Geniza Lab

Note from Yefet b. Yosef (both son and father are called "teacher," melammed) to Abu Zikri the physician, the son of Eliyyahu the judge asking him to send the tutty (zinc oxide for ophthalmic use) that he had promised the writer before his departure. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Saʿīd to al-Raṣuy, in which he asks in the most humble terms to be paid the fees due to him by the community for children sent to his school. (Same person, named Sa'id, wrote a letter to Avraham Maimuni T-S NS 324.35. AA) NB: Goitein sometimes referred to this fragment as BL OR 5542.23. (See Med Soc II, App. B, doc. 98.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, dealing almost entirely with the sale of small quantities of silk. Mentions doing business in upper Egypt (al-Ṣaʿīd, and also mentions wheat and a boat. Mentions people such as Shabbat, Abū l-Yumn, the addressee's brother-in-law Abū Yiṣḥāq, Abū l-Ḥasan, Abū Saʿīd b. Thābit (perhaps the same as in T-S 13J16.10). Address not preserved. (Information in part from Goitein's note card.)

Recto: Letter of a dyer to his father. The clothes he had sent to Tinnīs had been taken (?). The ship in which they had been sent was returning to Damietta and he would go there by land. Danger was everywhere on the roads. Nothing should be sent now. ʿAyyāsh and others had sent clothes. Asks Yona al-Maghribi to pay him for he was now out of work. Information from Goitein's note card. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script. State/fiscal?

Part of a copy of the same letter that is preserved in full in T-S 16.345, a letter from Mahruz to Sulayman b. Abu Zikri Kohen before sailing back to India. Aden, ca. 1137-1147.

Note in the hand of Nissim b. Iṣḥaq al-Tāhirtī, ca. 1050, written for himself and for Nahray b. Nissim. Records details of a shipment of beads, pearls and wax. Half of the note is in Hebrew characters and the other half is in Arabic characters. Verso is blank. See Goitein notes linked below. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 338 and Goitein, typed texts.)

Business letter in Arabic script from Avraham ben Khalaf, probably from Alexandria, to Abū al-Faḍl Sahl b. Ḥasan b. Salāma al-Sukkarī in Fustat. Datable to ca. 1062 on the basis of a reference to cotton turbans, which are mentioned in other letters written ca. 1062. Discusses the balance of a debt of Mūsā b. Yaḥyā al-Majjānī for the goods of the addressee. The writer asks the addressee to make some purchases for him, but not having received the goods he requests that the money be given to Mūsā b. Abī al-Ḥayy instead. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 320.) Mentions that seven cotton turbans for the price of eighty quarter-dinars have been sent to the addressee with Abū Zakariyā Yehuda b. Menashshe. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Index cards.)

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim. Dating: ca. 1060. The writer is interested in buying tin because it is in demand among traders from Palestine. The letter contains some personal details about Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī, who became widowed and was alone for a long time before getting married again to a sister of ʿEzra b. Hillel. He has also been suffering from an illness that affected his hip (wark). Those who visited him 'frightened' him (by despairing of his health). He is doing somewhat better than before and asks for Nahray's prayers. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 18. See Goitein notes linked below.) ASE.

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to the merchant Abū l-Fakhr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Abū l-Fakhr had asked Shelomo how much he should pay him every day, evidently for working as an assistant in his shop. Shelomo responds that he is only asking for the standard rate that the boys (ṣibyān, ghilmān) in the shops (dakākīn) receive, and he defers to Abū l-Fakhr to pay what is fair.

Letter from Yosef b. Yaʿaqov al-Iṭrābulusī (Alexandria) to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov b. ʿAwkal (Fustat). Gives information about ships arriving in Egypt, their consignments and passengers. Mentions shipments of flax (probably on their way to Sicily or Maghreb), which were kept in Alexandria in the dār al-sulṭān, and shipments of wax, bought by the sultan. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, p. 492.) About Ifrīqiyan goods sent to Rosetta. Beginning of 11th century. (Information from S. D. Goitein, Index cards.)

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef Yiju to Abū l-Fakhr Seʿadya [b. Avraham Ibn al-Amshāṭī]. In Hebrew (for the introduction) and Judaeo-Arabic (for the body). This is an extremely deferential letter thanking Abū l-Fakhr for helping Peraḥya's son Yosef 'and his orphan girl,' in the same way that Abū l-Fakhr had helped Peraḥya himself in the past. Information from Friedman and Goitein, India Book III, 41–42 n. 40.

