of the story has to do with the misdeeds of al-Raqqī and Ibn Kātib al-ʿArab, called "dogs" by the writer (they call him the same). The latter "stands in the middle of the markets [of Fusṭāṭ and Cairo] and hosts great gatherings (? maḥāfil), even greater than those of al-Raqqī. He said that I am his enemy and that I testified against him to the representative of the sultan" (r12–15, 29). Apparently the addressee normally has the ear of Ibn Kātib al-ʿArab, and so none of this would have happened if the addressee had not had to travel "for my sins" (r24–25). Menaḥem writes repeatedly that he is "in the fire" and that it would be better to be dead (r25–31, v21–25). His uncle (ʿamm) Abū l-Faraj is egging on al-Raqqī, standing in the market and "on the slaughterhouse" (?) and cursing Menaḥem and the addressee before the Jews and the Muslims. Abū l-Faraj is instructing al-Raqqī not to "appraise these pawns" (hādhihi l-ruhūnāt lā tuqawwimuhum) (does Menaḥem run a pawnshop?) (r32–36). The villainy of Abū l-Faraj goes deeper, for he "sits in the house with Yūsuf and his brothers and his children, dancing (raqṣ) and listening to music (ṭarab) (rm22–33). The installment of the story that continues on verso has to do with al-Raqqī's claim that he is owed 1000 nuqra (dirhams) by the addressee. Various legal documents and (false?) witnesses are produced (v1–15). Someone states, "This is how fortunes are lost because of slander" (v12). Menaḥem expands on his wretched state. He prays for God to command the "angel of my misfortunes" to relent. Every day ends with tears and with the melting of his liver, bit by bit (v19–32). He concludes by urging the addressee to come quickly and to seek aid from a powerful man ("kiss the feet for me of he whom you know," v33–34). He apologizes for the distressing matter contained in the letter (v35–37). R. David sends his regards and rebukes; R. Shelomo is well, recovering, back to his usual self; the addressee's wife and children are well (v37–40). In a postscript: "I heard that Muhadhdhab b. al-ʿŪdī is in critical condition and that wheat is expensive. May God have mercy." ASE

Letter from Ṭoviya b. ʿEli, in a provincial town, to his cousin Natan b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, probably in Fustat. Dating: 1122–50, based on the dated documents of the addressee. The writer sends thanks for the forwarding of a prescription from one physician, Abū l-Bahā', and reminds Natan to obtain a second prescription from another physician, al-Amīn, both for his sick wife. The latter physician was perhaps a Muslim or Christian, since the addressee is asked to transcribe the prescription from Arabic to Hebrew (but cf. T-S 8J16.19 + T-S NS 323.13, in which a Jew is asked not to use Arabic script). "Favor your servant with the answer to be given by my lord al-Amīn, may his reward be doubled. Please transcribe for me the prescription into Hebrew letters.") As requested, Ṭoviya provides an elaborate update on the condition of his sick wife: "She has six attacks (fawra) during the day and four during the night. Perspiration (ʿaraq) overcomes her from the sockets of her eyes (maḥājīr ʿaynayhā) to her chest (fu'ādhā). Owing to the high fever (min ʿuẓm al-nār) she has a feeling that her neck first burns (iḥtaraqat) and then becomes cold (yabrud). At the same time, she suffers pain in her knees (wajaʿ rukab). Owing to her grave sufferings (min ʿuẓm al-alam) her menses (al-ṭamth) have stopped. Finally, because of her great anxiety (min kuthrat al-takarrub), she is affected by mild palpitation (rajīf yasīr) of the heart." The same illness is also described in an earlier letter (T-S 12.234). From a later letter (T-S 13J25.15) we learn that she eventually began to feel better. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 254, 255; V, p. 106. It is possible that no fever is described, only a sensation of burning (nār). It is also possible that the phrase "knee pain" (wajaʿ rukab) should be read "pelvic pain" (wajaʿ rakab), especially as the next sentence describes the menstrual changes brought on by excessive pain. In the margin, changing the topic, Ṭoviya asks for a loan of the piyyut שיר השירים אסלסל (a liturgical poem for the Seventh of Passover composed by Shemuel b. Hoshaʿna the Third) from 'the rayyis,' sends regards to family members, and reports that the family's situation was very difficult when the tax collector arrived on Purim.

