Geniza Lab

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1028.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq. Probably Ca. 1030

Eight rough drafts of a petition to the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustanṣir from the followers of Shelomo b. Yehuda, probably the end of 1041 (according to Gil's estimate). Six drafts are in Judaeo-Arabic; one abortive draft is in Arabic script in the same hand as the Judaeo-Arabic drafts; the final draft is in Arabic script in a chancery hand. Join: S. M. Stern. The Rabbanite Jews write to al-Mustanṣir regarding a conflict that arose in the community because of two leaderships (riyāsatayn), this conflict was earlier addressed by the Caliph by appointing Dāwūd b. Isḥaq but he didn't do anything. The situation worsened to an extent that one schism of the community barred the other from entering their synagogue until the other faction forced themselves inside leading to violence between the two. The Jews urge the Caliph to resolve this issue by sending his royal command "al-ʾamr al-ʿālī".

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1035.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Avraham Ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat. Ca. 1030

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Abraham b. Sahlan, noting that in a previous epistle he thanked Abraham for the donation the Fustat community had sent through the elder Shelomo b. Sa‘adya, to Levi b. Menahem. The Gaon writes this current letter on behalf of a certain Sadaqa b. Menahem, who eulogizes Abraham for his kindness and repents his former misdeeds, furthermore relating that the "mighty elder" had promised to write to some his representatives to find Sadaqa some employment in Egypt. The Gaon requests Abraham to interest himself in Sadaqa. (Jacob Mann, The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimids (New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1920-22; reprint 1970), 1:118, 2:134-5) EMS

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, 1040.

Letter: draft(s) in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya (11th century), in Fusṭāṭ, probably to the Gaʾon Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem. One draft contains a report, in Hebrew, on a joint Karaite-Rabbanite collection made in the capital of Egypt on behalf of the Jews of Jerusalem to assist them with their taxes. Ezra b. Yishmael b. Ezra is mentioned, and the document refers to Yusuf ibn ‘Awkal with his honorific title ‘Rosh Kalla’ (‘head of the assembly’ of students at the biannual scholarly convention in Baghdad). (Marina Rustow, Heresy and the Politics of Community, 196, 278; From a Sacred Source, 309-10; S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:472) Another draft explains that, contrary to the malicious and false accusations made against him to the gaʾon by some members of the Jewish community in Fusṭāṭ, he will indeed be sending a generous donation for the Jerusalem academy in response to a fundraising mission by the gaʾon’s son Avraham. Efrayim also mentions that he retains the support of an influential Fatimid official, the Qaraite David ha-Levi b. Yiṣḥaq, who will also be sending a donation. Written on the verso of an Arabic -script letter discussing philosophical theology and mentioning the raʾs al-mathība (see PGPID 33676).

Letter from Yosef b. Kulayb, Ramla, to the gaonic pretender (here titled ra's al-mathība) Natan b. Avraham, probably in Tyre, May 1041. He reports the struggle between Natan b. Avraham's adherents and those of Shelomo b. Yehuda and the question of whether Yehuda the ḥazzān or Ibn ʿAlī or both should have taqdima. Information from Goitein's note card (#12248).

Deed, drawn up in a Jerusalem court in the hand of Shelomo b. Yehuda, October 1036.

Letter and responsum from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified person in Fustat (perhaps Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq). Dated: 19 December 1029 CE. (Information from Goitein’s index card) The date is actually for the previous document (the responsum), and the year is not given, but rather surmised by Gil.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda, Ramla, to Efrayim b. Shemarya (=Abū Kathīr Efrāyim b. Maḥfūẓ), Fustat. Dating: 1040 (after Kislev). It is about a father who is constantly "complaining" (קובל בכל עת) to Shelomo b. Yehuda about his daughter, an aguna, who is constantly "screaming" (צועקת בכל עת) to be released from her condition. See Zinger's dissertation, pp. 319, 322.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to one of the personalities in Fustat, concerning the fate of Rabbanite prisoners and the future of the Rabbanite community in Jerusalem. Approximately 1033. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, expressing gratitude for funds sent to the community in Jerusalem, and requesting the intervention of the recipient to persuade a lady to leave Egypt and join her husband in Jerusalem. Approximately 1030. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda, probably to Efrayim b. Shemarya, praising the addressee and complaining about a Fusṭaṭ man, probably Sahlan b. Abraham, particularly concerning the latter’s preference for the title bestowed by the Babylonian yeshiva to that of the Jerusalem yeshiva. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment from Shelomo b. Yehuda to an unidentified personality in Fustat, ca. 1025. This letter describes a difficult and very brief visit to Jerusalem involving a controversy about some Jewish captives. (Information from CUDL)

Letter opening from Shelomo b. Yehuda to the communities, first half of the 11th century.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda, in Jerusalem, to Sahlān b. Avraham, in Fustat. In Hebrew. Dating: 1029 CE. "Here is a description of old age in the hand of Solomon b. Judah Gaon, the president of the Jerusalem yeshiva and official head of the Jews of the Fatimid empire, written nineteen years before his death. The time was excruciating for him: things in the yeshiva and the community at large did not go according to his wishes. Abraham b. Sahlan, a leader of Egyptian Jewry, Solomon's 'peer,' with whom he had probably studied many years before, had just died, and his own son was on his way to Aleppo in northern Syria, a voyage fraught with danger. . . . But old age, like life in general, has its ups and downs: the rich correspondence of the Gaon shows him as being active in affairs and rich in style during the long years following the passage translated above, although a premonition of death is certainly felt in it. 'I am a descending sun, soon to set. My soul is very much depressed since my peer passed away, may he rest in Eden. I ask God only to keep me alive through this year so that people should not say: "Both died within one year." Take notice, my dear, that I am going about like a shadow [cf. Psalms 39:7]. I have no authority (reshut), only the title. My strength is gone, my knee is feeble, and my foot staggers. My eyes are dim, and, when I write, it is as if I was learning it, sometimes the lines are straight and sometimes crooked, and so is my style, because my mind is disturbed since the day my beloved [son] traveled to Aleppo to fetch some goods he had left there. I pray to God to bring him back in safety "before I depart and be no more" [Psalms 39:14]'" (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 120, translating lines 19–25).

Letter from Babylonia to Shelomo b. Yehuda, approximately 1026.

Letter draft from Efrayim b. Shemarya to Shelomo b. Yehuda. Fragment: the upper part only. Dating: probably 1028 CE (Gil's estimate). The letter praises the army's victory. Written on the front and back of a chancery decree fragment (see PGPID 35179).