Geniza Lab

Letter from David (b. Yaʿāqov) al-Shammās to Moshe b. Yehuda of Alexandria. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Last quarter of the 15th century. Also signed by Aharon b. Ḥasde'el ha-Levi. "As for what you mentioned concerning your wife, it is not that she hates you and desires a bill of divorce for that reason. For she has been patient..." It seems that Moshe b. Yehuda promised to return on a certain date in a certain year and then delayed his return and failed to communicate properly with his wife when that date approached, and now people are getting anxious that he may have had a change of heart. The sender asked her about the raisins; she said they arrived with the son of Sehmuel al-Skandarī. Merits further examination.

Letter or letters in Judaeo-Arabic. In at least two hands. There is an address made out to R. Yisrael (whose surname may be legible). The portion on verso mentions Moshe b. Yehuda (whose archive is found in Bodl. MS Heb. c 72). Dating: Last quarter of the 15th century.

Letter (possibly) from Moshe b. Yehuda, addressed to a certain Saʿīd. Dated: 23rd of the ʿOmer מטר, i.e., 5249 AM (probably), which is 1489 CE. Mentions that Yiṣḥaq Sholal (not yet the Nagid) arrived in Rashīd on business. The sender previously sent one letter from Rashīd and another with Ṣedaqa Nes. He orders silk garments to be sent with David Sofer and his son Meir. He orders the Zoharand other books. He conveys instructions for what should be given to the wife of the Shamash for his own wife. Also mentions raisins. (Information in part from Avraham David via FGP.) For more on Moshe b. Yehuda, see Arad and Wagner, "Moses ben Judah – a 15th century bibliophile and gourmand" (FOTM June 2016) and Arad, "The Jews of Alexandria in the 15th Century in Light of New Documents" Peʿamim 156 (2018), 167–84 (Heb).

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks the addressee to retrieve all of the writer's books that are currently with the 'Rav.' They include parts of Berakhot, the Mishna, Neziqin, and notebooks (karārīs) containing perush. He also asks for a quffa of raisins.

Business agreement from Egypt, concerning raisins. The parties include Raḥamim and Avraham. It is signed by Yosef b. Ṣefanya Kohen. Dated: Monday, 11 [...] [5]305 AM = 1544/45 CE. Conceivably the same people as in T-S 13J7.30, a 16th-century letter in Ladino from Avraham Mayo, also involving a Raḥamim and the raisin trade. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Nissim b. Salāma to Abū Saʿd Khalaf b. Salāma. In Judaeo-Arabic. Concerning commercial matters, including a grocer ordering for his store one hundred pounds of raisins (zabib), and one wayba each (about twenty-three pounds) of rice and sesame. It seems that some of the rice will be supplied by Abū ʿImrān. Nissim then asks Abū Saʿd not to use Arabic script since he didn't know how to read it and had to trouble friends to read him the letters received and then would sometimes forget what he had heard. (Information from Goitein, Med Soc 2:179, 557 and 4:439.) Join: Oded Zinger.