Geniza Lab

Court record in which Abū Sulaymān Dāʾūd b. Abū al-Khaṣīb Zurʿa confirms to owe to Abū al-Maʿālī al-Tājir b. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Tājir, aka Shemuʾel b. Judah Ben Asad, 100 dinars which he will return in two yearly installments. If he were to be late in doing so, he owes a fine of 10 dinars to the poor of Egypt to be collected for them by the Court. This debt was originally made before a Muslim court. Here it is prolonged. Fustat, Marḥeshvan 1153, written but not signed by Natan b. Shemuʿel. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 3, p. 9, Vol. 2, p. 110.)

List. Collection, jibaya, made on the first day of the holiday for the Maghribi, the Kohen. About 1115 contributions, mostly in Coptic numerals. Some of the names are encircled (represented here by $ $, perhaps indicating persons solicited). Other names are crossed through (= having paid?). A few are left untouched. The list is headed by the haver ʿOvadya, presumably the great grandson of Avraham Maimonides bearing that name (b. 1297, d. before 1355). The other names also fit the 14th century, e.g Nasir ("helper," three times), Shams ("sun," 11. 4, 27), Faraj Allah ("God has helped," 11. 8, 14). Three dashes (---) represent a diagonal slash downward toward the left, which stands for 1/2 elsewhere but here must mean something else, since 1/2 in this list is representeed by the left arrow, as elsewhere. (S/D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:496, App. C. 68) EMS

Two lists of partly identical persons, the first without, the second with sums, ranging from 1 through 11 dirhams and 1/4 dinar. The first list comprises fourty persons, of these some scholars, others foreigners or persons in inferior positions, such as employees or gatekeepers. These lists were probably prepared for the capitation tax, the second list indicating perhaps the sums still due, to be paid by the community if the persons concerned were unable to pay. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 2, p. 454, no. 54.)

Booklet of four pages, listing contributions in dinars or fractions of a dinar. About seventy-two numbers preserved. The list is headed by the Nagid, who pledges 3 dinars, while the others give 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/12, 1/24 dinars, respectively. A number of the persons listed are known as having lived around 1100; consequently, the Nagid referred to was Mevorakh b. Saadya (d. 1111). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 502, App. C 115, first supplement. See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.)

Letter of appeal for charity from Abū Dāniyāl to Maṣliaḥ Gaon. The house where the writer lives with all his family is collapsing around them. There are several interesting spellings in this letter, e.g., אלצצֿירה for الصغيرة.

List, extensive and valuable but damaged, of donors of wheat to the poor. Most give only 1 wayba (about 4 gallons, weighing about 25 pounds), or fractions thereof, some others give 2 or 4. One person whose name has not been preserved, but who follows immediately after the first three mentioned above, donates 4 irdabbs = 24 waybas. Those who had not yet made up their minds are listed at the end of the page merely by name. The tillis is a sack, weighing approx. 150 pounds verso, list of persons contributing dirhams, for example, 2 weavers each 3 d, one giving with his workman. The doctor, the representative of the merchants Yequtiʾel, donates 1/8 dinar (for which one could buy at that time approx. a wayba of wheat). The symbol to the right of most names on verso resembling an Arabic final mim, with a tail, might mean (pai)d, (salla)m. It is represented here by a $ (Cohen) (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp 478-479, App. C 21 ca. 1100)

Letter from a woman, in Qayrawān, to a benefactor, unknown location. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Likely 11th century. The beginning is missing. Her children have nothing to eat or wear, and they have 'exposed themselves' (inkashafnā), that is, become dependent on public charity. "But do not suppose that [in] Qayrawān that they have compassion and give. By no means do they do this! They give to those whom they know." The wife of ʿAṭā' gave them only a couple measly garments, and when they put them on their bodies, they felt chills. She and her children all have an ear illness. The addressee evidently left 5 dinars for her with Farḥūn, although she has not yet been able to get her hands on it. When she does, she will have the community (or just her children?) bless his name every Shabbat. ASE

Collection made at a circumcision feast. The ba'al ha-mila, or father of the boy, gave 1 (presumably: dirham), a few others did the same, most of the rest contented themselves with 1/2 or even 1/4. Only the lower part of the list, with about thirty-four contributors, is preserved. Some names are overlined (having paid their pledges?) Early twelfth century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 498, App. C 80)

List of contributors. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Deposition from Minyat Zifta, signed by five witnesses, in which two persons testify to the poverty of a man named Sulayman b. Ḥasan, who had been condemned to imprisonment for insolvency when his Jewish debtor had brought him before a Muslim court. Dated Sivan 1486/ June 1175. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 204)

Letter from a man from the land of the Persians, who, after the loss of his fortune, had come to Egypt to seek a post as teacher. He asks for help, as he was unable to work owing to an illness of smallpox. He is living in the synagogue (this is written above the line; the scribe first wrote "living with [???]" and then crossed it out). "I came to this city empty-handed, intending to support myself by serving the people, but I fell sick with smallpox. Now I cannot work and I possess nothing." Information from Goitein's index card.

