Geniza Lab

List in Judaeo-Arabic, neat and well-preserved, with quantities of food items and materia medica on the recto. There are three columns from right to left which list the materials, units of measurement, and perhaps Coptic-numerical quantities. Among the goods listed are two types of soap ( "בלדי" and "שאמי" ), pepper, and plums. A diverse array of units of measurement are in use such as the raṭl and the wayba, which Goitein notes "comprised about 15 liters (approximately 4 gallons) and the irdabb consisted of 6 waybas." (Goitein, Mediterranean Society I, 361). These details help estimate the dating of this document as 14th-16th-century. The verso features a different hand, however, that is listing similar goods such as pepper, almond, and wax albeit without the organized column structure of units and numerical quantities. MCD.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The handwriting is very likely that of Mūsā b. Yaʿqūb/Moshe b. Yaʿaqov writing from somewhere in the Levant in the 1050s CE to an addressee in Fustat. Compare the documents edited in Gil, Palestine, vol. 3, #514–#517, all of which are addressed to Dāʾūd b. Shaʿya (and two of which also suffer from a milder version of the wet-ink problem). The distinctive feature of the present letter is that the ink was still wet when it was folded/pleated, so almost all of the text is obscured by mirror-image imprints of other lines. (Goitein glanced at it and wrote, "Letter in Hebrew characters on which decorative patterns were printed. (?)") Probably most of it will be illegible until someone devises a clever way to subtract the reflected text. Some of the phrases that can be read are as follows: "... selling the pepper of my master the elder, and I did not know the intention of my master the elder, and Ibn Hillel already received his share... in Damascus and the letter arrived... the caravan already departed from [...]... from Tyre to Egypt... it is not concealed from my master that... 200... if my master the elder has bought some merchandise, its price returned... what he collected from the comb traders (? al-mashshāṭiyyīn) and the Sindis (?! אלסינדיין - this would be exciting but is probably wrong)... (verso) ... in Damascus it is 2/3 dinars per qintar... Damascus... this week... the rosewater... the caravan from Damascus...[skipping to the end]... may your peace increase... if you see fit to write and for the agent to pay for the [...] and charge you(?) for it... writing harshly(?)... for he will come around by being gentle (ʿalā l-mulāṭafa)..." ASE

Mercantile letter sent possibly from Aden to India. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (lower part of recto). The sender received a basket (zanbīl) of pepper which he did not want. He wanted betel nut (fawfal) or cardamom instead. He humorously complains that the pepper won't fetch any money for him to be able to eat or drink. He also did not want the 15 עיטוריה(?) dinars that the addressee sent with Mūsā b. Yūsuf. He wishes that the addressee had used the money to buy him betel nut or cardamom. In a postscript on verso he adds, "whatever you buy for me, please do not put it under my name but rather under your name." (Information in part from Goitein’s attached notes.)

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning primarily the trade in pepper (filfil). Dating: Perhaps 12th or 13th century. Each page is crossed out with a vertical line. It seems the pepper was processed in Fustat (expenses are listed for gharbala/sieving and packing in khaysh/canvas), then sent to Rashīd and thence to Alexandria for export. Traders mentioned include Ibn ʿImmanuel and Maymūn. A sum of ~184 dinars is cited at the end; it seems that Maymūn is responsible for ~30 dinars of that. MCD. ASE.

Business letter. Probably from Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Maghribī al-Tūnisī (upper right of recto). In Arabic script, in an experienced hand. Dating: Possibly Mamluk-era. On recto, the sender describes various commercial transactions (l. 15r). Toward the bottom of recto, he mentions the following: 3 aqfāṣ of antimony; lead; 7 chests of mercury and verdigris; 6 chests of soap; 7 chests of labdanum; later on, arsenic; and something "to India." On verso, he mentions [...] b. Muḥammad al-Shāṭir on two occasions (l. 1v, 17v); he gives prices for pepper and ginger; mentions the return from the ḥajj (al-nuzūl baʿd al-ḥajj); and mentions saffron. He says that he and Abū Naṣr visited the Nā'ib of Jedda, who received them graciously (l. 8v). MCD. ASE.

