Geniza Lab

Letter preceded by a Hebrew poem consisting of three verses, from Shemuel b. Moshe to Abū al-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf Yehosef (Manbij), the tax-farmer of the local market and judge of the Jews, who is also addressed as head of the congregation (rosh ha-qahal). The writer asks whether the addressee and the community still cling to their resolution or have changed their mind – which was nothing to be ashamed of. Includes many greetings. (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below and Goitein, MedSoc, Vol. 2, p. 75.)

Sub-leasing agreement of a tax farm of silk production for the town of Bush and its surroundings, which was worth 3.5 dinars. Dated Tammuz 1458/ June 1147. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 606, 607)

Sub-leasing agreement written in Damietta in 1106 in which the farmer of the dues from dyeing and selling silk in the district of Damietta sub-leases his rights regarding a small town named Ibwan to three partners for the duration of one year against a payment of two dinars per month. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 361, 362, 606)

Letter from Yosef ha-Levi to Yosef Bagilyer. In Hebrew. Dating: First half of the 16th century. Concerning tax farming. Mentions two rich and famous figures of the Jewish community: Avraham b. Shānjī and Yaʿaqov b. Shānjī.

Left fragment: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. There is an address: to [...] al-Dawla Moshe ha-Zaqen ha-Sar the tax farmer (ḍāmin), in Damīra. But it is not entirely clear that this address belongs with the note on the other side, which is a letter of recommendation. The addressee is asked to help reconcile the bearer, al-Shaykh al-Makīn, with his wife "and listen to his complaint (shakwā), [because] he is a good boy and his father is a good man. . . and you know his intellect and his piety." The writer later states, "Maybe I will come to Fustat," implying that the addressee of the letter of recommendation is in Fustat (rather than Damīra). But needs further examination. (Information in part from Oded Zinger's forthcoming edition.)

Right fragment: Small fragment of a ketubba written in the Palestinian style. In the hand of the ḥaver Shemuel b. Moshe, the same scribe as ENA NS 77.354. Location: Probably Tyre. Dating: ca. 1028–54. See M. A. Friedman's edition for further information.

Letter from the judge Avraham b. [Mevorakh] ha-Kohen, the head of the Jewish community in al-Maḥalla, to the Nagid/Raʾīs al-Yahūd Mevorakh b. Seʿadya. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script (including with Mevorakh's title אלוף הבינות spelled out الوف هبينوت). Dating: 1094–95 CE. Avraham congratulates the Nagid Mevorakh on his return to power (in 1094 CE) and reports that the rent for the synagogue—a government building rented to the community—had been raised by two dinars by a Jewish tax farmer leasing the building for the government. Abū Saʿīd Khalaf and Abū l-Faḍl Yakhīn, the ghulām of the Nagid, are also mentioned. On verso the remainder of the letter is followed by a list of books in the hand of Hillel b. ʿEli, with a note stating ‘owed to me by Abū Saʿd’. (Information from CUDL and Mediterranean Society, I, 379.)

Receipt for payment of a tax farmer (dāmin, lines 2) in Fustat. The month of Ramadan al-Muʿaẓẓam of the year 701. Alama: al-ḥamdu lillāh sallama taslīman (?). Verso has a note about the shop (dukkān) of someone. 9 x 7 approximately

Receipt for tax, possibly Mamluk

Letter from Manṣūr (probably Manṣūr b. Sālim) in Alexandria to his brother in Fustat mentioning that his son Moshe started to speak and has since kept repeating: 'my uncle, my uncle Musa,' referring to his deceased uncle and the sender's and recipient's brother, who bore the same name. The sender also writes about an agreement that was reached with a tax-farmer about a payment made in installments and expresses regret about the fact that a female relative who was involved in a law-suit with her husband enjoyed 'no holiday and no Saturday.' Finally, the writer requests the recipient urgently to return a note from the tax-farmer. The Verso is written in a different hand. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 235, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in which a tax-farmer named Yehuda, who received one and a half dinars a month, is mentioned. Dated to the 12th century.

Recto: State document. Report to al-Ẓāhir about a tax farmer, beginning only. Dating: 1021–36 CE. (Cited in Khan, BSOAS 53 (1990) 25; Arabic Legal and Administrative Documents in the Cambridge Genizah Collections 311 n27 with partial transcription.) Indirect join: Oded Zinger.

