Geniza Lab

State petition regarding a Maghribī Jewish trader caught drinking with a Muslim woman and imprisoned. Cuts off right before the request: there arrived from the official who imprisoned them three sealed documents (khawātim khātim min qabl Munajjat al-Dawla) ... possibly to do with the jizya, a pretext for imprisoning them for moral offenses (?), suggesting that the trader was conspicuous and respectable, or his moral infractions might not have drawn attention. See also T-S NS J286, in which a man travels from Ceuta to Bijāya, Algeria, where the sāḥib al-Bijāya asks him how is related to a woman who is with him. (There is a ṣāḥib al-shūrṭa in ENA 3901.5, too.) The traveler (never described as a Maghribi trader, but a man from the Maghrib) claims she is his wife, but he has no kitāb to prove this. In T-S NS J286, they confiscate his māl and the man is put in prison with no reference to the woman. Although there is nothing about the three-day drinking binge, it’s plausible that these are the same case, and if not, they pair nicely.

The second page of a two-page letter written in the 11th of May 1141 by Abu Nasr b. Avraham from Alexandria to Ḥalfon b. Nethanel of Fustat. The letter reports the scandal that took place between the poet Yehuda ha-Levi and the convert Ben al-Basri. The letter contains information on the legal authorities in Alexandria, the relations between Jews and Muslims in the city and on trade in silver and textiles. (Information from Frenkel). A new edition in India Book, IB IV, no. H81 (AA)

Ownership inscription of a book that belonged to Mevasser b. Yeshuʿa ha-Levi. The book was then purchased by Nadiv b. Saʿadya ha-Levi in 1469 of the Seleucid Era (= 1157 CE) and later inherited by Shelomo b. Shemuel ha-Levi. In the top part of recto, there are Judaeo-Arabic notes in which an unidentified person recorded all the items of titillating gossip that (s)he and his or her brother "Ab" heard mainly from Abū l-Khayr. (1) Abū Manṣūr used to think that your father was מכשוף אלדאר אלכומר, the meaning of which is not entirely clear. (2) The "family" of al-Raḥbī does not observe the laws of purity (טומאה וטהרה) and sits in front of him exposed in a diaphanous gown (ghilāla), and al-Raḥbī drinks on the Sabbath. (3) Ibn al-Baṭṭāl sits with al-Raḥbī and curses you with "the Z and the Q" (from "zawj qaḥba," the worst curse possible; see Ibn Taymiyya, Minhāj al-Sunna, https://lib.eshia.ir/11366/1/458) and al-Raḥbī joins in the cursing even as he pretends to be among those who love you, but "promise not to tell that I told you." (4) [Some days later in Suwayqat al-Shamʿ or al-Jāmiʿ]: Al-Raḥbī said that someone was his "son" in Alexandria; the rest of this tidbit is cryptic and mentions a certain Kohen; (5) ʿUqayb said that al-Raḥbī told him that Ibn al-Baradānī fornicated (fasaqa) with the juwayra (presumably a diminutive form of jāriya, female slave, perhaps implying that she was also a minor) whom he redeemed from captivity, "and he is even more wicked than that" or "could there be someone more wicked than that?" (פיכון רשע ארשע מן האדא). (6) ʿUqayb said something about running into Ibn al-Baṭṭāl. (7) He said that Abū ʿImrān cursed me with a curse that would be too long to tell. (8) Among the various things he said about Abū Isḥāq and his brother-in-law. . . . [this one is tricky to figure out, and involves a drunk Ibn Kulayb and a house known by the name of Samāʾ al-Mulk]. (Information in part from GRU catalogue via FGP.) ASE

Letter probably from a woman, in Alexandria, to [...] b. Avraham, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. (The clue for the gender of the writer is the verb ending with "-ī" in line 28 of recto where she is quoting the addressee's words.) The sender may be the mother-in-law of the addressee's daughter, as the daughter is under her charge, and the addressee has been accusing her of oppressing his daughter. The addressee's sister also lives with or near the sender. Either the sister or the daughter has a son named ʿAyyāsh. This letter is a detailed report on the scandalous behavior of one of the women with a young male neighbor for the last year and the writer's efforts to intervene. At one point, the woman and the man vowed not to see each other for 10 days, but the sender nevertheless found them talking to each other at all hours of the night. At this point, ʿAyyāsh and his mother vowed not to speak to the woman in question any more, which led to a period of peace and quiet. But clearly matters are still tense, as the sender felt the need to send this strongly-worded letter exonerating herself of all misdoings. She urges the addressee to "act with her this time the same way as last time." ASE