Geniza Lab

Poetical letter of greetings in Aramaic addressed to Rabbi Shemuel and mentioning the 'Nasi and Gaon of Tiberias.' On verso a poem is written in a different hand above the continuation of the letter from recto. (Information from Shaked, Attentative Bibliography of Geniza Documents, p. 58; Mann, Jews in Egypt, vol. I, p. 55 note 1; and Goitein, Palestinian Jewry, p. 172, notes 114-115)

Letter in which Abu al-Majd Uzziel of Damira informs the judge Moshe b. Perahya that he would take up the post of teacher in Minyat Zifta only after Rabbi Nehemiah definitely left the town and when the community would have made him a definite proposal. Verso contains an unrelated text. Dated to the 13th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 49, 533, 187, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Avraham Ibn Miṣbāḥ, in Alexandria to Eliyyahu the Judge, in Fustat. Written in the hand of Avraham ha-Melammed b. Yefet. "I arrived in Alexandria with Manṣūr b. Simḥa ha-Kohen and found all the {orphan} children sick (marḍā tālifīn). They had taken on my account one dinar (?), and Manṣūr paid me 5 dinars." For some reason the money for the orphans has come out of the writer's account. The writer himself is in difficult straits; a judge wept when he heard the tale. He brought with him a letter of recommendation to show to Abū Surūr al-Kohen and somebody else, but they did not give him a response to the letter. Avraham reports that the orphans are praying on behalf of Eliyyahu that he will be rewarded for his good deeds with them. He does not have anything left of the 5 dinars, because he bought two thawbs and a blanket and the rest went to syrups (probably for the sick orphans). Eliyyahu is his patron; he repeatedly praises his generosity and reports how he praised him to various people in Alexandria. The writer has been waiting around in Alexandria for various officials to help him, and in the interim receives bread from the public distribution. He wants Eliyyahu to read this very letter to somebody else who will hopefully come to his aid. Some parts of the letter are quite difficult; merits further examination. Join: Oded Zinger. ASE.

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan, from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Qayrawan. Around 1045. The writer is still in Egypt (before he moved to Byzantium) and his cousin, Nahray, did not leave the Maghreb yet. Yisrael writes information for Nahray about purchases he made in Egypt. He bought goods from Abu Nasr, who is Hesed b. Yashar al-Tustari. Mentions details about several people and trades, mainly of pearls and beads. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #408) VMR

Letter from ʿIwāḍ b. Isḥāq b. al-Zayyāt to the family of Abū l-Khayr b. Isḥāq b. al-Zayyāt (presumably his brother). It mainly has to do with family news. "You requested news of my brother and the baby." The requested update is somewhat obscure: ואלגמיע ענדנא מפקודין לעמרי לם יקף אחד עלי גירה. Maybe he means that everyone is saddened because they heard that the recipient is sick (אללה תע יחסן לך אלעאקבה). He sends regards to Abū l-Faḍl al-Ḥaver. There are several unrelated lines in a different hand on verso, including one formulaic phrase from a legal document. ASE.

Letter from Yisrael b. Natan (Isrā'īl b. Sahlūn), in Jerusalem, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 31 December 1061 CE, according to Gil. Yisrael mentions letters intended for the Maghrib that he had previously sent, in particular one for a certain Labrāṭ. He asks Nahray to send him the garment that arrived from Tripoli and the medicines (ʿaqāqīr) and the bitumen (qifār) with Abū ʿAlī Ismāʿīl b. Ruʿbūb. Umm Sha'ul, the wife of Nahray, is in Jerusalem, and Yisrael conveys news of her and other contacts. There is a famine in Jerusalem. Yisrael conveys the good news that Abūn b. Ṣadaqa and his daughter have recovered from illness—but Yisrael is sick of Abūn. ASE

Letter noting that the Rayyis, or ‘head’, is referred to by his nickname “The Tail” in letters going to “all countries East and West.” A note on the right margin mentions Wuhsha’s will and its provision that 25 dinars should be paid to the cave, meaning the Jerusalem synagogue. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:64, 536; and Moshe Gil, “The Jewish Quarters of Jerusalem (A. D. 638-1099) According to Cairo Geniza Documents and Other Sources,” JNES, vol. 41, no. 4 (1982), 172) EMS

Letter sent by Nahray b. Nissim (according to Gil) or by Barhun b. Yiṣḥaq al-Tahirti (according to Ben-Sasson) to Barhun b. Musa al-Tahirti in Fustat, containing prices of goods and information about the movements of ships. Dated 1053. (Information from Gil)

Letter from Farah b. Avraham, probably from Qayrawan, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal. Regarding b. Awkal’s merchandise that arrived in Qayrawan and the writer's dealings with selling them and sending their payment to Fustat. Also lists the prices. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #222) VMR

Letter from Benaya b. Mūsā, from Tinnis, to Nissim b. Ḥalfon, Fustat. Around 1060. Regarding a shipment of scarlet for the Byzantines that was sold to local Jews. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #604) VMR

