Geniza Lab

Letter from Eliyyahu b. Kalev b. Leon, a Byzantine, to the Egyptian Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya. Written en route to Cairo, Eliyyahu complains of the dearth of learning among the Egyptian Jews and their laxity of observance. (Information from Goitein's index cards and Ben Outhwaite, “Byzantines in the Cairo Genizah,” in Jewish Reception of Greek Bible Versions, ed. Nicholas de Lange, et. al., 208) EMS

Beginning of a letter from Shemuel b. Hofni (977-1013) to Avraham and Tanhum, the sons of Yaʿaqov, in Fez, Morocco, in excellent calligraphic script. Dated August or September 1004. (Information from Gil and Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 19, 430)

Letter by the Jewish community of the village of Qalha, Egypt, apparently to Eli ha-Kohen b. Yahya in Fustat, 2nd half of the 11th century. The Jews of Qalḥa report to the Parnas in Fustat that Abū ʿImrān Mūsa b. Yequtiel arrived in their village on 17 Tammuz, injured and/or sick from the violence he experienced during the nahb (plunder) of Fayyūm. In addition he was robbed of everything by robbers near the village. He died a few weeks later, in Av. One of his two wives and the daughter of the other died also. The remaining wife was brought to Fustat at the expense of the community, because she had a cousin (ibn ʿamm) there. The little boy could not live in the village because of the Kushim (Sudanese soldiers?). Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter written in a beautiful hand, requesting that the bearer receive help in selling his cheese, which was prepared in the prescribed manner. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Abu al-Hayy b. Barhun Khalila, in al-Mahdiyya, to Barhun b. Musa Tahirti, reporting several losses of ships and merchandise. (Information from Gil)

Letter from the Karaite David b. Ḥayyūn, in Jerusalem, to Yosef b. Yaʿaqov, in Tripoli (Libya). Dating: Probably middle of the 11th century. The sender confirms receipt of something that was sent with his sister's son Ismāʿīl, and he thanks the addressee. He emphasizes that he prays for him at all times, including when he goes up to the Mount of Olives and when he is at 'the gates of mercy.'

Letter from Salmān b. Hārūn, al-Faḍl and Avraham b. Farrāḥ, Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Early 1054 (Gil). Salmān b. Hārūn, who had married into the al-Qābisī family, asks Nahray to collect debts for him from various people in Fustat, and to help his sister's son, Yosef b. Peraḥ al-Qābisī, to buy goods with said money. If there isn't enough money, Salmān instructs, then he should sell a quantity of soap deposited with in Fustat with a wakīl. Al-Faḍl then asks Nahray to run other errands related to clearing up a conflict with a certain Abū al-Surūr, which precipitated the severance of his relationship with Yosef b. ʿEli ha-Kohen al-Fāsī. The third writer, Avraham b. Farrāḥ, adds to the letter permission from the tax authorities to import raisins (from Syria?) and the khums related to them. The letter also mentions the Muslim shipowner Abū ʿAbdallāh b. al-Baʿbāʿ, here called Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. On the dating: in Gil's introduction to his edition he claims that the letter dates to some months after Bodl. MS Heb. d 66/ 81, since it contains similar information; however, in that same introduction, Gil dates this letter to early 1054, but in his introduction to Bodl. MS Heb. d 66/ 81, he dates it to October 1056; and to make matters even more confusing, in Kingdom, secs. 315–316, he says this letter dates to ca. 1057. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #771)

Note in the hand of Daniel b. Azarya to Eli, the parnas of Fustat, concerning aid for a poor man, Wahb of the city of Raqqa, ca. 1051-1062.

Letter from Yeshua b. Isma’il al-Makhmuri from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The writer describes the event when the regime’s soldiers forced him to pay debt in Fustat’s port. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #315) VMR

Beginning of a letter by the Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya (in office 1140-1159) to the community of al-Mahalla, written in the hand of Shemuel b. Natan. Praises their charitability. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Draft of a letter from Fustat to Daniel b. Azarya, concerning "tarima" - a room or apartment, made of wood, that was added to the house's top floor. The writer complains against Ali b. Amram. Around 1060 (Gil estimation). Verso: Arabic document, probably a letter. (Information from CUDL) VMR

Recto: Letter from Natan b. Avraham, in which he urges his supporters to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, lest their party be underrepresented, mentioning the ḥaver Avraham b. Shela. Dating: summer 1039 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Letter by Avraham b. Natan ('ata) concerning the disorder in Tunis and concerning the burial of his father in Jerusalem, 1st quarter of the 11th century.

Letter from Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, in Qalyūb, to his brother Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Alexandria. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: Monday, 3 Iyyar [4900 AM], which is 22 April 1140 CE. Written on a reused state document in Arabic script. (Information from India Book 4. Hebrew description below. Qalyūb

Letter by Daniel b. Azarya, apparently in Ramla, to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Ishaq b. Furat, ca. 1054.

Complete business letter from Nissim b. Yiṣḥaq al-Tahirti, probably in Mahdiyya, to Musa b. Abi al-Hayy Khalila in Fustat. Dated September 1051. (Information from Gil)

End of a calligraphic business letter copied by Masliah b. Eliyyahu. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in which Eli b. 'Amram invites a scholar to give a lecture in the synagogue on the following Saturday and requests a prompt reply. Dated to the third quarter of the 11th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 218, 568, and Goitein's index cards.) There appear to be two different folios sharing the same shelfmark. Also under this shelfmark: (1) A draft of a legal document concerning a woman called Mubāraka who had sold her maidservant for 20 and a half dinars and had given the money to her brother as capital for a business trip, but was then sued by her husband as only 10 of the 20 and a half dinars were her dowry, so she empowered her husband to sue her brother for the remaining 10 and a half dinars and profits; (2) a letter to a Ḥaver; and (3) a letter in Arabic script. Information from CUDL. Needs further examination.

Mevorakh (inference) explaining the circumstances surrounding the sale, at less than their value, of some items in an estate belonging to the heirs. T-S 10J9.33

Recto (secondary use): Letter containing a poem addressed a dignitary. In Hebrew. Possibly a token of gratitude for help that the sender received. The letter's main purpose was to wish good health upon the addressee who had fallen ill. "The anonymous poet, who laments that he could not offer a real “gift” (teshura), calls his composition a type of sacrifice pleasing unto God: 'May the Lord of praises prepare healing balm and all types of remedies . . . and strengthen the respected, beneficent leader, the choice of His people, a turban upon all of the communities. To bring you a gift (teshura) is not in my power, though I was determined and constituted it as prayer (samtiha tefilot) pleasing before the face of God as an offering (qorban); may it be considered like a sacrifice (zevaḥ) and burnt offering (ʿolot). It heals like spell-inducing water! We sing a song like the song over the splitting of the depths (i.e., the Song of the Sea, Exodus 15), and the daughters of my people go out with timbrels and drums and sing amid dance.'" Translation by Jonathan Decter, Dominion Built of Praise, 88. (Information in part from Goitein's index cards.)