Geniza Lab

Letter from Labrāṭ b. Moshe b. Sughmār, in Sūsa, to his younger brother Abū Zekharya Yehuda b. Moshe, in Fustat. Dating: August 1056 (Gil). This long letter alludes to dire events that took place in North Africa and Sicily, including the invasion of the Bedouins, the destruction of Qayrawān and the siege of Sūsa. The letter also conveys family news about the Banū Sughmār. Labrāṭ opens saying that death is now preferable to life (r3–6). Their mother had recently died (r9–10); Labrāṭ sends a rebuke to a certain Avraham for failing to send him a letter of condolence (v1–2). "I am at this time exhausted (or muddled, multāth), confused and doubtful. By my father, I don't know what I'm writing because my mind is preoccupied. May the end be good, God willing" (r15–16). Labrāṭ congratulates on his brother on his marriage to a woman from a notable family in Fustat. He asks his brother to convey congratulations to Abū l-Khayr, the new brother-in-law, "because I have no heart and no mind," i.e., Labrāṭ is too depressed to write himself (r30–36). He uses the same excuse for his failure to maintain his correspondence with "al-rav al-ajall," the most exalted teacher (v5). "I write these lines overcome by tears" due to his separation from his brother and lack of close confidants in Sūsa (r36–37). Labrāṭ plans to travel soon, whether to east or to west. If the addressee wishes to travel, he should come to al-Mahdiyya or alternatively go to the Rīf and acquire goods for the two of them. "But in this time I have no sure opinion (ra'y)—the decision is yours" (v15–17). The other parts of the letter consist of business affairs and greetings to people in Egypt. Among the business affairs are reports on shipping, including the following: "You mentioned that you loaded three (loads of freight) onto the qārib of Mufarrij and one onto the qārib of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ," and the former reached Tripoli (r17–18); later in the letter, he adds: "Just now a letter arrived from my lord Abī l-Faḍl Yūsuf b. Khalfa mentioning that the small (laṭīf) ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ has also reached Tripoli" (v20–21). (Information in part from Gil.) ASE and MR

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 in the hand of Abū Zikrī, physician to the sultan al-Malik al-ʿAzīz (Saladin's son and successor), sent to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1193–98 CE, if all the identifications are correct (this document would then be several years earlier than any other document relating to Abū Zikrī or his father Eliyyahu). This is the second page of what was originally a longer letter. Abū Zikrī describes his overwhelming grief upon hearing the news that his younger brother had died. Members of the court came to express their condolences, including the sultan himself, who said that he considers the deceased as equal to his own younger brother, al-Malik al-Amjad. (Information in part from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:346-47, 5:175–77.) EMS. ASE.

Letter containing the testimony of Makhlūf, a respectable merchant, who had to flee from Alexandria before an oppressive government official, 'the plundering monk,' Abu Najah, and to hide in the western desert for years. He had arrived in Alexandria in the spring following Abu Najah's death, traveled to Ifrīqiya in the summer of the year 1130, and wrote the letter the following summer, that is, 1131. The writer was appointed as an overseer of the Sultan's ships. It is also an extraordinary document of estrangement between father and son. The son loved music, Italian wine and bad company, and, of course, was always in debt. All attempts of the father to correct him: presenting him to the qadi of Alexandria, taking him on a trip to Ifrīqiya, sending him to the countryside on administrative work, suggesting to him travels to Yemen and to Syria were of no avail. The young man of twenty-two was not a mere good-for-nothing. He was allergic to his father: 'as long as you are alive, I have bad luck. As soon as you are dead, I shall be successful.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46, 119, 268, 277, 280, 316, 320, 482; II, 588, 359; III, 246, 243, 249.) There is also the beginning of a draft of a letter in Arabic script on verso.