Geniza Lab

Letter (petition) asking for help to free the writer’s brother who apparently had been incarcerated for failing to pay the capitation tax (here, called kharāj). Dating: 11th century. The spelling is phonetic and possibly somewhat archaic: the definite article lacks lām before sun-letters, and many of the short vowels are written plene. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index cards)

Letter. Appeal written from prison by the son of Avraham to Yosef, Yiṣḥaq and Yehuda, sons of Menahem, in Hebrew. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in Hebrew from Yusuf, a scholar with minimal assets and now in a perilous situation because of debts, dependents, and sureties on his behalf. He requests a donation and prays for his would-be benefactor with the expression, “May you never be ashamed in your life.” (Mark Cohen, Voices of the Poor, 74) EMS

Letter from Yisrael B. Natan, Jerusalem, to Nahray B. Nissim, Fustat. Includes details about the agreement between Daniel B. Azarya and the brothers Yosef and Eliya the Cohanim, sons of Shelomo Gaon. December 20, 1051. VMR

Letter from a member of the Ibn Muhājir family, probably in Seville, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1128 CE. There are many expressions of longing. The substance of the letter deals with business matters. Ḥalfon had sent a letter with Yiṣḥaq b. ʿOvadya and asked the addressee to hand over the money which Avraham al-Qalʿī (apparently also of Seville) owed to Ḥalfon. Ibn Muhājir reports that he fulfilled the request and handed over 10 'ṭari' mithqāls. The sender excuses his delay by explaining that he had to go to Labla (=Niebla) and apparently obtain some of the money owed from there. (Information from India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter fragment with quotes from Psalms 56:11 and 101:1. Between the first and fourth lines, another seven lines have been inserted by another hand in an untidy manner with a number of crossings out. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Daniel b. Aharon in Jerusalem to Shemuʾel (Shemuel) b. Aharon, 11th century.

Letter from a husband to his wife after she bore him a daughter while he temporarily left her, waiting until her father gave the couple the twenty dinars he had promised them. The sender expresses his joy and his gratitude to God for the safe delivery by his wife. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 218-219 and partial translation in Mediterranean Society, III, p. 228)

Recto: Letter in Judeao-Arabic. Complaint to a Nagid about utterances made in public, it seems by Abu al-Barakat, which even women were able to hear. Verso: Document concerning financial issues in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat, to Abu al-Faraj Yeshu'a b. Ismail, Upper Egypt. The recipient is buying goods. Nahray writes with the news of Abu Imran's death, to confirm that Abu al-Faraj has the money from previous trades, and to discuss future ones.

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Sedaqa in Tripoli, Libya, to the physician Shemuel in Cairo, thanking him for his ransom when the sender was captured by the Normans in Jerba, Ifrīqiya. Yiṣḥaq writes Shemuel that he married the daughter of his paternal uncle and that his father sold their house in Jerba for ninety dinars as a result of famine and to cover debts. Dated October 1136. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 30, 117-118, 150; IV, p. 283)

Letter requesting authorisation of a collection on behalf of an orphan girl about to marry. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a community written in calligraphy to a muqaddam who had been disobeyed and humiliated in his new post asking him to return to them. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in the hand of Shabbetay b. Avraham addressed to the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya. Asking him to obtain a caliphal rescript stopping the local governor from charging the sugar cooks twice the normal price for raw sugar (qand). Dating: ca. 1150 CE. Lines 1–6 and verso are written on T-S 10J15.29; lines 7–18 on T-S 10J15.32. (Information from Goitein, Mediterranean Society II, 45–46, 531.)

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanʾel in Alexandria to Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Ḥalfon ha-Levi b. Netanʾel to Ibn Barukh, Almeria. Asks him to handle a shipment that the judge Elʿazar al-Qaṣabī has sent from Fustat to his brother in al-Yusāna. Similar to a letter on the same matter to another dignitary (see India Book 4 doc. 62). (Information from Goitein and Friedman) Maybe Alexandria; End of 1139 - Middle of 1140

Letter. Hebrew verses praising an official connected to the government. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter to a physician, mentioning Saadya and Abu Mansur and the sender's longing for a third person. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yahya b. Musa al-Majjani, al-Mahdiyya, to Barhun b. Salih al-Tahirti, Cairo, asking him to intervene on his behalf against Ibn Farah al-Fasi and Abu l-Husayn al-Mubarak b. Ishaq regarding the estate of al-Shiraji. Dated 1045. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter of condolence to Abu al-Faraj Yeshua b. Shabbatay on the death of his father. The letter starts with four Bible quotations (line 1, Dt. 32:4; line 2, Dt. 32:39; line 3, Lam. 5:14; line 4, Ps. 145:17). "The reason for his death was his 'movement' and agitation and distress (ḥaraka, tanaqqul, inziʿāj) in the state he was in of weakness and illness." ASE