Letter from Eliyya b. Yehuda b. Yahya from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1050. The writer is on a ship that is about to sail in the morning to al-Lādhiqiyya (Latakia). He expresses concern about a qunbār that was forced to stop at the shore. He also mentions two ships of Abū ʿAbdallah (Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ), a qārib of Bū ʿAlī al-Shāmī and three ships from the Shām. Also mentions a shipment of camphor and the account of Yehuda b. Moshe b. Sughmar. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #706) VMR

Beginning of a letter, sent by Rav Sherira Gaon to Qayrawan. Dated ca. 970. (Information from Gil)

Letter sent by ʿAṭā' b. Zikri from Alexandria to Mevorakh b. Israel Januni in Fustat, containing a legal question to Nahray b. Nissim about the writer's rights to collect his deceased brother's and his own shares in a transaction with Yiṣḥaq b. Khalaf. Dated ca. 1060. (Information from Gil)

Letter from Yūsuf b. Faraḥ al-Qābisī, in Alexandria, to his nephew Abū l-Surūr Faraḥ b. Ismāʿīl b. Faraḥ, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: September 6, 1056 CE, based on Gil's assessment. The letter contains a wide array of news and business matters. Yūsuf describes an attack by Ibn al-Thumna's soldiers on merchant ships and the requisitioning of merchandise (r10–12). He passes on the news (r14–15) that the addressee's uncle (ʿamm) Sulaymān was seriously ill in Sūsa but recovered (פק, to be read fāq); that Yaḥyā b. Mūsā al-Majjānī died (r16–17); that the writer's own cousin (ibn khālat{ī}) Abū l-Faḍl is critically ill (ʿalā khuṭṭa) in al-Mahdiyya (r17–18); that the customs tax (ʿushr) has become more stringent (r18); and that Yosef b. Shabbetay al-Ḥazzān converted to Islam in Palermo, a grievous day (r19–20). Amidst the bad news, and a business partner's complaint that his goods never reached him, Yūsuf complains, "My boy, by God, before this trip I was very strong, but now it is the opposite, by God, my spirit is weaker than a thread of silk" (r21–22). He continues with news of Qayrawān, al-Mahdiyya, and Sfax (v1–4); instructions regarding the purchase of flax in Būṣīr (v8–11); and information on the movements of ships. (Information in part from Gil.) ASE.

Letter from Mardūk b. Mūsā, in Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1060 CE, based on Gil's assessment. The letter was written by Mūsā b. Abī l-Ḥayy, and it switches to his voice from line v1 onward. Mardūk reports that he has recovered from his illness: he entered the baths and ate pullets (r4–5), but some of his family members are still sick (r16). The rest of the letter is entirely business matters. (Information in part from Gil.) ASE.

Letter from Ḥayyim He-Ḥaver b. Shelomo, Jerusalem, to Yitzhak b. Ya'akov He-Ḥaver, Fustat, mentioning enormous sums deposited with various people, around the middle of the 11th century.

Recto: Upper part of an eloquent Hebrew letter to a distinguished person. The first half consists of hyperbolic, rhyming praises for "Sar Tzeva ha-El, Rosh Yeshivat Ga'on Yisrael" including the curious phrase "I thought that in order to know, to take from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, I should go and [take it?] and learn from it, for it is the source of Life." After kissing the dust of the addressee's feet, he describes how the addressee asked him a question regarding the things that disqualify shehitah, he was too ashamed to answer him, because of his glory and because of the women with him. Now he begs leave to respond in writing and starts on a list of the factors that disqualify shehitah. Verso: There are jottings all over the page, including a crossed-out paragraph from rabbinic literature about wheat and barley, and also the name "Miryam bat Tata." ASE.

Letter fragment (lower right corner) in Judaeo-Arabic, dated Nissan 14[26?] Seleucid = 1115 CE; the last two digits of the year are not completely clear. Very little of the subject matter is discernible. The first few lines seem to be formulaic praises about yearning for the recipient. Later on: "your hands, regarding what you take out"; and "from weakness, strength"; and "God will open unto thee His good treasure." ASE.

Letter from Moshe b. Levi ha-Levi, in Qalyub, to family members in Fustat. He inquires briefly about commercial dealings before insisting that there is no need for his mother to trouble herself with coming to visit. If she wishes to give him the fabric, they can simply send it with Safi, and if she wishes to tell him in person about the illness of his sister, then she should simply write the news in a letter: “There is no shame in that; people are accustomed to writing the secrets of people in letters and sending them.” He mentions that the Amir Sajja‘a al-Din has arrived in Qalyub and is asking about Moshe’s brother Abu l-Ḥasan. In a postscript, he apologizes for the many errors. ASE.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissim to a person in Alexandria. Mentions merchandise and textiles, along with books and various texts that someone is copying for Nahray. Circa 1050 (Gil estimate). VMR