Complaint of a damin (tax farmer) in al-Minya about competitors, submitted to the Nagid Mevorakh around 1096. The writer claimed to receive one of his appointments as tax-farmer from the father and predecessor of al-Malik al-Afdal. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:361, 605-6) EMS See also Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, p. 149; Mann, Jews in Egypt, II, p. 249; Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 85, 411; II, pp. 359, 361, 606; V, p. 367

Letter from a tax farmer in the Fayyum, who was cheated of his share by his partners, was unable to pay his debts, and was therefore taken into custody. He has been in prison for four days. He is sick with ophthalmia and his dependents are perishing. He asks help getting released before the Sabbath. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 35, 362 and from Goitein's index cards )

Settlement of a complicated dispute in Fustat recording that Abu al-Ḥasan b. Numayla had rented from Abu al-Ma'ali Shemuel b. Yehuda a house in Alexandria for two years (rent: 9 dinars). Abu Sa'd, the former tax farmer of Benha Sa'adya b. Efrayim b. Hudhaifa had given 8 dinars, which he had owed to Ben Numaila, to Abu al-Ma'ali. The latter retained the 8 dinars as payment for the rent of Ben Numaila, who had meanwhile died. But as Abu Sa'd had to return the debt to Ben Numaila’s heirs, he had to take recourse to Abu Ma'ali; ca. 1165., in the hand of Shemuel b. Seadya ha-Levi. (Information from Goitein's index cards). VMR and EMS

Legal document. Dated: First decade of Elul 1458 Seleucid (July/August 1147 CE). In which Abū l-Riḍā Yaʿaqov b. Yosef, "the noble and generous," takes over the tax farming of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā from Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and his son Abū l-Khayr. The nature of the tax is not specified; Goitein presumes that it was for the tax on the manufacture, dyeing, and sale of silk. The declaration begins, "I had intended to take over the tax farming of al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā, which is in the hand of the elder Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Avraham and of his son Abū l-Khayr. Then I pondered over the straitened circumstances of these people, their liabilities and indebtedness to the dīwān and thought that if I took that thing from them through machinations, force, and getting the better of them, they would suffer damage, both from the side of their relation with the dīwān and their loss of income. Thus, considering their welfare prior to my own and confident that with God's favorable decree and help the welfare of all us would be served, I make this proposal." The value of the tax farming lease is 335 dinars per year. The proposal is that they will transfer the rights to the tax farm to Abū l-Riḍā, and he will pay their debt of 80 dinars to the dīwān in four annual installments of 20 dinars. If the superintendent (mushrif) and director (ʿāmil) of the diwan raise the sum owed for the new tax farmer, the amount of the 'rise' (ziyāda) will be deducted from the 80 dinars. Signed by: Zakkay b. Moshe (the Jewish judge of al-Maḥalla in this period); and ʿAmram b. Yaʿaqov. In the margins of recto and on verso, there is a philosophical (?) work in Judaeo-Arabic, mentioning natural science, astronomy, etc. (Information from Goitein's index card, Goitein's attached translation, and CUDL.) EMS. ASE.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi, dated 1449 (= 1138 CE). A tax-farmer (ḍāmin), Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. ʿUlla (known as Abū l-Munā the perfumer b. Ḥasan), grants Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Yaʿqūb a license to sell and dye silk for 18 dinars per month in a certain quarter of Fustat for the duration of Abū l-Surūr’s tenure in office. Abū l-Surūr promises not to accept any higher offer or to discontinue the lease (paying a fine of 100 dinars if he does so). Abū Isḥāq may subcontract the labour to others if he wishes and Abū l-Surūr agrees to use his influence with the police if any subcontractors evade payment of their dues. Abū l-Surūr reserves for himself the right to employ female brokers (bayyāʿāt, "saleswomen") in the quarter in question. Signed by [...] Kohen, descendant of Yosef Kohen and Natan b. Shemuʾel, and written under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon (1127–1139 CE). On verso are a few lines in Arabic.

Letter from Simḥa Kohen, probably in Alexandria, to Abū l-Manṣūr. Dating: ca. 1205 CE. The writer complains about the extortions of a tax farmer who claimed that many people had executed the transfers of the ownership of their houses before a Jewish court without registering them with the government. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 90, 365). See also Goitein notes and index card linked below.

Receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: the warehouse keeper has paid the sum of two, a quarter and a sixth (dirhams?) on behalf of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 24 Muḥarram 404 AH, which is August 1013 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: receipt relating to the tax farm of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb written by Mīkhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ, the cashier, and registered by the Office of Accounts on behalf of the Office of Supervision: Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb has paid the sum of a third and a twelfth (dirhams?) for the estates in Al-Fayyūm, under the supervision of the judge Ṯiqat al-Mulk Makīn al-Dawla wa-Amīnuhā, of the protégé of the commander of the faithful Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Bahār, and the accountant Abū l-Sarī Theodor b. Yuḥannis. Dated: 7 Ṣafar 404 AH, which is August 1013 CE. Verso: Arabic accounts (incomplete). (Information from CUDL)