Geniza Lab

Letter from Sulaymān to his brother Abū l-Manṣūr. In Judaeo-Arabic. Opens with a blistering rebuke for the lack of letters and the failure to inquire about the writer whether with Jews or with Muslims, then "what I want from you now is for you to 'wash your face with me' by treating the bearer of this letter well." There follow instructions about various business matters, including materia medica (ḥawā'ij ʿiṭr). Mentions Abū Naṣr Ibn Khalaf. Mentions an agency (wakāla). Mentions silk. Asks for two qinṭārs of marble from the maghā'ir (caves?). Greetings to many people, including the parents of the writer and addressee. Regards to Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān. Information in part from Goitein's notes.

Family letter from a brother to his sister trying to dissuade her from marrying a certain man from Syria whom he describes as being 'not a Jew, nor a Christian, nor a Muslim,' and threatening to cut off all relations with his sister and her family if the marriage goes through. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 334, 548)

Two drafts of the same letter to the "holy congregation" about Yosef Saftawi (trader in "safta," it seems an Indian spice) who had been given shelter in the community's hospice after having arrived in Fustat penniless and burdened with debt. He behaved, however, in a way which was an offense to God, to his wife, and his child. The drafts were written on a page which had served as the beginning of a treatise by Avraham b. Ezra ("the Philosopher"), referring to the year 1165/6 [561 Hijri]. Information from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla, in Cairo, to Shelomo b. Yishai the Mosul Nasi, in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Ca. 1240 CE. The writer had sent a pair of red woolen children's shoes with Muʿammar al-Dimashqī intended for the addressee's son Yishai. He devotes much of the letter to a vivid description of his illnesses. “As for my state, I inform the masters that I came down with diarrhea, and I endured it. When it increased and multiplied, it became an illness. A physician was treating me, al-Rayyis Sulaymān al-Ḥakīm al-Fāḍil of the family of Rabbenu Menaḥem (ZL). They concocted the medicine in the house of Rabbenu (ZL): every day, roasted seeds and the like, and a pullet, and he visited me frequently. And R. Eliyya the Judge was also generous. When I recovered after some days… [I came down] with what was worse than it… ophthalmia in my eye on the night of Shabbat Shoftim… a painful scream, against my will, all night…. May God afflict my enemies [with what I was afflicted with]. The illness became public. What I suffered cannot be [described].” In the continuation, he sends regards to the judge Peraḥya and praises him as the most learned and powerful judge in the country. He concludes, "As for my eye, fog and darkness were upon it." There is a postscript in the same hand but in the third person (perhaps meaning that a secretary wrote this letter for Jalāl al-Dawla or that somebody later copied it): "After he wrote this letter, he entered the bathhouse (meaning, he was fully recovered) on the 26th of Elul, so be glad of heart." ASE

Letter addressed to R. Nissim. In Judaeo-Arabic. He is to ask Ibrāhīm al-Ḥaver al-Kohen b. al-Ḥaver to appear before the court in Fustat to answer a claim of 2 dinars resulting from a partnership in tax farming (ḍamān) with Abū l-Makārim. This Ibrāhīm had previously been asked to appear in the moshav of Avraham Maimonides, but had failed to come. There were additional claims concerning a piece of qumāsh, a family heirloom. The letter concludes, "Sayyidunā muwaqqiʿu ʿalā hādha l-khaṭṭ," which seems to mean: written with the Nagid's knowledge, or at his order. Information from Goitein's notes.

Letter of notification by a senior of the academy, probably Nahray b. Nissim, written by Yehuda b. Yosef ha-Kohen, saying that the Nasi (David b. Daniel) had temporarily withdrawn his ban of excommunication of Yosef b. Elazar, who against the orders of the government had made mention of the head of the Jewish community in public. Dated to the second half of the 11th century (between 1082 and 1092). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, p.538, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from an unknown merchant, probably from the Maghreb, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, Fustat. Around 1036. Regarding goods and community matters, as a problem with inheritance. Mentions R. Hananel and Abu Sahl (probably Natan b. Avraham that was still in the Maghreb). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #631) VMR

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, headed by an Arabic-script basmala. Fragment (left side of recto, left side of verso). Dating: Likely 11th century. Sent from Fustat. Addressed to 'my brother' Abū l-Ḥasan [...] b. Sahl al-Yoʾavi(?). Mentions "the matter of the marriage of Mūsā." Speaks at length about family drama, an old woman, and another woman and a gift or inheritance she received from her maternal aunt. "She was gone for the month of the holidays and then returned.... We drove her away, which was difficult for her.... She said, 'If you do not give me my property (or dowry? raḥlī) [...]'... We had pity on her... and gave her her property... in Jewish and Muslim (courts) that there are no remaining liabilities between them... I cannot cut her off in this... he is currently the supervisor (al-nāẓir)...." Needs further examination. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Recto: Blessings for notables, perhaps to be read aloud in the synagogue. In Hebrew. For the Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya, his son Seʿadya, Netanel b. Yefet (ZL), and Abū Naṣr and his son Abū Saʿīd. Verso and margins of recto: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Appear to be in the same hand as the blessings on recto. Asks the addressee to purchase something; mentions Abū l-Barakāt and [Abū] l-Maʿālī; mentions, obscurely, 'what you mentioned about' the Priestly Blessing at the time of the taking out of the Torah scrolls on Shabbat and holidays; then mentions the taking out of 40 Torah scrolls, and reports that on one day 40 Torah scrolls were taken out in honor of the Nagid Mevorakh b. Seʿadya. Information from Goitein's note cards and Cohen, Jewish Self-Government, pp. 128, 146, 149, and 268.

