Geniza Lab

Recto: Informal note in difficult Arabic script, scrawled basmala on top, possibly a memorandum to do with land tenure? Needs further examination. Verso: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic from a sick man to his son's teacher informing him that his son behaves outrageously and needs to be disciplined. "A teacher must tell the boy if he tries to leave, 'Don't go around to the houses and the markets.' The gist of the matter is that if the boy comes this Friday afternoon and if he behaves thus (?) at that time, please inform me in your response to this note, in large Hebrew letters, because I am sick (wajiʿ), prostrated beneath my bed (or bedcovers? rāqid taḥt al-firāsh). Uncover his legs and give him a good beating." Perhaps the note on recto is from the teacher, and the man had a hard time reading it, so asked for the next one to be in Hebrew script?

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Saʿīd to al-Raṣuy, in which he asks in the most humble terms to be paid the fees due to him by the community for children sent to his school. (Same person, named Sa'id, wrote a letter to Avraham Maimuni T-S NS 324.35. AA) NB: Goitein sometimes referred to this fragment as BL OR 5542.23. (See Med Soc II, App. B, doc. 98.)

Records of book sales, in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. Dated: Monday, 16 Tammuz 1540 Seleucid, which is 1229 CE. "To increase their meager income teachers got involved in book selling. In this sales contract the teacher Shelomo b. Eliyyahu the judge (dayyan) sells books."

Letter from a man from the land of the Persians, who, after the loss of his fortune, had come to Egypt to seek a post as teacher. He asks for help, as he was unable to work owing to an illness of smallpox. He is living in the synagogue (this is written above the line; the scribe first wrote "living with [???]" and then crossed it out). "I came to this city empty-handed, intending to support myself by serving the people, but I fell sick with smallpox. Now I cannot work and I possess nothing." Information from Goitein's index card.

Letter from Bu l-Khayr to the local school teacher, asking him for a loan of 400 dirhams against a security to help him out until his partner Manṣūr comes back. (Information from Goitein’s index card)

Letter in which a father writes to the teacher of his boys complaining about insufficient attainments and explaining their being late.

Recto: Letter in Arabic script, regarding financial matters "innanī katabtu ilā marʾ(?) lahu ʿindahu danānīr", concerning a teacher (qad addanī muʿallim l-ṣabīyy). Also mentions Cairo. Needs examination. Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The writer urges the addressee to help him again with money for rent for the qāʿa where he lives, because his landlady, the sister of al-Najīb "has destroyed me from all that she demands [it] from me."

Letter from Shemuʾel b. Yaʿaqov b. Shemuʾel to his teacher Avraham. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in which Shelomo b. Eliyyahu asks his teacher, the judge R. Hananel, to inform his father Eliyyahu that he is very ill, suffering from weak eyesight, headache, and general weakness. He wishes to come for the holiday to Fustat rather than stay in the small town (Bilbays?) that resembles Sodom and Gomorrah and is devoid of worthy people. VMR; ASE.

Letter from Yehi'el b. Elyaqim to Yefet the teacher, giving instructions as to the method of teaching his son. On verso a short postscipt, and different accounts/memos in vairous hands.

Letter from Avraham Kohen. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 15th century. Reports on the complaint of a teacher from Ṣafad who had settled in Gaza, to the effect that the local leader had incited the boys of the congregation (sibyan al-yahud) against him, a charge that the leader strongly denied. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 62, Goitein's index cards, and CUDL.)

Recto: Family letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, asking for news of female captives which had been expected to arrive with ships from Acre. Verso: Another letter in a different hand, from a husband to his wife. He encourages her to send their two sons to school in the morning and in the evening, and sends along with the letter payment for their teacher. He warns that the boys’ noble descent will not help them - only their studies. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Alexandria expressing the deep gratitude of the community after the appointment of an inspired teacher and judge. The letter was sent to Fustat to the caravanserai of al-Mahalli (‘funduq al-Mahalli’), a well-known compound, large enough to accommodate a mosque. The note is likely from the early thirteenth century; the writer refers to Avraham Maimonides as Nagid, a title he bore from 1213 to 1237. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:349, 490; 2:193, 561) EMS

Recto: Letter in which a teacher complains about an unruly pupil. "Whenever I beat him, I do so excessively; but as soon as I begin, the mistress rushes along and, after having hit him four or five times, releases him. Had it not been for his illness, I would have killed him with beating, although as a poorly clothed newcomer, he is entitled to some consideration." The teacher wants the pupil's family to discipline him in the same manner at home. Verso: Reply of a family member to the teacher's letter on recto. The writer thanks the teacher for his efforts and emphasizes that they spare no pains in trying to educate the boy. He encourages the teacher to keep writing, as perhaps the notes will scare the boy into behaving well. ASE.

Letter in Arabic in which a teacher reports to "my lord the Kohen" that the boy Mūsā had come to school after having absented himself for some days. However when he was asked to revise the Bible reading he swore he would never read more than one time and when the teacher asked him to repeat, he ran away. The teacher ran after and shouted at him, but he would not return. The teacher now asks the addressee's help. "If he does not revise it four or five times, he will not memorize it." Information from Goitein's note card.

Verso: Short letter from a teacher to a father. In Judaeo-Arabic. "This is to inform you my lord, the elder, may God make your honored position permanent, that Abū l-Ḥasan, after his transfer to my school, showed great zeal for study. His great misfortune was that Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wuhayb broke his board with the knowledge of the other boys. And peace." (Goitein's translation.)

Accounts with Hebrew numerals. Mentions the teacher Mami Sidikari (?) and a certain Saʿadya. (Information from CUDL)

Verso: Autograph order in the hand of Avraham Maimonides. Abū l-Majd is to pay the bearer, Nissim the teacher, 6 dirhams for 6 weeks of teaching children. T-S K25.240 consists of small written orders, partly in Hebrew and partly in Arabic script, for monthly payments, made out of the rent-revenue from the pious foundation (waqf) 'Compound of the Poor' or from the pious foundation made by the physician al-Muhadhdhab. All dated orders are from spring and summer, 1218. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 420-421, App. A 48-92; pp. 449-450, App. B 39b [dated 1210-1225]; Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt, pp. 218-220)

Petition of a teacher. Fragment of a letter written by a teacher, apparently to one of the parnasim of the qodesh. Insisting that he is in distress, the applicant evokes a decision of the Nagid, David b. Avraham, giving him the right to live in an apartment of the qodesh for the reduced rent of 12 dirhams. It appears that after having lived in it for 13 years, he is faced with a demand for increased rent. (Information from Gil, Documents of the Jewish Pious Foundations, pp.480-481, #146)

Receipt. In Judaeo-Arabic. A teacher, Abū l-Ḥasan b. Abū l-Riḍā al-ʿAṭṭār confirms that he has received 12 dirhams for teaching 3 children for the duration of the months Av and Elul. The pupils are the son of Hilāl the water carrier (al-saqqāʾ), the son of the daughter of Khalaf the rice miller (daqqāq al-ruzz), and the son of the daughter of Miska. (Information in part from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 559 and from Goitein's index cards.) On verso there are accounts in Arabic script and Greek/Coptic numerals.