Geniza Lab

Letter from an unknown merchant from Fustat to his partner Yahya in the Maghreb. Around 1050. The writer complains about his partner and his work in the Maghreb, al-Qayrawān, and Sicily. The writer writes instructions regarding shipment of flax and use of money. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #813) VMR

Upper half of a long letter in Hebrew from the congregation of Jerusalem to Elḥanan b. Shemarya (d. ca.1025)

Recto: opening of a Hebrew letter, with much of the text illegible. The poetic opening is neatly arranged in two columns, with extended letters, and the main text has a reference to prisoners. Verso: probably a draft of another Hebrew letter. Written inverted in relation to the main text, there seems to be the draft of a Judaeo-Arabic legal document. (Information from GRU catalogue via FGP.)

Letter, in Judaeo-Arabic with an opening in Hebrew, from Yoshiyyahu Gaon to Shelomo b. Sa'adya and the community of Rafah, concerning a dispute over an inheritance that drove the losing party to appeal to the Muslim court, approximately 1020. (Information from CUDL)

Draft of a letter of recommendation by Eliyyahu Ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, on behalf of the scribe of the Yeshiva, Shemuel b. Semah the cantor (left side). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yehuda b. Yosef (of Qayrawān, active 990s–1030s). In Judaeo-Arabic. Written on parchment. Mentions "my partner" Barhūn b. Faraḥ. The left side of the letter is damaged, and it is difficult to understand the content.

Letter to the Gaon, probably from Aleppo, complaining that the Gaon is paying too much heed to those who slander the writer, approximately 1035. Verso: Very faded and mostly illegible text, possibly liturgical or a sermon. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Musa b. Barhun al-Tahirti to Yosef b. Awkal and to his sons Hillel and Benjamin.

Letter of the Berekhya brothers to Ibn 'Awkal concerning loss of friendship between them and concerning the inheritance of an emancipated slave.

Letter sent from Saʿd, in Egypt, to his son-in-law Aharon, in Seleucia in Byzantine Asia Minor. Saʿd had believed his son-in-law to be dead, killed by 'the enemy' (the Byzantines), but was happy to receive a letter from him. Saʿd chastises Aharon for his absence from his wife and children for 23 years (!). Oded Zinger suggests that Aharon's letter after all that time may have been spurred by a serious illness (ll.22–23) and a desire to gain forgiveness before he died (Zinger, "Long Distance Marriages in the Cairo Geniza," Peʿamim, p. 27). Saʿd then, in response to Aharon's question 'about the water', informs him that 'the Nile has flooded and is at peace' and that the price of bread is an acceptable 12 raṭls for a dirham. He writes that 'Egypt is the garden of the Lord'. (Information from CUDL and S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:58, 405.) EMS. ASE.

Letter addressed to two judges. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. The writer complains about people who are interfering with his business and damaging his clientele. Information from Goitein's note card.

Family letter from Sāʾir b. Yosef al-Kharazī (the dealer in beads) to Khalfūn b. Rabʿūn. Carried by Yaʿqūb al-Andalusī. In Judaeo-Arabic. On parchment. Dating: 11th century. Per Goitein's index card, the sender asks the addressee to "come down" to Fustat after years of absence. But it is also possible that the sender is in Ifrīqiyya and he is just referring to someone who "went down to Egypt." (Information from Goitein's index card.) Needs further examination.

Recto: Letter from Yosef al-ʿAdanī al-Mamsawī (i.e., originally from Aden and now a resident of Mamsa, Morocco) to Ḥalfon b. Netanel. In Judaeo-Arabic, with some Hebrew and some Arabic script. Containing a request for charity. This letter was sent to Ḥalfon during his stay in Spain or North Africa. The sender was a prosperous trader who lost all his possessions after a shipwreck. There is some question whether Yosef al-ʿAdanī wrote this letter in his own hand, as the script is sefaradi. Goitein at one time believed that Yiṣḥaq Ibn ʿEzra wrote the letter on his behalf, and Gil and Fleischer agreed; but Goitein evidently rejected this identification later on, and Friedman rejects it in strong terms. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book 4.)

Letter from Moses Maimonides (in his own hand with his own signature), in Fustat, to al-Shaykh al-Thiqa, in Minyat Zifta. This is a letter of recommendation for Yiṣḥaq al-Darʿī. The community in Minyat Zifta is asked to pay the capitation tax for Yiṣḥaq and his son, who are new arrivals to Egypt and on their way to Damietta. On verso there is the address. In Arabic script: في معنى ابراهيم الدرعي. Perhaps Ibrāhīm is the son of Yiṣḥaq, and this is a note summarizing the content of the letter ('re: Ibrāhīm al-Darʿī'). Or perhaps it is delivery details (‘By means of Ibrāhīm al-Darʿī’). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter from Elḥanan b. Shemarya to the community of Qayrawān. In Hebrew. The content of the letter is lacking, with only the sender's title and opening blessings preserved. On verso there is the beginning of the address as well as the opening of another letter. Letter prefaced with four short lines of blessing, beginning with Psalms 119:165. No names preserved. (Information from CUL catalogue via FGP.)

Letter from Yosef b. Yaakov b. Yahboi, probably from Qayrawan, to an unknown addressee, Fustat. Around 1045. Regarding the inheritance of Musa b. Netanel, which had goods and money of partners, including the writer’s that is asking to get his money back. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #732) VMR

Letter from Maimonides to his brother (presumably David, who died at sea not long after the brothers' 1167 arrival in Egypt). Not in the handwriting of Maimonides, but possibly bearing his autograph signature ("The signature does not quite correspond to any of the known specimens, but we must remember that we have here an early signature, from the early thirties of Maimonides' life, whereas the others date from later periods."). "God, may He be exalted, knows the sorrow and the loneliness which are in my heart because of the separation from my brother by my father and mother and tender friend, may God spare me the evils which may befall him, and join us again in Old Cairo, if God wills. I write to let you know that I am very well. Moses, the son of Rabbi Maymun, the memory of the righteous for blessing." The text of the letter is surrounded by apparently unrelated jottings in Hebrew, Arabic, and Judaeo-Arabic. ASE. (Information from Stern)

Letter from Abū Saʿīd, in Alexandria, to his father in Fusṭāṭ (to the shop of Barakāt). In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in both Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic script. Dating: Likely 12th century, based on the typical hand and layout. Begins, "Your letters arrived, and my spirit was calm after being fearful, and my eyes rested after their insomnia, and I thanked the exalted Creator for His beneficence to you, for you and those with you are healthy. . . that man whom you know has not changed his ways. . . he says, 'I fed my mother and father until they died, when I had (money?), and today I have not even a penny. . . ." Mentions poppy anemones (shaqāʾiq al-nuʿmān) and the winter. The sender has previously sent four letters: to 'the rayyis,' to Avraham and Ḥasan, and to Sayyid al-Ahl. The wife of Mūsā arrived the eve of Yom Kippur. Greetings to the sender's mother, brother, sister, and a woman and her husband. Greetings to Sayyid al-Ahl, Abū l-Faraj and his brothers, Mīkhāʾīl and Abū Sahl(?), Rabīʿ, the teacher Isḥāq. Greetings from: Sahlān and his brothers, Mūsā b. Ḥassūn and his brother. The sender's paternal aunt is healthy, but elderly and frail and misses the addressee (her brother) greatly. (Information in part from CUDL.)

Letter mentioning a certain Sibyan and Shemarya b. al-Hanan.

Letter from Avraham b. Se’ada, who complains about his brother Tabian. Around 1000. The addressee in unknown. Seems like this letter is on the same matter as T-S Loan 18. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #230) VMR