Letter from Avraham b. Tahor, in Alexandria, to R. Ḥananel, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: First half of the 13th century. The sender had apparently sold clothing on behalf of the addressee. Mentions Sulaymān b. Abū Naṣr. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in rhymed Hebrew prose addressed to a "wandering scholar." Sephardi-influenced hand (actually the hand of Samuel b. Jacob - one of the French Rabbis that arrived to Egypt at the beginning of the 13th century. AA) . Middle part only. Discussing a legal matter. On verso the writer seems to be critical of the addressee and a third person, who quotes Rabbi Zadok. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his father-in-law Abu'l-Faraj, asking him to write a letter to correct his daughter’s (Shelomo’s wife’s) behaviour, since Shelomo is losing his patience with her. Early 13th century. (Information from CUDL)

Detailed business and personal letter from Alexandria to Fustat. The letter narrates the difficult situation in Alexandria during a siege, probably al-Afdal's siege of 1094, when Nizar took refuge in Alexandria after the death of the caliph al-Mustansir. The writer was very sick for six months and bed-bound for four months. He describes the regimen he was prescribed, and says that people had given up on him. Frenkel suggests that the writer describes an epidemic, which is known from other letters, but here there seems to be no sign of an epidemic (the reading of the last word of line 7 as al-nās is tentative and does not completely fit the context). He reports that no pepper, cinnamon or ginger were available in Alexandria, and asks the recipient to keep these commodities for the Byzantines, saying that all Byzantines are set to leave for Fustat as soon as two ships from Constantinople arrive. Information from Frenkel and from Goitein, Med. Soc. 1:44 and 5:104. ASE.

Letter from [...] b. Avraham ha-Kohen to Abū l-ʿAlā' Ṣāʿid b. al-Munajjā al-Ne'eman. In Judaeo-Arabic (recto) and Arabic script (verso; the text block containing 8 lines of Arabic script appears to be a postscript to the previously Judaeo-Arabic letter). Contains a great deal of information about business arrangements. People mention include Abū Muḥam[mad] al-Ḥalabī, Abū l-Māḍī Khalīfa known as אלכאורגֿי al-Ḥalabī the Muslim, Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf al-Raqqī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllān, and Bū l-Ḥasan Zikrī. Concludes with greetings, "written on the 6th of Kislev," and then a postscript about how "the testimony that is between me and her (or: you?) is deposited with Salāma b. Saʿīd." In the Arabic-script postscript on verso, he reports that the wife of Abū Saʿd al-Muqaddasī has begun to recover (qad tawajjahat) [from her illness]. He then mentions Abū l-Najm Hilāl and having sent a gourd/vessel (fuqqāʿa) of oil with somebody to Abū Ṭāhir. There may be Goitein attachments for this document that have yet to be uploaded.

Letter from a community in an unknown location addressed to the community in Fustat. Fragment: bottom part only. In Hebrew. Written by a scribe. The preserved text conveys greetings to the the head of the Academy Maṣliaḥ. The date is added in a different hand. Dated: Elul [4]893 AM, which is 1133 CE. Signed by: Yaʿaqov b. Moshe ha-Kohen; Yisrael b. Ṭoviyya; Naḥum b. ʿEzra; Moshe b. Avraham the judge; Shemuel b. Avraham ha-Kohen; and Matitya b. Moshe Palermi (=from Palermo). On parchment. AA

Letter from Egypt concerning agricultural business matters, mentions a pair of oxen purchased for ’15 large dinars’ and a pregnant young donkey for 4.5 dinars. Dated around the early or mid-tenth century. (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:118, 124, 426; 4:28; 4:263, 448). Note the unusual orthography, e.g., תצֿכר = tadkhur and ובצֿאכ = wa-bi-dhāk. EMS. ASE.

Recto: Letter from a certain Yiṣḥaq to Shemarya (the father of Elḥanan b. Shemarya). In Hebrew. Contains blessings for Elḥanan to take the place of his father. (Information from Goitein's attached notes.)

Letter from Awad b. Hananel from Alexandria to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1060. The writer is in urgent need of cash "I do not even have a single dīnār left, whatever I had, I purchased with it wheat", "I am in need of your generosity, I do not have a single dirham". Describes the increasing prices of wheat and beans. Mentions a shipment of nuts and oil. It seems that the writer lives in a house that belongs to Nahray. (Information from Gil). VMR, YU.

Copy of a letter addressed to the Gaon R. Saadyah by a pupil of one of his disciples (only the concluding lengthy poem is preserved) and his reply. Saadiah's reply is prefaced with a heading in Judaeo-Arabic. Published Schechter, Saadyana, pp. 57-58. AA

What survives of this text consists mostly of an argument that calendrical decisions can only be taken by experts – which is too neutral to be identified with a specific historical context such as the Calendar Controversy of 921/2. Nevertheless, several features of this text point in the direction of the Calendar Controversy of 921/2. It implies in some places Palestinian hegemony in calendrical decisions, and it appears to repudiate the Four Gates, a Babylonian algorithm which we know from other sources was criticized by Palestinians at the time of the controversy. The text extant begins by arguing, largely through Talmudic quotations, that calendar decisions can only be taken by Palestinian authorities who are expert in the science of the calendar. A passage of the Babylonian Talmud (bRosh ha-Shanah 20b) is quoted to show that even Samuel, the great Babylonian sage (early third century CE), was ignorant in parts of this science. A lengthy passage of Palestinian Talmud (yRosh ha-Shanah 2:6, 58b) is then quoted, discussing who has the authority of making calendar decisions. Finally, the author dismisses the authority of those who determine the calendar on the basis of the molad and the Four Gates. In Stern's book on the calendar controversy, this is the is the first of two versions of the text. This presents what can be read in the fragment extant. The second version is a reconstruction based on knowledge of the quoted Talmudic passages and some textual conjectures (pp. 416 - 425).