Geniza Lab

Page 1: Medical treatise in Judaeo-Arabic giving two prescriptions for pediatric ophthalmia (ramad), the second of which is prefaced, "The doctors in Fusṭāṭ use this. . . " Pages 2–4: Calligraphic and vocalized verses, mostly or all from Psalms.

Letter from Natan b. Nahray, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Probably 1063. Natan wrote the letter 10 days before Passover. The writer is upset because a deal (probably for spices and beads) did not go as expected. He blames Abu Zikri b. Menashshe. Also mentions a matter of inheritance in the Tahirti family. The writer’s son was sick and his sight was impaired. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #426) VMR

Detailed astrological table in Judaeo-Arabic. Gives the auspicious days for such activities as "demanding rights," "imḍā' al-dīwān" (?), and going to the bathhouse. ASE

Lower fragment: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Rabbenu David ha-Ḥakham. Dealing mainly with business matters and also raising money for the capitation tax. Mentions many people including: Ṭāhir al-Simsār; Hiba al-Bilbaysī; Abū l-Makārim al-Kohen. Regards to al-Sadīd and to Abū l-Thanā' and his wife. Shelomo has been suffering an attack of ophthalmia and only wrote this letter with great effort.

Recto and verso: Poetry in Judaeo-Arabic in the hand of Nāṣir al-Adīb al-ʿIbrī. Apparently on the subject of the eye diseases induced by love, but it is quite faded, so this awaits confirmation. This is one of the fragments that he signs (אנא אלאדיב אלעברי אלדי אסמי נאצר פי כל אלאשגאל לי כלאם גיד נאדר....)

Upper part of a letter by Berakhot b. Shemuel mentioning his being cut off from the recipent on account of his illnesses, including ophthalmia at the present time. The word in the penultimate line that looks like "sultan" (Muslim government) is כלט אן, referring to an acute attack of a humor. On the back is a query about litigants in a dispute involving Muslim courts.

Complete letter in the same unmistakeable hand as several others (see the tag). In other letters, he writes to his father in Minyat Qa'id and is treated for a febrile disease by Ibn Habib. In this one: he is upset about a lack of letters in response to his own and to those from his brother Abu l-Ḥasan. He mentions news from al-Mahallah. Much of the letter has to with plans for the holidays, possibly encouraging the recipient (likely his father) to "come out" and spend it with him. Abu l-Faraj b. al-Sammāk (son of the fishmonger) also encourages this. Then there is discussion of transfers of money involving his brother Abu l-Ḥasan. A certain Abu Bakr accompanies the bearer of the letter. The writer has also enclosed a letter to Waḥshī (? a man) and another one to Berakhah to Bilbays. ASE.

Letter from a cantor of Mosul. T-S 12.257r is continued in T-S K25.209 and ends in T-S 12.257v. The letter is written in childish script, often omitting letters. The sender cites his eye illness to excuse his bad script. He travelled with a Nasi to Egypt. In Alexandria, he bought something nice for 15 dinars for his wife. Then he had some very dramatic adventures on the way to Cairo including a brush with the army and a companion detained by the (Ayyubid?) military and accused of being a Frankish spy. (Information in part from Goitein's note card and transcription.) In the handwriting of the same scribe: T-S 13J14.22 and T-S 6J5.1. The join with T-S AS 145.278 was identified by Alan Elbaum.

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla, in Cairo, to Shelomo b. Yishai the Mosul Nasi, in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1240 CE. The writer had sent a pair of red woolen children's shoes with Muʿammar al-Dimashqī intended for the addressee's son Yishai. He devotes much of the letter to a vivid description of his illnesses. “As for my state, I inform the masters that I came down with diarrhea, and I endured it. When it increased and multiplied, it became an illness. A physician was treating me, al-Rayyis Sulaymān al-Ḥakīm al-Fāḍil of the family of Rabbenu Menaḥem (ZL). They concocted the medicine in the house of Rabbenu (ZL): every day, roasted seeds and the like, and a pullet, and he visited me frequently. And R. Eliyya the Judge was also generous. When I recovered after some days… [I came down] with what was worse than it… ophthalmia in my eye on the night of Shabbat Shoftim… a painful scream, against my will, all night…. May God afflict my enemies [with what I was afflicted with]. The illness became public. What I suffered cannot be [described].” In the continuation, he sends regards to the judge Peraḥya and praises him as the most learned and powerful judge in the country. He concludes, "As for my eye, fog and darkness were upon it." There is a postscript in the same hand but in the third person (perhaps meaning that a secretary wrote this letter for Jalāl al-Dawla or that somebody later copied it): "After he wrote this letter, he entered the bathhouse (meaning, he was fully recovered) on the 26th of Elul, so be glad of heart." ASE

