Geniza Lab

Fragment of a letter, contents difficult to decipher. Mentions Yehoshua b. Nun and Mordechai, quoting Esther 10:3. ASE.

Recto: Informal note in Judaeo-Arabic from Bū l-Majd to 'al-Raẓuy' asking him to send the jara'ir (?) belonging to the neighborhood (?) urgently. Verso: Arabic jottings (accounts?).

Slip of paper with two lines blessing the recipient with the blessing of Joseph in Genesis 39:2.

Brief note from Hananel instructing Abu [...] to give the bearer 33 dirhams.

Letter fragment (from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu?) with elaborate praise and good wishes for the recipient Abū l-Faraj and his children.

First document: Letter fragment addressed to Nahray b. Nissim regarding the sale of ambergris. Second document: Letter fragment addressed to Yehuda ha-Kohen ha-Sar ha-Adir. Information and transcription in Goitein's notes linked below. ASE.

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Little remains.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to Abū l-Bayān, requesting that he let him copy a volume of responsa, either bringing it to Shelomo or having Shelomo come to his house to copy it. The tone is slightly confrontational ("because if a person says something, he must fulfill it"). On verso, a note by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, registering his expenditure for a Friday, mainly on foods. Also a note to deliver this slip to his mother (? Sittī al-Ra'īsa, with lots of honorifics). Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, 231-2. ASE.

Letter fragment in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic addressed to an important person [...] b. Saadya, who may be identifiable on the basis of the titles he is given (is it Mevorakh?). Very little remains except copious blessings and praises. ASE.

Modern letter in Hebrew and Yiddish. Probably from Gaster's personal archive.

Modern note in Hebrew and Yiddish, signed "J. Las[.]", labeled "10 Montefiori Coll."

Recto: Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions Meshullam... "two witnesses regarding the agent (? muwakkila) of Ṭahor who is his sister (?)"... whether a certain sum is a deposit (wadīʿa) or collateral (rahn)... 10 dirhams. Verso: good wishes for a groom and a bride, but mostly many lines of honorifics for the Nasi Daniel (b. ʿAzarya?).

Recto: Informal note from Ibn al-Sukkarī to the physician Shemuel. In Arabic script. Urging him to investigate the truth of the report of the seller (bayyāʿ) of liquid (or soft?) goods (māyiʿāt) who claims that the doum palm fruit (ḍayḥ) has a pit (farṣ) which has been harming customers. Verso: The response from the physician who says that he has investigated the matter. Very faded. Might be dated in the last line. Needs further examination. ASE

Letter from Elazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo b. Yehosef who calls himself Gaon son of Gaon. In Hebrew. Dating: early 12th-century (Gil). For the writer's genealogy, see Bodl. MS heb. c.50/11 and Sassoon 526 (Gil, Palestine, II, #8 and #9). This contents of the letter are somewhat opaque. He mentions Ẓoʿan (Tinnīs?), and he mentions "Rabbenu Berakhot known as al-Jaʿfarī" before writing "...many of the rabbis, and I will mention to you some of them: foremost is Rabbenu Yiṣḥaq ha-Rav ha-Gadol... all the land of Egypt is given into his hand, and after him your slave Elazar ha-Kohen b. Shelomo."

Letter from Barakāt b. Manṣūr, unknown location, to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. In Arabic script, with the address on verso written once in Arabic script and twice in Judaeo-Arabic. The Arabic hand is reminiscent of a chancery hand. Fragment (top part of recto). The address reads, "to Fustat, the Market of the Perfumers, to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zekhariya known as Ibn al-Rayyis al-Iskandarānī (of Alexandria) from his slave Barakāt." Eliyyahu served at the beginning of the 13th century (dated documents in Fustat range from 1222–36; his dated documents including those from Alexandria range from 1204–41.) For this judge, see also T-S AS 151.153 (a letter apparently from his wife) and the cluster of letters from Manṣūr b. Sālim (incl. T-S 10J16.14 addressed to Eliyyahu himself) about a runaway son (an internal Jewish affair, not the kind of thing about which one would approach the state, even if you knew how to write like a chancery official), and also Motzkin's dissertation on him and his family. The sender's full name in the tarjama is difficult to read; he is probably identical with the sender/scribe of ENA NS I.1.

Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (right side). Addressed to 'my father' (yā wālidī). Unclear if any of the substance is preserved.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Reused for Hebrew literary text betwen the lines.

Family letter in Hebrew. The writer consoles the recipient (perhaps his brother, see line 2) on a loss. Then he writes, "From the day you gave your daughter to the man, it seems to me that I have not had a single good week due to the quarrels and indignities that are between you (pl.), because I cannot bear to hear these things. If I had been able to leave the place without anyone's knowledge, I would have left from the great pain that was in my heart. I said in my heart, 'Woe is us from the sins, I don't have... sons or daughters...." A significant portion of the letter is torn off at this point. On verso he describes how God saved him from some trouble, and it seems that the recipient has wanted him to write to his wife so that she would come back to him, but the news in the city is nothing but disasters, so he is not going to write until conditions are better. This reading is somewhat speculative, and the relationships between the writer, the recipient, the daughter, the wives, and the people who were fighting are all ambiguous. ASE.

Letter of appeal for charity. There are 10 lines of flowery Hebrew praises for the recipient followed by a space and then six lines of the Judaeo-Arabic letter have survived. The writer's son is sick and they are in need of clothing and they ask the recipient for help.

Recto: letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, presumably in Qalyub, to his father, presumably in Fustat, late 12th century or early 13th. "If you have met with that woman [the matchmaker, judging by the response]... tell me everything she said." Also exhorts his father to update him on the apartment and the broad shawl and an ambergris seal (?). Verso: letter from Levi aka Abu Sahl to his son Moshe suggesting to him a choice among four prospective brides, one of them a divorcee: the daughter of al-[...]abiyah, or the daughter of Hibah the glassmaker the in-law of 'Imran b. al-Marjani, or the woman who was divorced by Ibn al-Habbar (the ink seller), or the daughter of Abu Sa'd al-Levi. He also requests a bundle of firewood for 4 or 5 dirhems for the holiday (lines 11-14) and mentions that Moshe's mother has gone away to "you know where" (lines 3-5) and writes something about the broad shawl, perhaps that he already sent it on Friday (lines 15-16). Information in part from Goitein's index cards. Identification based on distinctive handwriting and phrases; several other fragments survive with Moshe's letter on one side and Levi's on the other. ASE.