Geniza Lab

Letter in Hebrew with wide space between the lines. Fragment.

Letter from someone calling himself Ra's al-Kull (in the address) to somebody in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Needs examination.

Small fragment of a letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Only the opening greetings are preserved. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter in Ladino. Fragment from the end of the letter. Mentions Damietta, and includes well wishes for numerous contacts and family members.

Letter from Yefet b. Menashshe to his brother or brothers. In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment (upper right corner of recto). He complains about separation and neglect. (Information in part from CUDL)

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Mentions Abū l-Faraj Yeshuʿa b. Yaʿaqov.

Letter in Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic to Wuhayb b. Avraham and Saʿīd b. [...]. Fragment.

Tiny fragment containing an order for an ounce of ʿaqīd (a dense sugar syrup). In Judaeo-Arabic. From Abū Zikrī Kohen? There is also some text in Arabic script.

Letter of recommendation for charity. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer asks the addressee to arrange a collection (jibāya) to raise funds for the letter-bearer, the cantor Elʿazar b. Yoshiyya. The congregation should also solicit from people who are absent from the synagogue. Ends with the motto "Yeshuʿa."

Recto: part of a letter. Verso: a long list of names, in a different hand, among them Abū l-Faraj, Yeshuʿa b. Joseph, ʿEli b. Shemarya, and Shemarya and Ṣedaqa the sons of Ṣadoq. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef Yijū to Saadya b. Avraham Ibn al-Amshāṭī. Fragment. Dating: ca. 1160s. Same writer and addressee: Moss. VII,152.1, ENA 4020.1, ENA 4011.32. He expresses hope that someone will make a complete convalescence (yanqah naqah kullī) and asks the addressee to send a letter on his behalf to the son of the faqīh Manṣūr, it seems to ask for a prescription.

Business letter in which the sender writes that he is concerned after meeting in Qus a business relation to whom he was able to sell three dinars worth of white linen while the buyer also paid him thirty-two dinars minus one fourth.

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef to Saadya b. Avraham Ibn al-Amshāṭī. Fragment. The letter is prefaced with three short decorated lines of biblical quotations. Address on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Fragment from the opening of a short letter or note, addressed to Abū l-Munā and speaking about the price of parchment. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Avraham b. Farāḥ, in Alexandria, to Abu Yūsuf Yaʿqūb, probably in Fustat. Around 1055. The addressee sold dinars that he received from the writer. The writer mentions several shipments of letters. Another person added in the margins that he stayed in Busir from Adar 5 to Adar 20. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #558) VMR

Business letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. The writer excuses himself from something on account of his illness (ḍuʿfī) and worry (shughl sirrī).

See PGPID 5271 for description. Goitein's transcription is here, Frenkel's there.

Letter from Meir b. Hillel b. Sadoq to a prominent figure in Fustat, probably Sar Shalom ha-Levi Gaon. The identification of the writer is based on his style and handwriting. The writer is hesitant in accepting a post he was granted in Alexandria because it would entail parting from his son. The letter mentions one of the most famous jurists of Alexandria, the faqīh Ibn ʿAwf. Frenkel identifies this man with the Mālikī jurist Abū Ṭāhir Ismāʿīl b. Makkī b. ʿĪsā b. ʿAwf of Alexandria (d. 1188), who was one of Saladin's teachers. The same faqīh is also mentioned in T-S 12.290 and T-S 16.272. Dating: Before 1188 CE, based on the identification of the faqīh. The letter also mentions a blind person, a 'rabbenu ha-qodesh', Alexandria, as well as ahl al-Maḥalla.

Fragment of a letter from Yosef b. Berekhya, probably to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal, Fustat. Around 1020. Mentions a shipment of money and papers, probably question to the Babylonian Yeshiva. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #151) VMR

Recto: (1) Official letter to Damīra. In Judaeo-Arabic. The cantor Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef is requested to look into the case of Eliyya b. Naḥum ha-Kohen and his marriage to the daughter of Abū l-Ḥasan his maternal uncle. The nature of the doubts about the marriage are not fully clear; see Goitein's notes and attached transcription for more information. Verso: Additional legal/official notes, including (2) an order to Damīra to forward "rasm al-siyyum," i.e., the money collected at a siyyum, and (3) a legal record certifying that Naẓar bt. Dāʾūd gives her son 1/4 of a house which her husband had given her for her ketubba (with certain conditions). (Information from Goitein notes and index card linked below.)