Geniza Lab

Small fragment from the beginning of a letter in Judeo Arabic. The hand is typical to 13th century, and might be by Shlomo b. Elya (compare with TS NS 304.7). AA

Letter, probably. In Judaeo-Arabic. Late, perhaps Mamluk-era. Needs examination.

Small fragment from the beginning of a letter in Hebrew and Judeo Arabic. The writer inform about what has happened to our coreligionists in Fustat, but the letter is fragmentary and almost nothing survived. AA

Document or notes in Arabic script. Perhaps a draft of a letter or petition. Needs examination. On the other side there is Hebrew literary text. AA. ASE.

Recto: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Verso: Calendrical fragment? Gives the date of Rosh Hashana 1363 Seleucid = 4812 AM = 44[.] AH. All these refer to 1051 CE.

Letter fragment. Dating: Perhaps 16th century or later. Appears to be in Hebrew. Needs examination.

Letter fragment. In Judaeo-Arabic with an Arabic-script address. Very faded. The name Yūsuf b. Faraḥ al-Qābisī appears at the end, but it is not immediately clear whether he is the writer. The address includes the name Abu l-Barakāt.

Letter from Allush ('Lamb') b. Makhlūf al-Nafusi to M[ahr]uz ben Yaʿaqov, 1130s or 1140s. Business letter concerning payments involving and owed to various merchants, including someone named Madmun, perhaps the representative of merchants and Nagid of Yemen, Madmun ibn Ḥasan (d. 1151); Abu Said ibn al-Dimyati; Abu Zikri, perhaps the representative of the merchants in Fustat during the first half of the twelfth century with the same name; and the writer's brother, Yiṣḥaq (= the well-attested India trader Yiṣḥaq ben Makhlūf). Allush appears again in a court record dated 1132 as having bought a house in his brother's name [Bodl. MS heb. b 11/21]. The letter also mentions Abu Said Makhlūf and Ibn Elisha, travel to the Maghrib and Aden, and shipments of pepper. Conclusion and address on verso. (Information from Arnold Franklin and M.A. Friedman and S. D. Goitein, India Traders of the Middle Ages: Documents from the Cairo Geniza, p. 263)

Continuation of letter from Allush (\'Lamb\') ben Makhlūf al-Nafusi to Mahruz ben Yaʿaqov in which the writer asks the addressee to intervene in a matter concerning his brother, the well-attested India trader Yiṣḥaq ben Makhlūf al-Nafusi. Mentioned also are the elder Madmun, Ibn al-Dimyati, and Abu Said. Beginning of letter on recto (B 4037-1). Third or fourth decade of the twelfth century.

Business letter informing its recipient of the purchase of a certain commentary ('al-perush') for fifty dirhams. The writer reports that he will pay forty dirhams and the recipient will pay ten. Verso contains a payment order by Abu Zikri ha-Kohen. Undated.

Letter fragment, from Hārūn to his 'brother' Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions having lost his blanket with the masters of the bo[a]t and being pinched and tormented by the cold.

India Book, II, 21a (T-S NS J241). See PGPID 5479.

Letter fragment addressed to the great prince (ha-Sar ha-Adir), in Cairo. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. Only a thin strip from the far-right side is preserved here.

Letter of recommendation from Bū l-Barakāt to a dignitary. In Judaeo-Arabic. Asking for assistance for the bearer. The writer mentions an earlier conversation that took place between al-Shaykh al-Makīn Abū Sahl and the Rayyis.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Quite faded. Discusses how a certain person has always acted with beneficence; mentions "fear" at least twice; mentions sayyidnā.

The beginning of a letter from Moshe b. Yehuda, the cantor, to the Nagid, Shemuel b. Hananya (1141-1159). Moshe b. Yehuda is probably Moshe b. Yehuda who signed T-S 16.151 in 1130 as a teacher ('ha-Melammed') and in 1141 signed ENA 2558.3 as cantor; for teachers serving as both scribes and cantors see Goitein, Med. Soc. vol. 2, p. 189 and p. 560. The same attributes for Shemuel b. Hananya are found in T-S 13J3.4 and Bodl. MS heb. a 3/5. The verso is blank.

Letter fragment, perhaps. In Hebrew. Consists of rhymed lines in Hebrew conveying conventional praises for somebody.

Letter in Ladino. The year is given, but difficult to read.

Conclusion of a letter mentioning the murder of Fakhr al-ʾUmara near Alexandria and also mentioning ʾAmīr al-Jūyūsh, which was the title of Badr al-Jamālī, the Armenian general and actual ruler of Egypt, 1074-1094 (see Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, pg. 61-65). Fakhr al-ʾUmara was a title of the viziers of the sword (arbāb al-sūyūf) and was third in the ranks of such viziers (see al-Qalqashandī, Ṣubḥ al-Āʿashā, pg. 104). The vizier in question could be the brother of Nāṣir al-Dawla who was the Turkish military commander during the time of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustanṣir Billah. He (Fakhr al-ʾUmara) is also referred to as Sulṭān al-ʿArab in some historical sources (see ʿImāduddīn, ʿŪyūn al-Akhbār, vol. 7, pg. 61-65). He was assassinated by Badr al-Jamālī, among other rebels, including Nāṣir al-Dawla, upon entering Egypt for their insurgents and rebels against the state which caused political unrest in the country for almost a decade (1062-1072). While Badr al-Jamālī was restoring law and order in Egypt and assassinating the rebels, many factions of the rebel army and clans surrendered to him to avoid persecution. This letter mentions Badr al-Jamālī receiving such letters from the Lawāta Berbers and other clans, as well as a delegation from Sulaymān (the name demands further inquiry). The letter also mentions (Ibn?) Hamūd, also Ibn Hamdān or Ibn Hamdūn, (the name appears with variations in historical sources) I.e., the name of Nāṣir al-Dawla as giving an account of these events. Badr al-Jamālī entered Egypt in 467/1075, hence this letter could be dated to that year. (ASE,YU)