Geniza Lab

Letter from an unknown sender, in Fustat, to his nephew (ibn ukht) Mūsā, in Qalyūb. Dating: Unknown, but perhaps dateable on the basis of the reference to Rabbenu Yiṣḥaq or on the basis of the capitation tax policies described in the letter. Subject: Mainly dealing with the case of an unhappy (maghbūna wa-maẓlūma), newly married young woman. The writer urges his nephew not to come to Fustat. He reminds him of the education given to him (tarbiya), the obligations towards his family (ahliyya), and the love between them (maḥabba). Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 25. Further information from Goitein's note card: The writer had made peace between a young man (perhaps the son of the addressee) and a young woman (perhaps the sender's own daughter or granddaughter). Then the young man fell ill. His capitation tax was restored (?) to him by the authorities (the letter mentions arbāb al-dawla, al-sulṭān, al-ṣāḥib, the qādī of Qalyūb, and the wālī) on condition that the young man remain in Qalyūb instead of traveling to the Levant as he had intended. ASE.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, addressed to his father, the cantor Abu Sahl (Levi) in Fustat. Moshe reports on the receipt of variou sgoods. He asks if a woman in the family ('al-kabirah') wants him to buy a certain fabric from Abu l-Yusr. He complains that the only letter he has received recently is one in which his brother told him not to be a silly fool, and he is very upset because he doesn't know what he did to deserve that. Moshe sent with the bearer of the letter some piyyutim ("yotzer"s) for Rosh Hashanah; he had previously requested the "mizmor" for Rosh Hashana but no longer needs it because he found it. He says, "Let me know if Abu l-Khayr arrives." He is upset that his brother had promised to come spend Shabbat with him, but he did not come. He sends regards to his paternal uncles 'Imran and Bayan and reiterates that he needs to know if 'al-kabirah' wants the fabric. Verso contains the address (in Arabic) and Psalm 98 in the handwriting of Abu Sahl Levi (the letter's addressee). See also Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 221, 569. ASE.

Recto: Legal deed. Location: Qalyūb. Dated: Tuesday, 7 Adar 1505 Seleucid, which is 1194 CE, under the authority of the Gaon Sar Shalom ha-Levi. In the handwriting of Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi. Moshe later cut it very neatly down the middle, yielding ENA 2558.18 and T-S 13J7.12, and wrote a family letter on the verso of each half. The deed concerns the dissolution of a partnership in a house and in a store between Khalaf and Abū l-Faḍl, the sons of Hilāl. It seems that Khalaf retained the store, while Abū l-Faḍl bought out Khalaf's half of the house for 16.5 dinars. (See also Eliyyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS (1968), 13; Jacob Mann, Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs, 2:294. An earlier description said the document was dated 1481 Seleucid, but this must refer to a different document, because the date was previously missing.)

Letter sent by the head of the Jews, Sar Shalom ha-Levi Gaon b. Moshe, to the community of Qalyub confirming Moshe b. Levi as slaughterer, cantor and teacher. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Legal query addressed to Abū ʿImrān, perhaps Maimonides. In Judaeo-Arabic. Rudimentary handwriting. The question regards a certain Tamīm in Qalyūb. It seems that he refuses to take the vow that the addressee had previously ordered him to make, because he is worried about making a vow and not being able to fulfill it. But needs further examination.

Recto: Letter from Daud (identified by his hand. AA) in Qalyūb, to Eliyyahu the Judge, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1232 CE (1543 Seleucid). The letter gives a complicated tale of a dispute over a house between a brother Abū l-Manṣūr and his sister-in-law Sutayt bt. Avraham. (Abū Thanā' is mentioned, together with R. Yehuda in Cairo, and Surur. AA). Verso: Addenda by other people, one by Tamīm b. Yosef, adding further details to the case described in the letter on recto. (Also few lines are written by Eliyyahu the Judge himself. AA)

