Geniza Lab

Letter from the leaders of the community (qahal) of Jerusalem to Avraham b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furāt, Cairo, approximately 1055.

Letter in Hebrew sent by Aharon b. Ḥiyya, a fishmonger, to the judge Shelomo b. Natan, saying that he is sending him a basket with fifty fish. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 251, 443). Mostly in Hebrew.

Letter sent by Yosef b. Shemuel to 'his brother from father and mother', Ṣadaqa b. Ḥakmūn, congratulating him on the birth of his son. The letter is written in perfect Judaeo-Arabic and calligraphic Hebrew script. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 226, 474.)

Letter in Hebrew by a poor person.

Letter from a prominent public figure in Alexandria to Fustat in the year 1200. The letter reports of terrible hunger as well as water and wheat shortage. This indicates that Alexandria suffered from severe food shortage before the great famine that struck Egypt in 1201/2. (Information from Frenkel. See also partial translation in Goitein, Med. Soc. 4:238-239, 5:550. Goitein notes on the document: Important letter dated September- October 1200, sent by a notable from Alexandria. The writer describes the great famine in Alexandria, orders ten irdabbs of wheat and gives personal greetings to Moses Maimonides and to the French Rabbi Anatoli).

Letter of appeal for charity. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. The writer praises the addressee, expounds on his difficult circumstances, and asks for a loan of 2 or 3 dinars.

Recto: Letter probably from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father-in-law al-Shaykh al-Makīn Abū l-Faraj. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (beginning only). The sender's wife is very sick. He mentions her mother. The next part of the story is lost, unless a join is found.

Verso: Informal note. In Judaeo-Arabic. "O Ibrahim! I found with your son Fāḍil (may God gladden him) one and a quarter dirhams, and I took them from him, and it is in your [...] do not [...] and do not tell him."

Letter from Elazar Ha-Kohen Ha-Mumhe and Ha-Shofet b. Zakariyya the Gazan, to Eli Ha-Kohen b. Hayyim, Fustat, probably the beginning of the twelfth century.

Letter from Ibrāhīm b. Farrāḥ, Alexandria, 25 August 1056 (Gil). Mentions that Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ (here called Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣāʾigh) has unloaded his goods in Mazāra.

Letter from Shemuel b. Sahl al-Hawwārī, in Aleppo, to [...], in Fustat. (The names are written in Arabic, so the writer's is tentative and the addressee's may yet be legible.) Written in calligraphic Judaeo-Arabic. Shemuel calls the addressee 'my father'; he seems to be the father-in-law of Shemuel's brother Abū l-Faḍl rather than Shemuel's actual father. Shemuel has received a letter informing him that his brother Abū l-Faḍl died in one of the villages of the Egyptian Rīf. Shemuel has no further information—which village, how he died, whether naturally or killed by Bedouins ('bādiya'), where he is buried, and in whose possession are the goods/money (apparently substantial) that Abū l-Faḍl had with him at the time of his death. Shemuel is sending his other brother, Abū ʿAlī, to travel to Egypt and investigate the matter. He asks the addressee to assist Abū ʿAlī when he arrives, so that the family can be 'consoled a little, though consolation is distant from us.' There are surprisingly few words of consolation at the beginning of the letter, but around here Shemuel writes that he and his brother and his mother have all 'melted' from grief, and commiserates with the addressee and 'our sister.' The addressee should send his response to Shemuel's mother in Jerusalem, to the alley of Yosef al-Sofer. There is the customary urging of a rapid response so that an old woman can be consoled before she dies of grief. ASE

Letter in the hand of Elḥanan b. Shemarya (who refers to himself as "Head of the Row / Rosh ha-Seder") addressed to a cantor named Avraham. In Hebrew. Elḥanan invites Avraham to lead the mourning prayers on the following day for a deceased man. (Information from Bareket and from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Mevorakh b. Natan to Thiqat al-Mulk. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mevorakh describes his financial difficulties and asks for help obtaining wheat. He complains that al-Shaykh al-ʿAfīf Masarra had failed to provide wheat to Mevorakh's family during his absence on a journey (r9–11). When Mevorakh returned, he found his family sick and perishing of hunger (r6–7). (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 243, 439)

Letter addressed to Rabbenu Ḥayyim. Letter of recommendation for the bearer, the nephew of the Kohen Abū l-ʿIzz(?). Small fragment. Verso is filled with Hebrew jottings as well as the name (of the addressee?): Moshe b. [...] ha-Melammed.

Letter from Shelomo b. Semah of Ramla to Efrayim b. Shemarya written in his own hand. (Gil) Ca. 1030.

Letter to the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saaadya. Small fragment. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Informal note to a certain Abū l-Ḥasan. The writer was forced to go up to Cairo, so he informs the addressee that he is sending him the quarter-dinar (rubāʿī) that he had obtained (?) while in Fustat. He asks that the addressee send him 'the note' (al-ruqʿa) in return.

Letter, extensive and profuse, by a cantor in a provincial town to his widowed mother named Umm Farjun, inviting her to Cairo(?) to visit him and her grandson who yearn for her. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 242, 338, 479, 503). The letter is sent to the 'house of my master al-Hemdat b. Pinhas' in New Cairo. Connected to T-S 8J22.19.

Letter addressed to Abu Zikri Yehuda b. Musa. Verso contains a draft of greetings regarding the grandsons and great-grandsons of the recipient, written in a different handwriting.

Letter from Yusuf b. Eli Kohen Fasi, Alexandria, to Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sugmar, Fustat. Around 1057. The writer thanks Yehuda for buying wheat for him. The writer deals with his family’s rental matters. He expresses his intention to travel to Palestine with the remains of an unknown person who passed away. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #399) VMR