Three columns of contributors, giving fidda, 'silver' (a late equivalent for 'dirham'). Characteristic names: Somekh (assistant cantor, Heb.) Furaykh ('Little Chick,' twice), Frjlh (also twice, an abbreviation of Faraj Allah, 'God had helped'). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 501, App. C 100)

Late list of wealthy contributors, about 30 per week (Information from Goitein index cards.) Verso: There are also several lines of Arabic script.

An almost entirely 'egalitarian' list of contributors from the first half of the eleventh century' (Goitein) Forty-four persons pledge 1/2 (dirham), nine parties, of whom six consist of two or more numbers, 1, and only one pledges 2 (dirhams). Almost all the names appear in abbreviated form: Abu Kathir is Efrayim b. Shemarya, the leader of the Palestinian congregation of Fustat (1007-1055), Sahlan (b. Avraham), the head of the Babylonians. Hillel hpns, that is, ha-parnas.. Others are referred to simply by nickname: 'Son of the Mule,'The Philosopher.' Dated to ca. 1035 recto has a letter from the orphans (girls) of Dosa, seeking help claiming their inheritance Ed. Gil, Eres yisrael, II, pp. 402-403; trans Mediterranean Society, II, p. 324. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 121).

Fragment of a list of recipients of bread (twelve out of 22 receive 2 loaves each). Ca. 1107 (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 465, App. B 101) | Four fragments in this shelfmark. Upper right: a literary text in square hand involving inheritance. Upper left: faded text, perhaps a part of a piyyut. Lower right: a list of names and sums - probably dispribution of bread for charity. Lower left: faded text , hard to read.

List in monumental cursive, contemporary with ENA 2591.1, several names being identical. Six contributing two (dinars it seems); five contributing one; twelve contributing one-half; Total, indicated in the list: 23 dinars. The sum was probably needed for a special and urgent purpose, such as the travel expenses of a foreigner who was about to leave. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 504, App. C 125)

List. Fragment (in the same script and arrangement as T-S 24.76, T-S 20.112), containing the names of 51 households, at least 15 of which are identical with T-S 24.76. Legible items: 17 receive 10 (dirham=dirhams), total 85; 17 receive 10 (dirh), total 170; 9 receive 15 (dirh), total 135; 4 receive 20 (dirh), total 80; 1 receive 25 (dirh), total 25, 1 receive 30 (dirh), total 30; a total of 49 receive a total of 525 dirh. The basic unit allotted to one person clearly was 5 dirhams, as evident from such items as 'the man from Malij and his mother-10,' 'the daughter of Nissim and his mother-10,' 'the two women from Ramla-10' (see T-S K15.97; T-S J1.34). In several lists the number 1 or 2 is written after the amounts of 10, 15, 20. The number could hardly mean a simple additional payment (since then the writer would have changed the number 15 to 16 or 17, respectively); it must have had some other meaning. Had the sheet been preserved to the length of the contemporary T-S 24.76 (also only a fragment) and the sums distributed on the lost part of approximately the same size, the communal expenditure on this charity (presumably doles for a holiday) would have approximated 1,500 dirhams. Even assuming the lowest value of the dirham at this period (Mediterranean Society, I, p. 371, sec. 8) this sum would correspond to about 37 dinars, twice as much as the distribution of bread in T-S Misc.8.25 during one month. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 439, App. B 2b, dated 1020-1040)

List of contributors, pledging 1, 2, or 3 dinars, mostly from the well known families Ibn Shay'a, Ibn Saghir, and Bahudi, or prominent notables such as Abu Zikri Hayyim b. (Ammar) Madini (of Palermo) and Abu Zikri (Yahya) b. Menashshe (see Bodl. d79.35). The donations were probably for helping the poor with their capitation tax (see T-SK15.94v). (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 476,. App C, sec. 12)

Contributions to a collection of loaves of bread for the poor, ranging from 100 pounds (a qintar) down to 1/2 pound. Instead of bread, one person gives three dirhams. Most of the contributors of larger amounts are introduced with the title 'my lord the elder,' while most of those giving small ones are simply called by name, such as: Yaʿaqov-1/2, Ibrahim Ibn al-Mawazini (maker of scales)-1, the oil-makers-1, the Karaite-1/2. No consistency, however, was observed in this distinction. The donors of the third and fourth largest amounts (25 and 10 pounds, respectively) receive no title, while others giving only two pounds do. The handwriting of this much-effaced document is of the calligraphic type used in books, which is extremely difficult to locate and date. Reason: The list is headed by Abu Zikri (taking him as son of Eliyyahu the dayyan, who was a prominent physician in Alexandria), while R. Yeshu'a is second, even though he donated only 4 pounds 'The haver' is also listEd. All three are conspicuous in T-S 10J16.6, the complaint of the administrator of the quppa in Alexandria, who was threatened with death when he retained certain quantities of wheat in order to meet emergencies in time of scarcity. The Nagid might have asked that all the relevant lists connected with the breadbasket of the community be submitted to him, one of which (the present list) would have finally made its way into the Geniza. If the above reasoning is correct, the document should be dated ca. 1230. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 491-492, App. C 53 and from Cohen)

Letter, fragmentary, from Isma’il b. Barhun ha-Tahirti from al-Mahdiyya, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal from Fustat. Mentions some information about the Sultan interfering in trade matters. Mentions Yosef b. Brahya and the Nagid – Avraham b. Ata. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #119) VMR