Geniza Lab

Letter from Mose de Toledo and perhaps one other person, in Gaza. In Spanish. Dating: Probably 15th–16th century, on paleographic grounds (assessment kindly provided by Jesús de Prado Plumed and Michael Waas). Thus the sender cannot be identical with the author of "La Trompeta de Mose de Toledo El Sordo de Hierusalaim," which was published in Venice in 1643. The letter mentions debt and an intention to acquire some fruit (...pueda ganar una poca de fruta de...). Merits further examination.

Business letter from Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Ṭulayṭulī to Abū al-Najm Hilāl b. Yosef ha-Qara. In Arabic script. For other Qaraites from Toledo, see T-S 13J9.4 (PGPID 1236, discussed in Rustow, "Karaites Real and Imagined," Past & Present 2007). In line 7, instead of Aodeh's "وقد يخصك السلام," read, "وقد دخل الحمام," yielding, "Your son is in good health; he has entered the bathhouse (i.e., he has recovered from his illness)." ASE

Legal document, probably. In Aramaic. Calligraphic. Avraham b. Yosef b. Ḥasān(?) from Toledo is named in the text block at the bottom, then the next line names Fustat on the Nile. Needs examination.

Letter from Ismāʿīl b. Yiṣḥaq al-Baṭalyawsī (=of Badajoz) al-Andalusi, in Jerusalem, to Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Shemuel, in Fustat. Dating: Ca. 1065 CE. Ismāʿīl asks for news of his family still in al-Andalaus. "If you obtain any letter or news, send them to me. This would be the greatest benefit for me. . . . The most likely (chance to obtain news) will be with people from Madrid (מגריט = مجريط) or from Toledo. For the people of Madrid know ['the brothers from'?] my father very well, for he travels to them. It is likely that they will have a letter if [my family] thinks I am still alive. May God increase your reward. . . You know what the wise man (Solomon) said about 'good news from a far country' (Proverbs 25:25)." Ismāʿīl asks the addressee to forward to his parents a letter that he has enclosed, perhaps with Toledan traders or Muslim pilgrims returning to Madrid from the ḥajj. Information from Gil and from Moshe Yagur (via גניזת קהיר - היסטוריה של היום-יום on Facebook, Feb 9, 2019). See also T-S 13J28.11 (the next document edited by Gil, from Ismāʿīl b. Yiṣḥaq to Nahray b. Nissim). ASE

Letter from Shimʿon b. Shaʾul b. Yisraʾel ha-Ṭulayṭulī, in Jerusalem, to his sister Ballūṭa in Toledo. The writer (a Rabbanite) relays two years of news about Qaraites and fellow Andalusians in Jerusalem, as well as family news. He conveys the distress he felt upon hearing of the epidemic (wabā') and unrest (tashwīsh) in the environs of Toledo. One theme of the letter is their father's health. "Our father is in a state that one would wish only for one's enemies. He has become paralyzed (mabṭūl), blind (aʿmā), and feeble-minded (madkhūl al-dhihn), and suffers much (mumtaḥin). The bearers of this letter will tell you about him and about my care for him. He does not lack a thing, for he is well served (makhdūm) and cared for (maḥfūẓ). I do not rely on anyone else to concern themselves with him. My bed adjoins his; I get up several times every night to cover him and to turn him, since he is not able to do any of these things alone (idh lā yamlik min nafsihi shay'). May God, the exalted, reward him for his sufferings." Med Soc III, p. 241. Later in the letter, Shimʿon tells Ballūṭa that she need not concern herself with sending the turban that had been requested, "for, woe is me, he no longer has the wherewithal to leave the door of the house. He used to devote himself (wādhāb should be read as wāẓāb) to the Mount of Olives and to God's Temple for as long as he was able and [the strength] was in him, may God reward him." (Gil's translation diverges significantly from this.) A second theme of the letter is the story of a fellow Toledan, Ibrāhīm b. Fadānj, and his wife, who arrived two years earlier after having been taken captive in Byzantium and redeemed in Ramle. For a detailed analysis of their case—involving multiple changes of allegiance between the Qaraite and Rabbanite communities, and the writer's role in aiding them—see Rustow, "Karaites Real and Imagined" (2007), 43–47.