Letter from a cantor or teacher to his boss in Cairo. The cantor had been “accused of having assembled a group of young men and danced a zuhdī dance with them" — presumably an allegation of homosexual behavior. The cantor lived in a small place outside Cairo, but on learning that his boss had been informed, he immediately set off for the city. “I contracted fever and, following it, dizziness. When I was about to recover, I received a note from you that you had heard about me that I assemble young men and dance a zuhdi dance with them. When I learned about this matter, I became alarmed and relapsed. I decided to go to Cairo to clear my honor from that talk about me; but when I arrived at the Nile, I fainted. Such an occurrence is not unknown. But I wish to clear my honor against the one who told this about me. If people have indeed given witness about this, whatever I shall be obliged to do, I shall [not] dodge.” On the reverse side, where the sender would normally include well wishes for the deliverer, the cantor wrote “Cursed be he who does not bring this to the attention of R. Joseph.” Information from Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, Volume 5, 202-203, and from Alexandra Kersley ('19), seminar paper on homosexuality in the Geniza, Fall 2018.

Note from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his brother, the physician Abū Zikrī, written in an extremely cursive script. He informs Abū Zikrī that the turban and ten rings (or seals) have arrived. The old woman (their mother Sitt Rayḥān?) is ill with a cough, headache, fever, and chills. ASE.

Yizhaq ha-Kohen al-Nafusi (from Nafusa, Libya) who was thrown off by a donkey and was lying in the building of the synagogue of Alexandria without being able to work asks Moshe Tiferet ha-Kohanim for help. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from Yeshuʿa b. Ismaʿīl al-Makhmūrī (Alexandria) to Nahray b. Nissim, ca. 1060. The writer tells Nahray b. Nissim about the news in Alexandria and informs him about the arrival of traders from Byzantium. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 4.) The Byzantine traders cannot access the quality of the goods and buy high and low quality goods for the same price. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter of appeal for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. Possibly a formulary, in the most general terms, written in large, monumental script. (Information from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, in Fustat, to his relative and in-law Abū l-Faraj, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Opens with the usual expressions of longing. The sender reports that his wife (ahl al-bayt) is well. The sender is agitated that the addressee is staying in Alexandria "in the middle of the prison/captivity" (fī wuṣṭ al-ḥabs) and urges him to try to get out of Alexandria and save himself, because the news from there is dire. "May God the exalted reassure our hearts and your hearts for the sake of His name, and not cast you into the hands of your enemies." Greetings to "our father" Abū l-Ḥasan; to al-shaykh al-najīb al-ḥakīm (the physician) Abū l-Barakāt; to "the boy" and his wife or family (ahl baytih); to "my maternal aunt" Umm Abū l-ʿIzz and her son Abū l-ʿIzz. The sender's wife (ahl al-bayt) yearns for Umm Abū l-ʿIzz and sends her regards. The next part of the letter is in her voice; she rebukes the addressee for not sending her a letter ever since she left. She continues, "Give my regards to the neighbors.. greetings to my paternal uncle and to his son ("renewed to him" (?)) and to his wife, and to my grandfather (jiddī) Abū l-Ḥasan and to my (grand?)mother (sittī) and to my maternal uncle Abū l-ʿIzz, and I miss you all greatly. The next part might still be her voice, or might be back in the voice of Shelomo. "O Abū l-Faraj, please let us know the news of the house... the documents of rent in the name of my sister Milāḥ the wife of Abū l-F[...]... in her share, the quarter of the aforementioned house, and do not neglect. (Identification of the scribe from Goitein’s index card.)

Letter from Eliyya ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov al-Siqillī to Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Isḥāq Al-Mutaṭabbib Ibn Furāt, in Ramla. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Dating: ca. 1050 CE. The sender is an old, sick man in a foreign land who asks for (unspecified) help. Ends with the rhyming motto ישע יוחש לעם שאין בו נחש (an allusion to Numbers 23:23).

A letter from Abū Zikrī (also called al-Samaw'al) in which he informs al-shaykh al-rashid al-Shemuʾel that upon returning from traveling, he was informed that he held a debt of 95 dinars as a result of false accusations by witnesses against his son Avraham, who lost 132 dinars. He asks al-Rashid to ask the Nagid Avraham what to do. He also congratulates the recipient on his recovery from his illness or injury. On the verso, he includes another question for the Nagid regarding owing 3 dinars of interest a month, and mentions his own illness. (Information from Goitein’s index card and PGP researchers AE and OZ)

Calligraphic letter to Abu 'Ali Ḥasan b. Surur b. 'Eli, also known as Yefet b. Sasson (and also had a son named Sasson), confirming that 9 7/8 dinars collected for orphans in the recipient's community had been properly delivered, together with other sums collected by the writer, to Rabbenu Hillel Nezer ha-Nesi'ut Rosh Kalah. See Med Soc III, IX, C, 4, n. 142. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.