Geniza Lab

Recto: One of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu's many small notes in which he orders small quantities of materia medica to be given to the bearer. In this one he orders from Abū l-Munā Shammān a half-ratl of a syrup of apple and rose preserves and a quarter-ratl of quince rob in a clay vessel for the price of (or an eighth of?) 1 dirham. "Because I am at the baḥr (Nile?)." Verso: A list, mostly in Arabic but with one word in Hebrew characters. Perhaps related to recto, since the second word appears to be سفرجل.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Bayān, requesting that he let him copy a volume of responsa, either bringing it to Shelomo or having Shelomo come to his house to copy it. The tone is slightly confrontational ("because if a person says something, he must fulfill it"). On verso, a note by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, registering his expenditure for a Friday, mainly on foods. Also a note to deliver this slip to his mother (? Sittī al-Ra'īsa, with lots of honorifics). Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 231-2. ASE.

Note from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his brother, the physician Abū Zikrī, written in an extremely cursive script. He informs Abū Zikrī that the turban and ten rings (or seals) have arrived. The old woman (their mother Sitt Rayḥān?) is ill with a cough, headache, fever, and chills. ASE.

Note by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to a scribe, also named Shelomo, in an urgent tone, to finish the copying of certain books including the targum of Kings and the targum of the haftarot.

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, in Jerusalem, to his father Judge Eliyyahu, in Fustat. Reporting on 'irregularities' of his brother Abu Zikri. See Goitein Nachlass material

Notes by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to al-Thiqa Hibat Allah-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Query about niddah submitted to Abraham Maimuni by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu-- see Goitein Nachlass material

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Barakāt al-Ḥarīrī in Alexandria. See Goitein Nachlass material (transcription). See also ENA 2559.10 - same writer, same recipient.

Legal notes notarized by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Dating: Early 13th century. (1) Location: New Cairo. Shelomo b. Yiṣḥaq had paid 30 dinars and Abū l-Faḍāʾil b. Abū l-Barakāt 52 dirhams into a partnership. It was agreed that Shelomo, who was also the agent, would take 23 parts and Abū l-Faḍāʾil only 1/24. Shelomo had left the whole sum in Qūṣ and takes responsibility for the whole sum of the money or its equivalent. (2) Yaḥyā ("ha-Sar ha-Yaqar") receives from Shela b. Berakhot 3000 dirhams as loan. No additional details. (3) The same two men each produced 600 dirhams, each for a partnership to last a year. At the bottom of verso there are additional notes (accounting?) in Judaeo-Arabic, Arabic script, and Greek/Coptic numerals. Mentions Bū l-Khayr al-Nafīs. (Information from Goitein's attached notes.)

Inventory of a part of a drugstore prepared by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu - see Goitein Nachlass material

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: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Recommending the bearer, Dā'ūd of Banhā, who is chronically in arrears for the capitation tax (ʿalayhi jawālī muzmina). Rabbenu Menaḥem has already helped him by writing a recommendation for him to the Nagid Avraham. At the end of this letter, Shelomo asks for copies of certain books from the Mishneh Torah. Verso: Shelomo continues, now writing on his own behalf. He asks his father to try to make sure that Shelomo is not sent to a place that is far away, because Shelomo is in a terrible state of isolation and ghurba and he could die any day, and then his father would regret having let him be sent away. ASE.

Letter from an in-law to Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, entreating him to divorce his wife (Sitt Ghazāl).

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Barakāt, the uncle of Sitt Ghazāl. He writes of the terrible sickness that has not relented ever since he married. "I have perished. If you saw me, you wouldn't recognize me. I am thin as a toothpick and a ghost in my clothes." All his money goes to potions and chickens, and all the women who visit him tell him that he is the victim of a spell. He begs Abū l-Barakāt and Sitt Ghazāl's father Abū l-Faraj to intercede with the Gaon (Avraham Maimonides per Goitein) and Avraham b. Simḥa the judge and physician and obtain their agreement for a ban of excommunication against whoever bewitched Shelomo ("man or woman, Jew or Gentile, male or female slave, or whoever ordered them to cast this spell") and who does not reverse it. He hopes that the judge Avraham b. Simḥa will declare the ban of excommunication himself, or, failing that, another God-fearing elder. Greetings are sent by: Shelomo, Sitt Ghazāl, Shelomo's brother (Abū Zikri), his maternal aunt (Umm Abū l-'Izz?), her son (Abū l-'Izz?). Greetings are sent to: Abū l-Barakāt, his wife, his brother Abū l-Faraj (al-mawlā al-makīn), and his father (Abū l-Ḥasan). Information in part from Goitein's note cards. See T-S NS J223 for another note in which a person asks for a ban of excommunication against whoever bewitched him. There does not seem to be any way to determine if these two documents are connected. ASE.

Legal query, probably to Avraham Maimonides and possibly in Shelomo ha-Melammed b. Eliyyahu's hand.

Recto: Letter draft probably from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt Umm Dā'ūd. In Judaeo-Arabic. Congratulating her on the successful delivery of her daughter Sitt al-Yumn (presumably the same whom Shelomo wooed in T-S 13J18.22). The letter seems to have been abandoned after this line. In the upper margin, the writer practices the phrase "al-mamlūk Barakāt yuqabbil al-arḍ" in Arabic script. Verso: List in Arabic script with names and sums. ASE.

Letter sent by Abu l-Barakat Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Binyamin the Jewish physician (al-ḥakīm al-isrāʾīlī). The writer sends the recipient good wishes on Hanukka, congratulates him on his wife's deliverance (meaning that she did not die nor was she harmed in childbirth) and wishes him that God may give him a male descendant. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 226, 227: V, p.603)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic of a man to his social superior mentioning that a Nasi asked the writer's father to travel with him to Alexandria. The writer is very sick and is afraid he wil soon die. Also his mother is sick, as is his wife, so he asks the recipent to talk to the Nasi that he will not make such a great request upon the father. On the back is what remains of the address: "your slave Shelomo be-Rabbi Eliyyah." There is also a piyyut and 5 lines of a legal document dealing with the house of Ibn Qurra and mentioning the Iraqi synagogue. ASE.

Fragment of a note which on recto contains only formulaic praises and on verso contains an enigmatic sentence (something about "every Jew") and the name Abū l-Barakāt b. Eliyya.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Faraj al-Makīn (probably his father-in-law). In Judaeo-Arabic. Prefaced by a single line of decorated biblical quotation. Shelomo mentions Abū l-Futūḥ al-Shamshūrī and how the addressee has cut off his letters (perhaps to be read in the context of the letters discussed by Krakowski in Coming of Age, pp.285–86). Shelomo also mentions the youth Abū l-ʿIzz (probably his cousin by the same name). (Information in part from CUDL)