Calligraphic family letter, sent from Giza, containing many names and detailed instructions. Dated to the 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 423, and from Goitein's index cards.) A very rough translation is as follows: "Your letter arrived with Ibn al-Jalajuli. Najm al-Din read it with me in Giza and wrote a response in his own hand. A letter with Abu l-Ḥasan arrived with the news that you are sick, and we were pained on your account, myself and the mother. As for Tawus and Mas'udah, they did not greet us (?). The old woman and Mas'udah fought, she said to her, "You claim that I owe you something, I don't owe anything to anybody!" We went to Abu l-Khayr, I and the Hakim, as soon as Abu l-Ḥasan arrived with the letter. We fought with him. We said, "Give the ghazal (?), we will do it outside." But he didn't do it. He prepared it and he will do it. As for what you sad, my brother, that I should rise and come, you know that I am busy with the speaking (?) of Najm al-Din until matters are stable (?) with him. On Wednesday, the day after the arrival of the letter, I went to Amin al-Din the son of the founder and bought five of indigo (nīl) from him. I gave him your letter and he read it and I kissed his hand and humbled myself and cried. He was pained and said, come back another time. He is good of heart and wishes for your delivery. He promised me. Every day I await for the response from him, and every day I go to him -- may God grant that salvation is at his hands, and the next letter after this one will tell of your salvation. My brother, I cannot travel until I have a letter with news of your delivery. There is no sense in traveling like this. I can't even buy or sell things until your matter is settled and the speaking (?) of Najm al-din. As for what you said about going to to al-Shams b. al-Muzawwiq - he did not leave me in Giza after he read your letter except that he was good (of health?). Maybe we don't need any of them. You know that he does not have any influence apart from money. Until now, nothing has been settled between me and him. If you need money, send word with someone you trust, and we will give it to him. My brother, there is fire in our hearts because of you. Mother and your sister and the Hakim all want to come to you. A blond apostate (poshea') arrived after Abu l-Ḥasan's letter and said that you had departed. Someone wanted to write a letter to someone; but he searched for you and did not find you. He calmed our hearts a great deal. He told us that your leg hurts you. Their fear was calmed, and they recovered from their state...." Further people mentioned include Hajj Muhammad, Najm al-Din, the old woman, the Hakim, Hikam (?), and al-Shaykh Hilal. ASE.

Letter from Nissim b. Ḥalfon, from Tinnis, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1056. The writer just arrived in Tinnis and he is astonished to see the situation in the city: the trades have stopped and the city seems like it was destroyed. He asks a question about a shipment of linen and mentions buying wheat for his family. Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #595. VMR. Nissim also twice exhorts Nahray to look after his children, "the fire is in my heart due to their state. . . for you know their state," and to finish the business quickly for this reason. ASE.

Letter from the mother of Dā'ūd, in a provincial town, to her son Sulaymān al-Jamal, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. She complains about a lack of letters from him and reports that she is fasting and crying day and night. She had traveled with her daughter and son-in-law to her present location ("balad al-ghurba"). She would return on her own, but must stay with her daughter who is pregnant (muthqala). The writer urges her son to come and thereby "cool [the fire in] my liver." Her son-in-law had promised to bring her back to Fustat, but when the daughter became pregnant, he said that he would never go back to Fustat again. The writer cannot bear witnessing her daughter's suffering (nakālhā) at the hands of the second wife (ḍarrathā). Information from Friedman's edition. ASE.

Letter from Ṭoviya b. Moshe, in Jerusalem, to his daughter, in Fustat, April 1040 or 1041. "The following description of the writer's well-being is altogether exceptional: 'I am completely comfortable in my body and all my affairs. My clothes do not hold me for all my happiness and success.' The story was indeed complicated. A Byzantine Jew had married a Muslim woman, certainly a captive whom he had ransomed. When the couple moved to Palestine they separated, and the wife took residence in Egypt with her daughter, who had meanwhile grown up. The mother fell on bad times, and in this letter the father tries to persuade the girl to return to him and the Jewish fold, pointing out that he (in contrast to her mother) was in excellent health and enjoyed material prosperity and thus was able to provide for her" (Goitein, Med Soc V, 47-48).

Nearly complete letter in Judaeo-Arabic to Abū l-Ḥusayn Ṣedaqah b. Nissim al-Mukallifī (?) in Alexandria. The letter is written on a fragment torn from a massive chancery document; only the beginnings of two Arabic lines remain. Most of the letter is devoted to commiseration about the "fire" that the writer has heard is afflicting Abū l-Ḥusayn. Perhaps a great grief of some kind? It is possible that Abū l-Ḥusayn was stranded around Tyre (בגובת צור), but this sentence is fragmentary. Apart from urging the addressee to respond and reassure him, the writer also informs him that ״אערצת אלסרר״ (?) but it didn't come to anything (or gain any money?).

