Geniza Lab

Recto: part of a rhymed letter mentioning Yehoshuaʿ (אדוני אבי ריוח והחבר יהושוע). Verso: text in Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: part of a rhymed letter to Ṣedaqa b. Joseph (אבי עזר צדקה בנו יוסף זקן כל הקהלה), with marginal jottings in Hebrew and Arabic. Verso: jottings in Hebrew and Arabic. (Information from CUDL)

Marriage congratulations, beginning with a quote from Ruth 4:11-12, and mentioning Judah ha-Nasi. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to Eli b. Amram, recommending to him Moshe b. Yosef the Spaniard.

Letter from a woman in Egypt named Maliḥa, living in Byzantium ("Romaniya"), to her brothers Abū Saʿīd and Shelomo asking one of them to come fetch her. She wants to return to her homeland; however, she adds, “I looked into the Torah scroll, which showed me that my luck was bad and that I would not be successful; therefore, I could not come together with the bearers of the letter.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:346, 489) EMS

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Sahlan b. Avraham, approximately 1035.

Letter from Shemuel b. Yehuda from Alexandria to a notable in Fustat concerning the withholding of money and books belonging to him.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to the community of Tatay, approximately 1030.

Letter from Moshe b. Yefet in Malij to Efrayim b. Shemarya in Fustat in which he informs his superior about a case in which a deceased man had appointed his wife guardian of his minor son and executor of his estate. The possessions were in the form of deposits with a banker and commercial goods with some important merchants. The writer wants Efrayim's assistance transferring the goods to the widow in Malij. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 331; I, p. 29 and Bareket)

Egypt, probably Qalyūb; After 22 of Tevet; December 15, 1139 Ezekiel tells Ḥalfon about his actions after his visit to him in Alexandria. The trip on the Nile was difficult and took a long time. A few days after he returned to Cairo, he went to the village of Benha, to market such expensive silk. Abu Ishak was also there, but the writer did not have the opportunity to meet him. After finishing his business, Yeḥezqel returned to Cairo or Qalyūb, his permanent residence. His younger son Abu al-Fakhr stayed with Ḥalfon in Alexandria, and the writer asked his brother to repay him a favor. Towards the end of the letter, news about the imprisonment of Vizier Riḍwān. Yeḥezqel apologized for the hasty writing. Indeed, he omitted boxes and letters and made other mistakes, including a mistake in the date of the letter. Although there is doubt as to which date was meant there, the rest of the dates mentioned in the letter, which were given according to the day of the week and the day of the month - without specifying the year - are accurate, and they correspond to 1139.2 (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from ʿAyyāsh b. Ṣedaqa, from Fustat, to Nahray b. Nissim, Busir. Around 1054. Nahray is in Busir and buys linen with the help of Qasim. ʿAyyāsh sends him instructions and advice. Also mentions details about ship movements, including ships from Mahdiyya and Sicily. Also mentions the government's new decrees and an incident in which the state confiscated ships and goods. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #479) VMR

Letter from Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, Fustat, to Daniel b. Azarya, approximately 1053. The tear between the two sides is indicated here by the following sign /. (Gil, Palestine, Pt. 2). Recto: statement in the hand of Efrayim b. Shemarya concerning a dream of Yosef al-Sijilmasi (c. 1030 CE). Written in the margin and on verso is the letter from Yefet b. David b. Shekanya in Fustat to Daniel b. Azarya (c. 1053 CE). (PGP and GRU, Cambridge)

Letter from Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya, Fustat, to Daniel b. Azarya, approximately 1053.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Yiṣḥaq Ha-Kohen (?) b. Avraham, Fustat, approximately 1015.

Petition to David b. Daniel from a destitute woman with no family and afflicted with a serious illness (leprosy, it seems). Dating: ca. 1090 CE. She begs “Our lord David, the great nasi, head of the diasporas of all Israel,” to assist her and concludes the note with wishes for David, that “male children may fill your place.” (Mark Cohen, Jewish Self-government in Medieval Egypt, 207, 219; trans. Cohen, Voice of the Poor, #21, pp.52-3); EMS. The letter describes her as a "lonesome bird on a rooftop"; the same phrase appears in a poem attributed to Yehuda ha-Levi in L-G Lit. I.50. The scribe, a Byzantine, has been identified by Ben Outhwaite. This scribe wrote T-S 12.237, T-S NS 325.184, T-S 13J13.16, and T-S 8J16.29.

Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1030.

Letter from Ibrāhīm b. Abū l-Surūr to Abū Naṣr b. Abū l-Karam. Concerning medical commodities (ḥawā'ij ʿiṭr). This document is discussed (and incorrectly cited as T-S 13J13.19) in Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman, “Commercial Forms and Legal Norms in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt,” Law and History Review, 30:4 (2012), p. 1026. VMR (Information from Goitein's index cards.)

Letter from Mūsā (or Musallaḥ?) b. Ṣāliḥ to an unknown addressee. In Hebrew and in Arabic script. Appealing for help from the addressee. (Cf. Geoffrey Khan, “The Historical Development of the Structure of Medieval Arabic Petitions,” BSOAS, 53:1 (1990), 21). EMS On verso long text in Judaeo-Arabic.

Letter from Yehuda b. Avraham b. Faraj, in Ṣahrajt (Goitein) or Jerusalem (Gil), to ʿEli b. ʿAmram (aka Abū l-Husayn ʿAllūn b. Muʿammar), in Fustat. In Hebrew and Arabic (in Arabic script). Dating: ca. 1065 CE; at any rate, under the gaonate of Eliyyahu ha-Kohen, because it ends with the motto (ʿalāma) Yeshaʿ Yuḥash. Goitein identified the sender's location as Ṣahrajt since that is where Yehuda b. Avraham drew up Bodl. MS heb. c 28/5. Gil suggests that he is Yehuda ha-Ḥazzan of Jerusalem (unclear which other documents this man is known from) and just happened to be staying in Ṣahrajt in 1060 CE. (Unbeknownst to Goitein and Gil, ENA 2465.8–9 and CUL Or.1080 15.50 also have the same sender and same addressee.) In this letter, Yehuda b. Avraham is recommending a colleague, Seʿadya the teacher, whom he hopes will be treated well and honored in Fustat ("with aṣḥāb al-khilaʿ"). "He does not need any charitable collection nor anything else from the Jews"—what he needs is a good word on his behalf with aṣḥāb al-[...] (some government bureau or maybe the capitation tax collectors—the word is torn away).

Letter by Avraham Shabbetay to various communities of Lower Egypt that certifies that Yoshiyyahu b. Moshe makes ‘kasher’ cheese. (Eliyahu Ashtor, “The Number of Jews in Medieval Egypt,” JJS, vol. 19 (1968), 22) EMS (See also Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 47, 532)