Notice from the District Court of Qalyub for the appearance of two proprietors and each of them are Jewish individuals living in Cairo's Jewish quarter – 5 February 1920CE – Museum of Islamic Art – (number 42) – in Arabic. (information from Ḥassanein Muḥammad Rabīʿa, ed., Dalīl Wathā'iq al-Janīza al-Jadīda / Catalogue of the Documents of the New Geniza, 56). MCD.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi (active 1190s–1212 CE), in Qalyūb, to a family member in Fustat. Moshe requests a silver mirwad (stick for applying kohl) that is in the possession of Ibn Yaʿaqov, and he will send the price. He had sent with the bearer a load of lāsīn silk for Abū l-Riḍā the son of Sitt Ziyāda, who is to pay 2.5 dirhams. He wants to know if they have received the silver from Saʿāda the female slave of Ṭāḥir b. al-Ghuzzī and to purchase with it all the goods that Moshe had already told his mother about, viz., polypodium (? אשתיואן); Iraqi incense; frankincense; white mastic. He has sent another letter with the bearer of the letter for Ibn al-Ṭaffāl. He mentions Ibn al-Nuʿmān in the last couple lines. On recto there is a taqbīl clause and three lines of Arabic script in a chancery hand from a presumably Ayyubid government report (see separate entry). ASE.

Business letter in Hebrew and Arabic script to Abū l-Ḥasan Binyamin requesting the dispatch of merchandise to Qalyub, including medical supplies, via a ghulām, and mentioning the broker Banin.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, Qalyub, to a contact in Fustat. He heard that al-Shaykh al-Yesod would like to spend Shabbat in Fustat, and the addressee is to look after him. There is an air of secrecy, however. "Tell him that I am a member of the family (min dhurriyatikum), and if he asks you about the family (al-dhurriya), tell him there are no news." (Perhaps referring to a waqf dhurriya i.e. family trust? or simply to a regular inheritance?). The specifics of the matter are obscure. Moshe also writes that the Shaykh Sajjāʿ al-Dīn (‘the poet’) apprehended him and said, 'What is that feeble old man doing to you? Let me put him in order (?)." Sajjāʿ al-Din apparently refers to the writer's brother, Abū Isḥāq. Moshe reiterates what the party line should be if either al-Yesod or Sajjāʿ al-Din bring up the matter of an inheritance with the recipient. EMS. ASE.

Agreement to pay back a debt. Qalyub, March 1265.

Letter to the community of Qalyūb. Written and signed by Yeḥiel b. Elyaqim (active 1213–38 CE). The whole paper is preserved, but the text is faded; good candidate for multispectral imaging. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Business letter mentioning Qalyūb, "the Sicilian Kohen," Ibn al-Amshāṭī, Sulaymān al-Qalʿī, and Ḥabīb. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Bottom part of a letter in Arabic script, from a man to his 'brother.' He spells والساعة as والسعا numerous times. He mentions people including Sulaymān b. al-[...]āmī and the poor man (al-faqīr) Ibn Faraḥ and sends regards to Umm Yūsuf. Needs further examination. Verso: Judaeo-Arabic letter from ʿEli b. Shelomo to his father. The writer is in terrible straits and full of regret. The issue seems to be that a group of Alexandrians have banded together to have the writer fired from his position as slaughterer, cantor, and teacher. "Woe is he who can only depend on God. I have already entered with my qumāsh (garments? furnishings? wife's dowry?)." He then mentions the diwan catching him and having to sell a garment. His intention is to come to Qalyub with his wife. His heart is preoccupied on behalf of [...]. ASE.

Strange composition in rhymed Judaeo-Arabic prose. A maqāma? Less likely a letter. Probably in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu or his father Eliyyahu. May mention someone named Muʿammar. Some excerpts: "...with ropes, and I am in the house... served me with wheat... and misery, and went up for me onto the rooftops... to Qalyūb... upside down (maqlūb)... there remained a piece of bread (raghīf)... and he says that its taste is weak (ḍaʿīf)... and he sermonized (? דרש) and said, "Blessed be [God?]... their minds...." And he had eaten... "I don't taste anything"... And in the same nights... the oath... and he had sent... down below... and he sought depravity (fisq) and whoring (zinā) with... and that the Rayyis would sleep at her place... and his wife remained... of the ugly, vile face/appearance...." AA. ASE

Letter in which the writer reports that he stayed for the Sabbath in Qalyub and continued his travel on Sunday. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 299.) Likely same handwriting as T-S 10J18.8.