Recto: Note from Rashīd inviting a physician to come urgently to Rashīd's home, and to bring a friend. Verso: The physician responds that if he is being invited to a drinking party, he cannot come today because the Christians prevent him (? li-ajli moqesh al-'arelim). If he is being summoned to treat (mudāwā) somebody, probably al-Sadīd, it can be postponed to another day. Rashīd should tell al-Sadīd that the writer already came looking for him several times but could not find him. He was worried on his account ("the first was in my heart"), and he wondered if perhaps al-Sadīd no longer needed his services. Changing the topic, he concludes, "As for the the [Ar?]abic letter, I have it with me. I will make a copy of it and return it." Information in part from Goitein's index cards. ASE.

Letter from Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tahirtī, in Trapani, Sicily (Gil prefers to read אטראבנש in line 2 over Goitein's and Ben-Sasson's אטראבלש), to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1053 CE. The top line of the recto is partially torn away, as is the writing on more than three quarters of the text of the top margin. The writer spent the winter and the summer in Tripoli (Libya) and and in Sicily. Some of the family members are in the Maghrib, and they are caught up in a mess of an unclear nature. Mentions the textile trade with Sicily; the procurement of flax in Egypt; and other business matters.

Letter fragment by a certain Yaʿaqov recounting the episode that led him to break off his partnership with others in a wine press. While he was doing business in silk in Alexandria, his partners had sold a donkey and a mule and swindled him, however, he chose not to bring the case to court. He invites the recipient to spend the holiday with him. Mentions Abu l-Ḥasan, Abu l-Fadl, Zikri, Zikri’s nephew, and Ḥasan the messenger.

Letter from a woman to a certain Yosef written in the hand of Shelomo ha-Melammed b. Eliya. The woman calles herself "his mother" but it is possible that she was not his biological mother and this is an attempt by her to show her closeness to him. In the letter the woman declares how much she misses and worries about him and asks him to come join her in Fustat. She promises that she will sell her own clothes to pay for his capitation tax. To show how serious she is, Shelomo ha-Melammed wrote a legal testimony on the back in which he testifies that this woman will pay Yosef's capitation tax (apperently she will pay the Shami rate in Egypt) on the conditions that he will come to Egypt. Another interesting point in the letter is that the woman mentions that Izz al-Din came to Egypt "Because the sultan called al-Kamil sent him" - a clear reference to the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil (1218-1238) giving us a dating for the letter. Finally, Shelomo ha-Melammed added a personal message to Yosef at the end of the letter: He asks him to send greetings to Shelomo's cousin (the son of Shelomo's mother's brother) Abu al-Faraj and his two sons Ma'ani abd Abu Majd. These relatives are also mentioned in T-S 10J7.2 and T-S 13J35.15 (OZ).

Fragment of a family letter, same writer and addressee as T-S NS 338.71, mainly rebuking the addressee for the lack of letters. "Your mother and sister send you regards and adjure you by God to not cut off your letters from us more than this, for you have burned our hearts with fires, especially when we see on this blessed [holiday]. . . everyone in health. And Muslim got sick and suffered hardship and, thanks to God, returned to health. You should send regards to him and congratulate him on his health, even if you do not see fit to write to any of us. . ." ASE.

Letter from the cantor Yedutun ha-Levi, Fustat, to his brother Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub. Narrow strips were torn from both the left and right sides of the paper, making the contents obscure. Yedutun refers to several matters known from their other correspondence: he says that ibn al-Taffal continues to slander Moshe to Abu Zikri (the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi), but Abu Zikri does not believe him (cf. T-S 13J20.18 and T-S 8J10.16). The daughter of Berakhot is suffering from a “mental illness,” with spells of relief from hour to hour; he [presumably Berakhot] consulted the brothers’ paternal uncle Imran about this. Abu l-Yusr sends his regards. ASE.

Letter from a mother to her daughter. In Judaeo-Arabic. The mother expresses her longing and the fire in her heart, sends regards to Umm Khalaf and ʿIwāḍ, and expressing her joy that her daughter is now connected (ittiṣālik) with such noble people. ASE.

