Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to Yosef ha-Kohen b. Simha, asking for help. In Hebrew. The writer was hit by a crisis that forced him into poverty and then this was complicated by debts. He wants to be on his way and to join Avraham al-Ger (the proselyte) on his journey to Ceuta, intending to make appeals (there). (Information from Goitein's index cards and Goitein, Med. Soc., x C. 1, n.35.) Written bt Berakhot b. Shmuel.

Letter fragment, written in poetical phrases, in which the writer asks Yehuda and his brother Meshullam for help. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in which the sender sends a request for help. R. Avraham is mentioned

Letter from Aharon ha-Tinnisi b. Nahum the scribe. The writer is in need. He lost his job and prices are high, so he left Tinnis (in the Egyptian Delta), leaving behind two children as 'orphans' with their grandfather. He asks for help from the unnamed addressee.

Letter of request for help, probably sent to Abu al-Wahsh. The letter begins with words of praise.

Letter addressed to a 'Sar ha-Leviim,' asking him to help his son, who is imprisoned in Cairo for a debt. Fifteen dirhams had been pledged, but his son owes 25 more. (Information from Goitein's index cards). The letter is written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who served as the muqqadam of Bilbays from 1180's-1220 (identified by Amir Ashur)

Letter from Ibrāhīm, Yosef b. Hillel, and Moshe to Yehuda ha-Rav. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 13th century. Asking to have some produce sent to them, some of which should be given to ʿIwaḍ, the addressee's cousin.

Recto (secondary use): Lower part of list of male persons, mostly craftsmen or foreigners (Goitein surmises that they are people for whom the capitation tax was [to be] paid). Several names are preceded by sahh, 'paid.' Each name also ends with a line extended to the end of the column, possibly signifying that it has been paid. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 466-467, App. B 106.) Many of the people listed bear surnames indicating their place of origin, including Baghdad, Amid (in Iraq), Aleppo, Damascus, Tiberias, ?Azza, Sicily, or indicating their profession, including porter, packer, night watchman, dyer, soap maker, mosaic craftsman.

Beginning of a letter of appeal by an individual named Makin who addresses his plea to an elder. The verso contains a much faded letter in a different hand.

Petition addressed to four brothers (?), the elders Abu al-Baqa, Abu al-Baha, Abu al-Faraj and Abu al-Karam, requesting charity. The supplicant, Harun, writes that he has not tasted bread in days and is emboldened to make his appeal because of the upcoming Jewish holiday. The name of one of the addressees, the shaykh Abu al-Karam, is written on the verso. The cipher at the top, in the small letters, probably is the abbreviation \'b-m\' for bism allah al-rahman al-rahim, found in other Geniza documents and in the Arabic fragments from Quseir al-Qadim published by Li Guo, Commerce, Culture and Community in a Red Sea Port in the Thirteenth Century: The Arabic Documents from Quseir; cf. M. Cohen, 'On the interplay of Arabic and Hebrew in Cairo Geniza Letters, in the R. P. Scheindlin Festschrift, note 19. Undated.

Petition. Calligraphic letter with wide line-spacing in which the writer asks the recipient, whom he addresses as 'my father,' for support, emphasizing that his poor situation 'has become worse.' (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter. Petition in Hebrew of which only the first 20 lines, containing introductory wishes, have been preserved. The letter contained a request for help. The letter is written by Tamim b. Tobias from Aleppo around 1036-1037. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter addressed to Yosef ha-Kohen Segan ha-Kohanim. In Hebrew. Containing greetings and an apparent request for charity. The letter is written in the same hand as T-S 10J17.27 and T-S 10J17.29–30. (Information from Gotein's index cards.) Join: Oded Zinger.

Letter addressed to Yosef ha-Kohen. Contains initial greetings, a request for assistance, a congratulations on recovering from an illness, and wishes for the forthcoming high holidays. This letter is written in the same hand as T-S 10 J17 fs. 27-28 and T-S 10 J17 f. 30 (Goitein). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Petition of a pregnant woman describing herself as a 'lonely foreigner' (gharība qatīʿa). Ibrāhīm, the scribe, emphasizes the great reward and place in heaven the recipient will obtain if he helps the woman. He also adds various business matters of his own, including, apparently, something to do with the 'milking' of musk. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat regarding an inheritance of a widow and her orphans. Dating: ca. 1080 CE. The local Jewish judge (Heb. dayyan) issued a ban (Heb. ḥerem) against anyone who withheld information about property belonging to the orphans, but the ban did not help. Apparently there was also an attempt to take over the property by an appeal to non-Jewish courts. The writer of the letter asks the recipient to ask the Nagid, Mevorakh b. Saadya, to intervene. Join: Oded Zinger. NB: The letter does not seem to be dated; 1080 CE was Goitein's estimate.

Begging letter from Fuḍayl, the brother of Abū l-Ḥasan, and from Abū Saʿd, to his relative Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa b. Ṣammūh b. Sasson requesting help for himself and another person. Fuḍayl asks Ṣedaqa to 'make the rounds' and collect some donations from other Jews. "You know how sick I am after having been a man as [strong as] as lion." The total amount asked for is very modest, only five or six dirhams, which might have been only a symbolic number. The letter starts with a biblical quotation (Proverbs 21:14). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 358, 605)

Calligraphic letter requesting help for a man who is out of work and has a large family which would be satisfied with getting a mere piece of bread. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Yaʿqūb to an unknown recipient. Written in a good hand and pleasant style. This letter implores the addressee to help the writer buy medicine (?) and 2 ounces of sugar for his ill infant child, assuring him that he and his wife didn't have enough money even for a pound of bread. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 188; Goitein index cards.) Specifically, the writer requests the price of a qirṭās (probably meaning a bag) of nuqūʿ (which can mean infusion, as of a medicine, but also dried apricots, which would more easily go in a bag). The writer's son has a terrible cold (nazla ʿaẓīma). Verso: The beginnings of seven lines of a letter or petition in Arabic script, with wide space between the lines. In between the lines and at 180 degrees, there are a few more lines in small Arabic script, possibly the address of the letter on recto. The name Abū l-Ṭāhir can be read. ASE.

Poetic epistle addressed to the poet and man of letters Yehuda ha-Levi, who was also a well-to-do physician and devoted time to public welfare and charity. The writer, a traveler from Badajoz, Spain, is in dire circumstances and requests a donation from Yehuda ha-Levi while the two were sojourning in Egypt. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:580, 5:83, 528) EMS Correction: The manuscript actually says 'אלברגושי' i.e from Burgos, not Badajoz (which back then was still Batalyus) MY