Geniza Lab

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Abū Saʿīd Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (left side of recto). Discusses business affairs, one of them involving a fur garment (farw). Mentions Abū l-Surur (their brother Peraḥya?). (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in the hand of Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (left side of recto). Yefet previously sent the receipt for the purse of needles (or lead? אבר, cf. DK 232.2) with Muḥammad. Mentions: Abū ʿImrān b. [...]; the cutting (? qaṣāra) of cushions (mikhādd) — cf. Moss. VII,168; the sun(?); Abū l-Ḥasan. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment of a business letter, probably sent from Qūṣ (between lines 1 and 2). Mentions "the 8th of Shuwwāl, which is Shevat"; the writer's preoccupation on behalf of the recipient's illness; al-Shaykh ʿAllān; a rubāʿī (quarter-dinar?).

Fragment of a letter in the hand of Natan ha-Kohen b. Mevorakh concerning the disagreement about the Jewish community's leadership in Ashkelon. Describes how a group of community members appointed a new cantor (hazzan) without the approval of David b. Daniel, the Jews' leader. Avraham b. Ḥalfon b. Nahum, the official hazzan, tried to get to a compromise between both sides but failed. The writer describes that Avraham b. Ḥalfon (Ibrāhīm b. Khalaf) is not accepted by the community, nor even by the leadership in Fustat. The hazzan is not from Ashkelon, but Gaza, and they ask the head of the Jews in Egypt to appoint a new hazzan and leader in Ashkelon. (Information from M. Cohen, Shalem, 3, pp.103-105) VMR

Recto: Fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Legible phrases: "... worse than... a terrible danger... in other news... R. Natan... to Fustat with a letter... the [Exi]larch.... Verso: Accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, possibly in a neater version of the same handwriting. On this side, the alephs at least look like those of Yosef b. Shemuel b. Seʿadya ha-Levi (ca. 1181–1209). Might be communal accounts for revenue from rentals (e.g., al-ṭabaqa) for Sivan and Tammuz. Mentions names such as Umm Baqāʾ and Murajjā. (Information in part from CUDL)

Fragment of a communal letter. Four lines preserved. Wide space between the lines. Refers to the presence of the shekhina when people gather to study, all the more so when they gather for prayer in the synagogue. (Information in part from CUDL)

Informal note addressed to Mukarram and Abū Manṣūr. In Judaeo-Arabic. They are requested to convey the dinar they had pledged for the first installment of the capitation tax to al-Shaykh al-Makīn Abū l-ʿIzz al-Levi. It will be used to pay the capitation tax of a cantor. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p. 511)

Fragment of a Judaeo-Arabic letter. Includes the intriguing instructions: "Please go to . . . [and find] the female slave named Ḥidhq and greet her . . . and give her the letter and tell her to deliver it to the house where she slept. . . This is my greatest request. Do not give it to someone who will deceive me and [deliver it] to the mother of the boy (?)." ASE.

Letter of Mūsā b. Abū l-Ḥayy, Alexandria, to Yosef b. Mūsā ha-Taherti, in Fusṭāṭ (c. 1065 CE). (Information from CUDL)

Recto: Faded business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Mentions "the rest of the dirhams" and "I say they are recorded in his ledger." Verso: In a different hand, a draft of a letter of condolence in Judaeo-Arabic.

Either a poetic introduction to a letter from the Yeshiva of Jerusalem to the community of Aleppo, or a letter that is in its entirety a poem. Recto contains the poem, in which not only is there an acrostic (אנשי צב. . . probably "the people of Aleppo"), but also each verse is composed entirely of words starting with the same letter. Verso contains the address

Letter from Avraham b. Yaʿaqov. In Judaeo-Arabic, prefaced with a Judaeo-Arabic basmala. Dating: Might be 11th century. Refers to the addressees' coming from al-Ramla. Otherwise consists mostly of greetings. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makmūrī (Fustat) to ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣedaqa (Alexandria), ca. 1050. Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makmūrī asks ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣedaqa to secretly find out if his brother-in-law is planning to send him any merchandise. ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣedaqa wrote some draft accounts in the free space left on the verso of the letter. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 56. See Goiteins notes linked below.)

Recto: end of a letter and postscript, advising Yefet the cantor to come to the entrance of the yeshiva. Verso: jottings in Hebrew and Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Labrat b. Moshe b. Sugmar, from Susa, to his brother, Yehuda, probably in Alexandria. Summer 1056. The writer expresses his greetings and several advices to his brother’s marriage. Writes important information about several things.The destruction and exile of the Jewish community in Qayrawan. The information about R. Nissim b. Ya’akov, that took R. Hananel position, after he passed away (probably in 1055). And about Yehosef b. Shemuel the Nagid and his high position with the ruler Badis b. Habus, after Yehosf’s father’s passing (probably in Iyar at the same year). The town Sousse, which the writer currently stays in, is under a siege from the sea. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #613) VMR

Letter to Abū l-Faraj [...] Yaʿaqov b. David, Fusṭāṭ. In a calligraphic Hebrew opening with a poem. Fragment of the beginning. The address on verso is in Arabic.

Recto: part of a Judaeo-Arabic letter, complaining about the lack of letters from the addressee and explaining that a letter had been sent to the Ḥaver on Wednesday 22nd Kislev. Verso: part of an Arabic document. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: order of payment by Shelomo (b. Elijah the judge) either for wine or a medicinal syrup (שראב). Verso: letter in Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Small fragment of a letter, probably late (on paper lined with red ink), mentioning Nasi Galiyot Yehuda ve-Yisrael.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper margin of recto and part of the address on verso). The addressee should send the response with "the fleet" (al-uṣṭūl). Regards to various people, including "(the friend of?) my wife (ṣāḥibat baytnā) Sitt al-Shām the daughter of the son of Hiba." Mentions a woman who is all alone; the addressee should urge her family to come visit her. (Information in part from CUDL)