Geniza Lab

Letter from Ḥalfon ha-Kohen b. Yehuda ha-Kohen to Abu al-Farah Arus b. Yosef about the troubles he underwent after leaving for a business trip. On the way by boat his wares were drenched and spoiled. He also reports about a business dispute with a third person which was solved by way of a settlement out of court. (Information and translation from Goitein, Letters)

Letter from Zikri b. Abu al-Rida, the perfume seller, to Abu al-Mahasin, a tailor and weaver, dealing with financial business and referring to several textiles. The letter ends with an announcement of a wedding: 'the little one will enter her house by the end of this month. (verso lines 7-8) (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 115)

Letter from Yeshua b. Yaʿaqov to Avraham Ibn Yiju regarding the death of Madmun b. Yefet, Dhu Jibla, 1151.

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Yosef Yerushalmi to Abu al-Mansur Elazar the scribe from whom the writer asks a favor. The letter opens with six lines of Hebrew poetry and also has four lines of poetry in the body of the text (lines 13-16) which is mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter concerning business matters containing many greetings. The sender writes that pieces of parchment have arrived from North Africa. The rest of the parchments will be sent to the recipient with Ishaq b. Abu Munajja.

Verso: Letter from Hananya b. Yehuda to Yehi'el the judge b. Elyaqim. The writer asks the addressee to come to Jerusalem and decide in a legal matter. Recto: Part of the (draft of) the opening of a badly written letter. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment written by Sahlān b. Abraham, quoting from Jeremiah 17:17 and Zephaniah 3:12. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Makhlūf b. Musa ibn al-Yatim, Alexandria, to Abu Yiṣḥaq Avraham b. Yahya Fasi, Fustat. The main part of the letter is an apology that the recipient was not met and was not bidden farewell before his departure to Fustat. The intended meeting point was Bab al-Sidara, the entrance to Alexandria from the mainland. (Information from Frenkel.) Goitein adds that the recipient was Abu Yiṣḥaq Avraham b. Yahya Fasi. The writer castigated the addressee for choosing the wrong company and excused himself for not seeing him off on account of the bad weather and his toothache, which he describes in graphic detail (see Med. Soc. 5:108, 248). Makhlūf accidentally wrote part of a letter intended for another person on the verso of this letter, then crossed it out and explained what had happened underneath.

Letter from Mansur b. Salim in Alexandria to a friend in Cairo inquiring about his son, who had run away to the army and had perhaps travelled as far as Yemen. See also T-S 10J13.10 and T-S Ar.18(1).137, letters by the same sender concerning the same matter. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, p. 379)

Rect: Letter concerning an order for pieces of clothing which the writer had sent but the addressee had not confirmed receiving. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 408). Verso: Arabic jottings. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Ovadiah in the inn to Abu 'Amran in rhymed prose. On verso is an address in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL)

Recto: Letter containing greetings to several people. (Information from Goitein's index cards) Verso: Magical text, Shimmush Tehillim, 13th-century. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Moshe b. Yosef Yiju, in Alexandria, to his brother Perahya in Fustat. Sent to the shop of Abū l-Faḵr the perfumer b. Abraham. Written probably around June 29, 1155.

Letter from Farah b. Yosef Qabisi in Alexandria to Abu al-'Ala Sa'id b. Naja al-Dimashqi ('Ulla ha-Levi b. Yosef). Dating: ca. 1065. Concerns the dispatch of three consignments of merchandise. (Information from Gil, and Goitein's index cards)

Letter in Hebrew with introductory phrases of appeal. Closes with verses about the ephemeral nature of wealth and the mitzvah of charity. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from a certain Yosef, probably in Fustat, to Yosef b. Josiah. The writer expresses disappointment at the fact that the addressee has changed his mind and would not give a donation which he promised to give.

Letter from Yeshua ha-Kohen b. Yaʿaqov, in Dhu Jibla, Yemen, to Avraham Ibn Yiju regarding the renting of a house. Around 1150-51.

Letter from the sister of Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī, in Tripoli, Libya, to her brother Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī. In the handwriting of ʿAllūsh the shammash. Dating: ca. 1065. While Yeshuʿa is dealing with the import and export of goods, his sister asks for help because she is in a very bad situation. T-S 10J19.20 is another version of the same letter (differences are noted in curly brackets in this partial translation). "I have been waiting all year for a letter from you to learn your news. The fuyūj came, and I did not see a letter. {This increased the preoccupation of my heart.} I went out to inquire about your news, and they told me you were ill (ḍaʿīf). I went out of my mind. {I fasted and wept and did not change my clothing or enter the bath, neither I nor your sister.} I vowed not to eat during the day, not to change my clothing, and not to enter the bath, neither I nor my daughter, until your letter arrived with your news. The ships arrived, and I went down, with my hand on my heart, to hear your news. The men came down and told us that you were well. I thanked God who made the end good." Goitein, and later Krakowski, used this letter to illustrate the intense affective bonds between brother and sister, as well as the notion of fasting as an intercession for a loved one who is sick (Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 97). Yet it is also the case that their relationship has lapsed—the brother has not contacted the sister in a year, not even sending greetings in his letter to Tammām ("my heart was wounded by this"). In the meantime, she has fallen into terrible financial difficulties. Her vows of self-negation and insistent repetition of "I have nobody except God and you" are also a demonstration of how much the sister has suffered from the brother's behavior, how much she thinks about him despite his neglect, and an attempt to elicit a response from him at last. Regarding the specifics of her financial difficulties, see Krakowski, Coming of Age, p. 150, where the relevant passage is translated: "My brother, I have become embroiled in a quagmire from which I do not think we can be freed—I and a young orphan girl (i.e., her daughter). What occurred was that my son-in-law (i.e., the girl’s fiancé) wintered in Salerno and returned only with the Egyptian ships; then he said to me, “I will take the girl.” I said to him, “What are you thinking? As I was this year, I have nothing.” Then people advised me that I should borrow and incur debt (i.e., for a lavish dowry) and give her to him, because the Rūm (i.e., Normans) have burnt the world. Now . . . if free persons could be sold for dirhams, I would be the first to be sold, for I cannot describe my predicament to you . . . (I swear) by these lines that when Passover came I had not even a farthing’s worth of chard, nor even a dirham; instead I cut a nettle from the ruins and cooked it. . . . My brother, help me with some portion of this debt engulfing me—do not abandon me and do not forsake me." Yeshuʿa b. Ismāʿīl al-Makhmūrī, incidentally, was prone to illness: see also T-S 16.163 and T-S Misc.25.124 (as noted by Krakowski), and T-S 12.389 and BL OR 5542.20. (Information largely from Goitein, Gil, and Krakowski.) VMR. ASE.

Letter starting with extensive blessings for the recipient in Hebrew, including a biblical quotation (l. 7, Dt 30:1), and thanking the addressee for the great favor he extended to the writer.

Letter from Avraham b. Saadya to Moshe b. Avraham (Barhun) al-Taharti in Fustat, who is about to sail from Qayrawan to Jerusalem. The writer wants to meet his son-in-law Ishaq. The letter contains several biblical quotations (line 1, Ps 20:3; line 2, Gen. 24:7; line 7, Ps 91:4). (Information from Gil)