Page from a letter sent by Abū Naṣr b. Avraham from Alexandria to Ḥalfon b. Netanel in Cairo on the 23 of October 1140. The letter includes a report on the social uproar caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s visit in Alexandria when everybody was eager to invite him. The letter contains a request for Ḥalfon to come to Alexandria to settle the disputes caused by Yehuda ha-Levi’s presence in the city. The letter also refers to business matters arising from the India trade, in which both the addressee and the writer were involved. Abū Naṣr complains about his eye illness: "I only wrote these few letters as I was housebound with a flare of ophthalmia that came over me." At the end of recto and beginning of verso, this proves relevant: "The account is in the shop and I am at home, so I do not have the precise details to inform you." Finally, in the last few lines, "Please extend forgiveness, God knows that I wrote this with the kerchief (khirqa) draped (musabala) over my eyes." The use of a dark kerchief to protect the inflamed eyes from light was part of the standard treatment for ophthalmia (see the tag "khirqa" and the chapter on ramad in Tadhkirat al-Kaḥḥālīn). (Information in part from Frenkel, The Compassionate and Benevolent, p. 523; Goitein, Friedman, India Book 4, p. 417). ASE Alexandria; 10 of Marcheshvan; October 23, 1140

Letter by a Karaite woman to three different family members. The language is opaque in many places. (1) To her mother, she opens with her sadness at her mother's departure. "Your love did not overcome [your desire to leave]." She then lists all the people who have died (mātū yā ummī māt. . .): the elderly Dāwudiyya (female descendant of David); the wife of al-Kāzarūnī who was the paternal aunt of the wife of Yehuda; the son of Ibrahim the Deaf—no one has been able to bury him for two days, "they say he is ḥashrī," probably meaning "without heirs" rather than "verminous" (see Lecker, "Customs Dues at the Time of Muhammad," al-Qantara, XXII, 2001, p. 33). (Unless the concentration of deaths means it was plague time, and some corpses were regarded as hazardous?) As for the writer's own news, she swears by the Sabbath day that she has had financial trouble with her landlord, who seems to have given her a loan and to have come on Friday to demand a payment. She had to pawn her daughter's ring. "Do not ask what trouble I had with Maʿānī yesterday. Tell him (the landlord?), 'He (Maʿānī?) is not hiding. It is just that he has had ophthalmia (ramad) for 20 days. Be patient. He will soon work and repay you in installments just like he took (the loan) in installments.'" The bottom of the letter may be missing. On verso, she addresses (2) Abū Manṣūr, and exhorts him, "Be diligent in your work, and everything will turn out well for you (yajīk kull shay' mustawī)." She makes some cryptic statements, which may mean, "As for what Umm Yehuda said, pay no mind. I have told you that the Rabbanite should pay the debt of the Samaritan on your behalf. This would be good luck and an end to the setbacks." (It is from this line that Goitein deduced that the writer was a Karaite.) She says she is working as hard as she can for the sake of "the dowry" (? al-mahr) and has already paid ʿUbayd a qadaḥ and a half of flour and some honey and two pieces of firewood and a qadaḥ of vetch (julubbān) and lye (? ghāsūl). She mentions an underfilled (? muṭaffafa) clay vessel (burniyya) and asks the addressees to send it back to her properly filled (lā tuṭaffūhā). Finally, she addresses (3) her brother Abū Thābit. "I have no counsel for you except that they are your guests. Do not be heartsick on your brother's account. Do not spurn (? tufqir) my advice, and you will overcome much misfortune (?). Do good deeds. He who digs the hole (al-zūbīya) falls in it. Do not lay a hand on him. . . You will regret it very much and say, 'That old woman (al-qaḥba) my sister was right.'" ASE.

Part of a letter. The writer mentions Tahir al-Kohen; he tells the addressee to tell him that the only reason his brother Abu l-Ḥasan didn't go out to see him is that he was suffering from ophthalmia; mentions 'Imran. ASE.

Business letter dealing with spices. In Judaeo-Arabic. The hand is likely that of Yedutun ha-Levi. (Goitein, too, flagged the script as familiar.) The letter is addressed to a 'brother' (Moshe ha-Levi?); mentions Abū Saʿd and 'your paternal uncle Bayān.' The letter is damaged but is a valuable source of information for the business of a druggist (ʿaṭṭār). Commodities mentioned include storax (mayʿa) and saffron. The writer does not know precisely the weight of the saffron; the addressee should weigh the burniyya together with the saffron in it and subtract the weight of the burniyya. The writer is suffering an attack of ophthalmia (and Isḥāq is too), but he will try to "go out" (from Fustat) if he is able to. On verso there are piyyutim (not necessarily in the same hand as recto; needs examination). ASE