Partnership release. Dated: 1091. Location: Fustat. Verso: Avraham b. Yeshuʿa ha-Kohen irreversibly releases Abū al-Faḍl/Abū al-Mufaḍḍal Netanel b. Yefet from any obligations concerning a partnership. Avraham had purchased two baskets of indigo and silk as an investment on behalf of his Alexandrian partners – the silk was damaged on its initial journey to Fusṭāṭ and Avraham liquidated it completely, settling the balance with Nathaniel and terminating the partnership. Abraham’s partners include Nathaniel’s mother and sister (see lines 23 and 27-31). The recto is another partnership agreement (for which the verso is possibly a draft), which reveals Abraham to be an investor (not the active partner), investing funds with Peraḥ/Peraḥya ha-Kohen, who also adds funds and takes the total to Damascus to import goods to Fusṭāṭ. The partnership is to last the duration of a single trip to Damascus, and Peraḥ is to receive half of the profits to Abraham’s capital as well as all profits to his own capital. Peraḥ is liabile for losses, as with the isqra. (Information from Lieberman, "A Partnership Culture", 65-66)

Recto: Accounts (or prescription?) in Arabic script. Sepiolite (zabad al-baḥr), 2.5 dirhams; rock salt (milḥ andarānī); white lead (isfīdāj); pepper (filfil); long pepper (dār filfil); sanbal/sunbul (spikenard). Verso: Note from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Berakh'el ha-Talmid (incomplete).

Accounts or inventories in Judaeo-Arabic organized in entries associated with days of the week. Based on the handwriting this fragment is likely from the 16th-19th centuries. A wide array of items are referenced such as lemon, carrot, fish, pepper, ginger, soap, olive oil, and bread (or possibly meat because "לחם" is ambiguous between JA and Hebrew). MCD.

Letter from Allush ('Lamb') b. Makhlūf al-Nafusi to M[ahr]uz ben Yaʿaqov, 1130s or 1140s. Business letter concerning payments involving and owed to various merchants, including someone named Madmun, perhaps the representative of merchants and Nagid of Yemen, Madmun ibn Ḥasan (d. 1151); Abu Said ibn al-Dimyati; Abu Zikri, perhaps the representative of the merchants in Fustat during the first half of the twelfth century with the same name; and the writer's brother, Yiṣḥaq (= the well-attested India trader Yiṣḥaq ben Makhlūf). Allush appears again in a court record dated 1132 as having bought a house in his brother's name [Bodl. MS heb. b 11/21]. The letter also mentions Abu Said Makhlūf and Ibn Elisha, travel to the Maghrib and Aden, and shipments of pepper. Conclusion and address on verso. (Information from Arnold Franklin and M.A. Friedman and S. D. Goitein, India Traders of the Middle Ages: Documents from the Cairo Geniza, p. 263)

Letter from Mūsā b. Iṣḥaq b. Nissim al-ʿĀbid (al-Mahdiya) to Avraham b. Daʾūd al-Raḥbī (Fustat), ca. 1030. The writer supplies goods from the Maghreb, including oil olive, fruit jam, spices, etc. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 683.) Contains a list of prices of local goods: pepper, laque, spices, sugar, precious stones and pearls. Letter written in the evening after the fast of the day of Atonement. (Informations from Goitein index cards linked below).

Accounts of a merchant. Mentioning goods such as pepper (filfil), oil (dihn), cumin (kammūn), bitumen (qifār), brazilwood (baqqam), sugar and syrup (sukkar wa-sharāb). Mentioning names such as Abū Naṣr, Abū 'Alī, al-Shaykh al-Itrābulsi, and Abū l-Qāsim. ASE.

Accounts, mentioning quantities in raṭl of commodities such as pepper. (Information from CUDL)

Mercantile letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The sender and addressee are unknown. Dating: Probably 11th century. Mentions people such as Abū Yaʿaqov the brother of Tamra(?); a poor old man (shaykh suʿlūk); Ibn al-Fakkāh. Mentions goods such as: pepper, cinnamon, brazilwood, wheat, oil, and Kirmānī indigo. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #835.) VMR

Letter from Yehuda b. Ismāʿīl al-Andalusī, Sicily, to Nissim b. ʿAyyāsh, Fustat. Dating: ca. 1060. Mentions a shipment of shelled almonds and lāsīn silk sent from Sicily in the ship of Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ and its distribution to its owners in Fustat. Also mentions selling pepper that was sent to Sicily. Ismāʿīl, Yehuda’s father, is mentioned in the blessing for the people who passed away. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #577) VMR

Letter fragment from Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tāhirtī. Mentions details about money exchange and shipments of pepper and silk to and from Palermo. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #352) VMR