Letter from a woman, in Fustat, to her son Abū l-Maḥāsin, in Funduq al-Qamra, Alexandria. Dictated to Abū Manṣūr. Likely belongs with T-S 10J19.26, in which case the writer of this letter is Sitt Ghazāl bt. Abū ʿUmar. She expresses the anxiety (nār) that afflicts her heart on his behalf ever since his departure on Friday. She has been having nightmares and insomnia, and fears that if he does not return quickly, she will be completely blind by the time he returns. (It is also possible that the phrase "yatlaf baṣarī" refers to death instead of going blind; compare "wafāt ʿaynak" in T-S 10J12.14.) She urges him not to drink wine "on account of your illness. . . May God protect us from illness while separated (al-maraḍ fī l-ghurba). . . If my night visions are distressing to me, how [much the worse] if I should see them while awake." The last sentence is ambiguous: either she fears that nightmares can afflict a blind person at all hours, or she fears that her visions of terrible things happening to her son will become realities. She requests that he bring various goods back with him: a large bowl (qaṣʿa), a linen cloth (? shīta), a good comb (mushṭ), and two spoons (milʿaqatayn), and possibly red ink (? midādun yakūnū ḥumr) for Umm Abū l-Bahā'. The scribe Abū Manṣūr interjects here (line 13), and the remainder of the letter is in his voice. He apologizes for troubling the addressee with news of illness, but the fever is still with him. He asks for news of Abū l-Waḥsh Sibāʿ, and the bible, and the book of Rabbenu Baḥye. He is very anxious to learn what his instructions are—it seems he is to copy one or both of these books for Abū l-Waḥsh—so that he is not accused of tardiness. The instructions should be delivered either to Sūq al-ʿAṭṭārīn to the shop of al-Kohen al-Siqillī, or to al-Sūq al-Kabir, to the shop of Abū l-Faraj al-Sharābī. See Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 224–25, 260. VMR. ASE.

Letter from a father in Cairo to his son, Abū Manṣūr, in the Fayyum. The recipient is told not to get involved in any banking deals with the government. The writer illustrates his warning with examples of people who had suffered physical torture because of their dealings with the diwan. Addressee is advised to pursue a modest, safe living as a moneychanger. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 240, 269, 460, 467; IV, p. 161)

Letter from Bū l-Maḥāsin, in Alexandria, to his mother Sitt Ghazāl bt. Abū ʿAmr, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: undated, but there is an Abū l-Maḥāsin b. Sitt Ghazāl (he must have been an orphan or his father unknown, since he is only identified by his mother's name) in T-S K6.149, which Goitein dated to 1165–1203 CE based on the identification of the handwriting with that of Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi. In this letter, Bū l-Maḥāsin tells his mother about the trouble he encountered when sailing from Cairo to Alexandria. He left Cairo on Friday but could not board the sail-boat because the customs officials would not let him and finally got a ferry to take him over to the boat, where the officials could not see him. He did travel comfortably, however, on the crowded boat during the trip, which took almost a week, arriving in Alexandria on Thursday evening. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 298; V, p. 329)

Recto: Letter from a woman to her son Abū l-Faḍā'il al-Yahūdī al-Bawāridī ('the maker of cooling or cold vegetables') in al-Qamra, Alexandria. She describes a dangerous journey on the Nile ("we nearly drowned three times, but the end was good. God willed that we meet with the Shaykh Abū l-Makārim, and I stayed with Umm Hiba.") She advises her son to redeem the copper lamp that had been pawned for 3 1/8 (dirhams?). "Do not ask about my state and my illness, about which you know. I left with the fire in my heart on account of Futūḥ and his illness. Do not ask what weighs on Makārim's heart on your account. By God and by the breast which nursed you, do not neglect your son Sulaymān." She sends regards to Ḥasab (?) and his children, to her brother, and to Umm ʿAzīza. Verso: Apart from the address, there is a postscript in a different hand (with rudimentary script and spelling), from another family member who had traveled with the mother from Alexandria. This writer says that everyone is fed up with Karīm. The qumāsh which they brought with them from Alexandria has now been pawned for 40 dirhams. Karīm has not paid a penny of his capitation tax. He even pulled a trick to make his brother have to pay his debt. He is not working. Sulaymān (probably his brother) is working instead, and the writer was forced to accept public charity (kashaft wajhī) to pay off the debt. The next couple lines are tricky. Maybe: 'After all this, he regards me as idle. I do not even have enough water to drink because of him." Then: I regret leaving Alexandria. Regards to you and your family. Send us news of Umm Maʿānī quickly. Information in part from Goitein's note card and Med Soc, I, p. 424; III, pp. 246, 480. ASE.

Letter addressed to She'erit ha-Ḥazzan, the cantor in the Palestinian synagogue. The writer thanks She'erit and his wife, Umm Shemuel, for their hospitality, and asks him to sell books which the writer had left with the cantor. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Moshe b. Abū Zikrī to his relative, Araḥ b. Natan, on matters of commerce. Moshe expresses his concern about the fact that Araḥ left for a journey without a travel companion (rafīq). Moshe asks Araḥ to assist him in delivering a debt of one dinar and not to withhold the wheat he posses, since the condition of the people is difficult. Moshe also expresses desire to accompany Araḥ in his next commercial voyage. The writer is, apparently, the second son of Abū Zikrī Yehuda b. Saadya the Nagid, a previously unknown son. (Information from Frenkel.) Notes from Frenkel in Hebrew.