Geniza Lab

Business letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by a Maghrebi merchant named Nissim who, coming from al-Mahdiyya, had arrived in Alexandria at time of a civil unrest.

Important business letter sent from Alexandria to Fustat by a Maghribi merchant named Nissim who, coming from al-Mahdiyya, had arrived in Alexandria at time of a civil unrest. The writer describes the difficult situation in Alexandria and al-Mahdiyya, attaches valuable price lists and assures the addressee that his wife and baby daughter are perfectly comfortable. Dated 1060-1070. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 168; V, pp. 50, 51, 519.) A letter from Alexandria, in the hand of Salāma b. Mūsā b. Iṣḥaq Safāquṣī, to an unknown recipient. Summer of 1062. Lists prices in Alexandria. Mentions trade links with Byzantium, Genoa, Crete, Sicily, and Spain. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 445-446.)

Business letter regarding shipment of cotton. Moshe b. Yehuda the cantor and Abu Sa'd maymun are mentioned. On verso faded list written in a differnt hand

Letter sent by Abu l-Barakat Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Binyamin the Jewish physician (al-ḥakīm al-isrāʾīlī). The writer sends the recipient good wishes on Hanukka, congratulates him on his wife's deliverance (meaning that she did not die nor was she harmed in childbirth) and wishes him that God may give him a male descendant. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 226, 227: V, p.603)

Letter from Abū Yūsuf, unknown location, to Rabbi Elʿazar (body of the letter) who is likely identical with Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallima (address), presumably in Fustat. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Goitein makes much of the addressee's matronymic and also reads the address as kanīsat al-muʿallima, "literally, "the synagogue of the woman teacher" (since school often was held in the synagogue compound, the school itself came to be called synagogue)." But it is also possible that the letter is addressed to the neighborhood of the Hanging Church (Kanīsat al-Muʿallaqa) and that the addressee is Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallim, that is, the son of the male teacher. Goitein identifies the addressee with Abū l-Manṣūr b. al-Muʿallima who (according to another document that Goitein summarizes but does not cite) volunteered to send money to Ashqelon that was collected to ransom the Jewish prisoners who been taken and the books that had been looted when Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in July 1099. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 356, 506.) As for the content of this letter: The writer is unemployed and asks for help "in this difficult year." Otherwise, the letter is almost entirely taken up with expressions of preoccupation and urgings to write. Regards to a woman named Qaḍīb, who is sick, as well as several other people. ASE

Letter addressed to a 'Sar ha-Leviim,' asking him to help his son, who is imprisoned in Cairo for a debt. Fifteen dirhams had been pledged, but his son owes 25 more. (Information from Goitein's index cards). The letter is written by Yehuda Hakohen b. Tuviahu, who served as the muqqadam of Bilbays from 1180's-1220 (identified by Amir Ashur)

Letter from Ibrāhīm, Yosef b. Hillel, and Moshe to Yehuda ha-Rav. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: No earlier than 13th century. Asking to have some produce sent to them, some of which should be given to ʿIwaḍ, the addressee's cousin.

Letter of request for money addressed to the Qaraite community on occasion of a circumcision. (Information from Goitein's index cards). Goitein may have identified it as Qaraite becuase of the blessings to the Nesi'im

Letter, in a large Maghrebi hand. Some commodites, such as silk, are mentioned. also Mentioned Alexandria. The address is beraly legible. On verso a letter in Arabic script

Letter in which the sender relates about some letters that reached him, discussing financial matters, among others some account books of different people and a registration document to be taken by the recipient to a Muslim judge, and also mentioning some letters that should be brought to Cairo. In the hand of Yosef b. ʿEli Kohen Fāsī (Gil). The sender is in Būṣīr. He asks the recipient to obtain an order from the vizier to a head judge to investigate the expropriation of goods that belonged to a deceased so-and-so b. Salāma. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 365.) Verso is blank.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (thin strip from the right side of recto). Mentions: a Maghribī; Abū Saʿd b. [...]; "a bit of Armenian bole (ḥajar armanī)"; [...] b. Ayyūb.

Letter of Eliyyahu ha-Kohen Gaon b. Shelomo, probably from Tyre. Ca. 1080

Business letter in Arabic script from Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq in Aden to Abū l-Ḥasan Allal b. Ḥassun. in Fustat-Cairo. On the back of the letter are scribblings and accounts in a difficult hand.

Letter from Ḥayyim b. Amar Madini, Palermo, to Abu al-Surur, a merchant from Fustat (might be Ishaq b. Barhun al-Tahirti). September 2, 1056. Mentions the events in Sicily and the Maghreb. Regarding shipment of goods, mainly lead from Sicily. Also mentions “Kitab Alamanat” by Se’adya Gaon. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #650) VMR

Letter from the office of the Palestinian Gaon Daniel b. ʿAzarya (r. 1051–62) to an unidentified addressee in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1055 (unclear on what basis). The letter is about a communal conflict (ikhtilāl al-umūr) in Fustat and the leader ʿEli b. ʿAmram's abnegation of his duty to try to resolve it. Daniel expresses his agitation and says that he has issued instructions to the 'ḥaver' for how it should be resolved.

Letter, fragmentary, from Daniel b. Azarya. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. Maybe a part of the same letter in ENA NS 45.31 + T-S 20.90. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 639-640, #350) VMR

Hebrew literary text written on a piece cut from what looks like an Arabic script letter.

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The hand and layout suggest that this is a letter from Avraham b. Farah. the letter is addressed to a certain Abu Zikri Yehuda (b. Musa Ibn Sughmar - copare with T-S 13J26.8) .

Letter, fragmentary, from Eli Ha-Kohen b. Ezekiel, Jerusalem, to Eli Ha-Ḥaver b. Amram in Fustat written in his own hand. Eli Ha-Kohen expresses his anxiety over water "wa-qalbī mashghūl bi l- mā". (Gil) Middle of 11th century.

Letter, minute fragment, probably to Ḥalfon b. Menashshe from his brother