Geniza Lab

Letter of condolence on the death of a woman. From an unidentified sender, probably in Qūṣ, to Abū l-Karam and his son Abū Isḥāq b. al-[...], in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The sender was staying in the funduq of Ibn al-Muṭiyy (בן אלמטי) in Qūṣ. There is also a deceased man, as the sender writes in the margin of recto that "your letters distract me from reading the letters of the deceased man (al-marḥūm)." Verso contains greetings to and from various people, including to Fakhr al-Dawla. In the margin of verso, he asks the addressee to forward a letter to the wife (? ṣāḥiba) of Ibrāhīm b. Amīn al-Mulk, one of the Yemeni traders "who burned in the ill-omened funduq." ASE

Letter from Abū al-Riḍa, in Qūṣ, to Abū Zikrī, in Fustat, c/o the sugar factory (maṭbakh) of Abū al-Maʿānī. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. (Goitein's index card identifies the addressee as Eliyyahu the Judge, who did have a son named (Abū) Zikrī.) Dating: Probably early 13th century. The addressee is asked to give a responsum (fatwā) with regard to a certain Maḥāsin who wanted to marry his wife's sister. Maḥāsin had denied a charge in connection with this engagement before a Muslim court and confessed it in a Jewish court. The issue involves the wife (bayt) of Ibn Qasāsa and Abū Saʿd al-ʿAṭṭār, who calls himself Shaykh al-Yahūd. The sender complains several times about his illness and poverty (and therefore his inability to resolve the issue). He tells the addressee not to send letters to the shop of Abū Saʿd, because Abū Saʿd always reads them before passing them on to the addressee. (Information in part from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Abū Manṣūr to [al-Shaykh] al-Makīn al-Ṣayrafī, in Qūṣ (here called "thaghr Qūṣ"). In Arabic script, elegantly written. The sender opens with respectful greetings and wishes to be reunited. He says that when he left Qūṣ. . . and went out onto the 'baḥr' (probably the Nile here), then mentions "in Fustat" and "al-Rayyis Dāʾūd" and "al-Rayyis Abū l-Bahā." The last line seems to refer to (someone's brother?) Abū l-Najm who is in either the army (al-jaysh) or prison (al-ḥabs). (This document may relate to the cluster of letters from Manṣūr b. Sālim, frantic about his son Abū l-Najm who ran off from home and spent time in the army and at one point was rumored to be traveling to Qūṣ.) ASE

Fragment of a business letter, probably sent from Qūṣ (between lines 1 and 2). Mentions "the 8th of Shuwwāl, which is Shevat"; the writer's preoccupation on behalf of the recipient's illness; al-Shaykh ʿAllān; a rubāʿī (quarter-dinar?).

Letter from Abū l-Majd, in Qūṣ, to Abū l-Mufaḍḍal the judge, in Fustat. Mentions Egypt, Abū l-Riḍā, Ibn Ibrahim al-ʿArīf, Abū l-ʿAlā b. Ḥassūn, Abū l-Ḥasan and Abū l-Khayr. Dated: Wednesday, 23 Tammuz (1400+)145 = 1545 Seleucid, which is 21 June 1234 CE. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Legal deed. Location: Qūṣ. Dated: Shevaṭ 1527 Seleucid, which is 1216 CE, under the authority of Avraham Maimonides. In which the physician Abū l-Manṣūr Elʿazar b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi gifts the entire contents of his late wife’s dowry, “consisting of gold, silver, copper, and other items worth 200 Egyptian dinars,” to his two minor daughters, Nasab and Kufūʾ (or Kufāʾ?). The declaration was made in the house of Abū Saʿd Seʿadya, in the presence of his son Abū l-Mufaḍḍal Yehuda ha-Talmid ("the scholar"). (Information from Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 34; and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:278–79, 489) EMS

Letter from Natan b. Avraham, Fustat, to Abu Yusuf Elazar b. Isma'il, Qus, approximately 1035.

Letter regarding business matters, mentioning for example the prize of sugar and that the writer had recently travelled from Fustat to Qus. Also mentions the brothers Sa'd and al-Makin, sons of Abu Sa'd. (data from CUL)

Letter fragment. In Arabic script, with a single word in Hebrew script (ניסן). Dating: Likely 12th or 13th century. The preserved text is written at unusual angles; maybe these are the margins of the original letter. The sender describes suffering dangers and misfortunes (muqāsāt akhṭār wa-ankād) and then something to do with the government: "...fa-mā waqaʿa fīhi min ṣādif(?) ṭulūʿ al-khizāna(?) al-sulṭāniyya sallamahā Allāh....," then refers to a happy ending (...al-ʿāqiba illā ḥamīda...). The sender reports that ʿAbdallāh arrived safely in Qūṣ ("maḥrūsat Quṣ") on the date of 12 Nisan together with al-Shaykh al-Rayyis. On the other side: "...and with him are letters for al-mawlā al-rashīd b. al-dayyān, and the slave has (=I have) sent with him [...] Indian myrobalan, a quantity of 80 Egyptian raṭls or more... ... Aden. In sum, the slave has imposed on the favor of al-mawlā al-ajall al-rashīd to collect it, and if he (cannot?) do that, may my lord please collect it...." This letter was subsequently reused for Judaeo-Arabic jottings of names of commodities, such as frankincense, costus, wax, pepper, and bamboo chalk.

Letter from Barakāt b. Sason to ʿImrān b. Benaya, in al-Maḥalla (אלמחללא). In Judaeo-Arabic, with some unusual orthography (including ש for ס and ת for ד and interchange of ה and א). The letter deals with business matters, including a press (miʿṣara). Refers to people who are traveling to the Fayyūm and wish to travel onward to Qūṣ (קוס), an idea to which the sender objects. At one point he addresses a remark to Ḥārūn b. Isḥāq. AA. ASE.

Letter from an unknown writer, probably in Qūṣ, to an unknown addressee, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 12th century, but this is a guess. The writer describes a harrowing Nile voyage "due to the illness of the passengers and loathsome odors. Three of them ended up dying. The last one survived for a day and a half until he died. I remained in distress from the stench that wafted from him, and nearly perished." The writer then safely arrived in Akhmīm on Friday as evening was falling, so he spent Shabbat in the city. He had to pay 10.5 dirhams (of customs?) upon leaving on Sunday, after swearing that he had nothing with him except the clothes (? qumāsh) on his back. He mentions al-Shaykh Abū Isḥāq b. Mushrif/Musharraf who had paid the customs duty for the קמקין (?). The writer wished to inform the addressee of this earlier, but there was a delay of five days before he arrived in Qūṣ. "Your servant arrived in Qūṣ and experienced on the side of aṣḥābunā a measure of hospitality which I am unable to describe even in part. They kindly took an apartment for me, a place which can be locked, before I arrived. . . " On verso there is Mishna Avot. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards and Mediterranean Society 1:298, 474; 5:31-2, 513.) EMS. ASE.