Geniza Lab

Letter from Yosef b. Yaʿaqov Rosh ha-Seder to the judge Yehuda ha-Kohen (b. Ṭuviyyahu?). On parchment. Only the beginning is preserved.

Letter addressed to the Nagid. In Judaeo-Arabic. Recommending the bearer, Yisra'el ha-Ḥazzan, for charity.

Letter in Hebrew. Perhaps a letter of appeal for charity: the writer seems to be describing his poverty and pawning possessions.

Letter to Shelomo ha-Sar ha-Nadiv from Yeshua musharaf al-Qysiria. Mostly contains Biblical phrases and blessings.

Letter from Daniel b. Azarya (ca. 1055) to Eli b. Amram in Fustat. Marwan b. Saqir and Yosef b. Yaaqov are mentioned

Letter (possibly) from Moshe b. Yehuda, addressed to a certain Saʿīd. Dated: 23rd of the ʿOmer מטר, i.e., 5249 AM (probably), which is 1489 CE. Mentions that Yiṣḥaq Sholal (not yet the Nagid) arrived in Rashīd on business. The sender previously sent one letter from Rashīd and another with Ṣedaqa Nes. He orders silk garments to be sent with David Sofer and his son Meir. He orders the Zoharand other books. He conveys instructions for what should be given to the wife of the Shamash for his own wife. Also mentions raisins. (Information in part from Avraham David via FGP.) For more on Moshe b. Yehuda, see Arad and Wagner, "Moses ben Judah – a 15th century bibliophile and gourmand" (FOTM June 2016) and Arad, "The Jews of Alexandria in the 15th Century in Light of New Documents" Peʿamim 156 (2018), 167–84 (Heb).

Letter-writing formulary. In Judaeo-Arabic. Bifolium, containing many letter samples. There are also two lines in Arabic script.

Letter from Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov, in Fustat, to his in-law Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Alexandria. Dating: Sunday, 15 Jumāda = 16 Adar, which is probably 3 March 1135 CE. The letter is an urgent warning advising Abū Zikrī to take all his merchandise out of a warehouse in Alexandria. "A business partner of Abu Zikrī's in Fustat was dying, and because of the lawlessness prevailing at that time in Egypt, Abu Zikrī's goods would be confiscated together with those of the dead man (before 1129, it seems). {The dying man, Abū Saʿīd, was related to Abu Zikrī's partner the well-known Alexandrian India trader Abu Naṣr b. Elishaʿ. Evidently, Abu Saʿīd did not have any heirs of the first degree, and the officials of the diwan al-mawārīth (line 5: aṣḥāb mawarif!), the Office of Estates, which took advantage ofsuch situations, were about to confiscate all ofhis belongings held by Abu Naṣr. Not taking any chances, the officials would sequester Abu Naṣr's assets and, moreover, those of Abū Zikrī, since the partners' holdings were stored together. The Head of the Yeshiva, certainly Maṣliaḥ ha-Kohen, who in fact was apparently Abū Zikrī's cousin, personally conveyed the warning to Maḥrūz and instructed him to send immediately an urgent message to his brother-in-law Abū Zikrī. For this purpose, Maḥrūz hired a private courier (najjāb) to Alexandria by camel. In his letter, Maḥrūz tells Abū Zikrī to disregard costs and extricate his wares without delay. The warning is repeated in a postscript written after Musallam (see the previous document) informed the writer that the courier would not set out that night. The Head of the Yeshiva's warning is not related to Abu Zikri's urgent request to him in II, 58, since that letter was written several years after II, 59. No. II, 59 is dated Sunday, 15 Jumada. Since Maḥrūz urges Abu Zikri to return to Fustat to be with his family before the approaching holiday, the date can be fixed with a fair degree of certainty as March 2, 1135, when 15 Jumada I came four weeks before Passover. (I do not know why Goitein assumed the letter had been written before 1129.) As already noted, Maḥrūz was not accustomed to writing, and others penned for him most of his letters, which have been preserved, except for this one and V, 20. Because ofthe urgency ofthis letter, he evidently wrote it himself. His untrained hand, poor style and substandard language, replete with vulgar forms and other orthographic irregularities, prove the wisdom of his normal practice.}" Also of note: Maṣliaḥ Gaon is sick with "the stone" (al-ḥaṣā), i.e., a urinary stone (r17). On verso there are six lines of love poetry in Arabic script. Description based on India Book; see attached. ASE.

Multifragment. There are two different letters in Judaeo-Arabic stuck together. The larger one mentions Qayrawān; various business matters; and the health of the body. The tone is aggrieved. The smaller one needs preservation, and may still be too small to read.

Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, very detailed. Addressed to a business partner (yā sīdī). "I have sent you the account of the goods that I shiipped on the boats . . ."

Letter fragment in Arabic script. The text on verso is likely the address: ... الخادم محمد بن علي كلامها املى — so maybe Muḥammad b. ʿAlī dictated the letter? Reused for an Aramaic targum of Zekharya.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Abū Ṭālib, a qāḍī with many concerns, and Manṣūr. Possibly the early handwriting of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, but this is not at all certain.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic addressed to a certain Moshe. Dating: Late, based on handwriting. The writer may be a woman: Sitt [...]. The handwriting is dreadful. The letter mainly consists of regards and expressions of preoccupation, but needs further examination.

Possibly a letter. In a late hand

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic mentioning Minyat Zifta.

Faded and unclear fragment. Mentioning sums of money.

Note in Judaeo-Arabic at the bottom of some prayer complaining against a person who will be judged according to his ugly deeds.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic in Maghribi script. 13th century? Greetings to Salāma.

Letter from Musa b. Abi al-Hayy to Nahray b. Nissim. Mentions goods and prices. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #457) VMR

A learner's writing exercise in Judaeo-Arabic. The assignment was apparently to copy part of a letter in which the 'lofty' addressee was asked to purchase for the sender a certain amount of one kind of myrobalan (halīlaj kābulī) and 2 dinars' worth of musk and 30 dinars' worth of another kind of myrobalan (halīlaj aṣfar). The teacher has written corrections in between the lines.