Geniza Lab

Letter from Moshe b. Yaʿaqov, in Damascus, to Abū l-ʿAlā Yūsuf b. Dā'ūd b. Shaʿya, in Fustat. Dating: 29 December 1057 CE (Gil) or ca. 1066 CE (Goitein). News has come from Egypt concerning a severe epidemic (wabā'), and the writer is worried and asks for news of the addressee as well as of the merchandise that he had sent to be sold in Egypt. The writer also encloses a letter for Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm b. Dā'ūd b. Sughmār.

Letter from Hassun b. Yiṣḥaq in Alexandria to Yahya b. Ismail in Fustat. The sender inquires about a shipment of tin sent to the addressee. Hassun also announces that he is anticipating a shipment of leather for which he specifies requirements concerning the shipment, expenses and the required documents. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #808)ת On verso another text.

Begging letter from Fuḍayl, the brother of Abū l-Ḥasan, and from Abū Saʿd, to his relative Abū l-Khayr Ṣedaqa b. Ṣammūh b. Sasson requesting help for himself and another person. Fuḍayl asks Ṣedaqa to 'make the rounds' and collect some donations from other Jews. "You know how sick I am after having been a man as [strong as] as lion." The total amount asked for is very modest, only five or six dirhams, which might have been only a symbolic number. The letter starts with a biblical quotation (Proverbs 21:14). (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 358, 605)

Letter sent by a young man named Siba to his mother in Fustat but addressed to his brother, Abu al-Najm, describing the troubles he had encountered from a capitation tax official on his travels in a Nile boat and saying he had arrived safely in Alexandria. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 299, 300)

Letter from Shemuel Ha-Ḥaver b. Moshe, Tyre, to Efrayim Ha-Ḥaver b. Shemarya, Fustat, approximately 1045.

In this appeal, typically addressed to the community ('your excellencies, my masters, the illustrious lordly judges, and...the elders of Israel'), a widow and mother of four, weighed down by debt, asks for 'something to conceal myself (astur bihi nafs) and the fo[ur] who are with me. She thus voices the common plaint of the master, the 'concealed,' who strives to maintain him/herself economically without having to 'uncover his/her face, especially by resorting to the public dole. (Information from Goitein's index cards and from Cohen)

Letter from Avraham b. Seʿadya the Hebronite, in Bilbays, to Moshe ha-Kohen b. Ghulayb, in Fustat. Dating: beginning of the twelfth century. Recto 1-15: Flowery Hebrew greetings and Passover blessings for Moshe and his three boys, Yoshiyahu, Sa'adya, and Yeshu'a. Recto 15-19: Updates on the health of family members since Moshe departed. Abu l-Bayan and his sister and mother are healthy. Recto 19-24: Avraham and everybody are extremely anxious about the outbreak of smallpox (juddarī) among aṣḥābunā. It afflicted one house, then two, then three. Suhayl's 3-year-old son died, and Mevorakh's son Khulayl is critically ill. Recto 24-25: Avraham and Abu l-Husayn and Abu Sa'id and Umm Abu l-Bayan and Bayan and _____ all send holiday greetings. Verso 1-3: Avraham's knee pain has gotten worse. He wrote this letter while lying on his side. Verso 4-7: Avraham enclosed another letter to his in-law Abu l-Surur and asks Moshe to forward it to Cairo. He asks Moshe to send him some kohl. ASE.

Letter sent by a traveler-businessman to Abū l-Munā al-Yahūdī al-Sharābī, in the al-Muṣāṣa quarter of Fustat, to be delivered to his brother's son Abū ʿAlī, specifying items that he had sent and how to sell them. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 193, and Goitein's index cards)

See PGPID 5529. This is an older transcription.

Letter from Moshe Yijū, in Alexandria, to Abū l-Fakhr Ibn al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. Dating: ca. June 29, 1155. The writer ("Moshe son of his honor, our master and lord Yosef the teacher—may he live until the coming ofthe messiah!") writes a brief letter, almost complete, which is addressed to the family's patron Abū l-Fakhr b. Avraham but opens with salutations to 'the two esteemed brothers,' namely the addressee and his brother, here named ʿAli. Towards the end of the document greetings are sent to Abū ʿAlī. who is evidently the same individual. Abū ʿAlī Ibn al-Amshāṭī is known from sources discussed in pages 103–4, and with the assistance of this letter he can be identified as Abū l-Fakhr Saadya's brother Ḥananel. Greetings are also extended here to an anonymous brother, apparently the third brother, Ḥayyim. The letter thus not only testifies to the Yijū family's dependence on the Ibn al-Amshāṭīs but also provides additional information on members of that illustrious family. The letter is almost certainly connected to III, 47. Moshe decided not to rely entirely on his brother Peraḥya to ask Abū l-Fakhr's advice on what to do with the lac that he wanted to sell in Alexandria, as implied in III, 47v, lines 1-3, and addressed that important merchant directly: (14) I have attached these few lines to you to inform you of my condition and what happened (15) to me on disembarking. Your eminent excellency is well aware of (16) travel to Alexandria. I don't know what to do. (17) Should I sell that lac or leave it? I request (18) sound advice. Please do this act of complete kindness for (19) me, your servant, who is staying here. (Goitein, S.D. & Friedman, M.A., India Traders of the Middle Ages, III-47a. See also Mediterranean Society, III, p. 225, and Goitein's index cards.)

Letter on behalf of Yaḥyā b. ʿAmmār of Alexandria addressed to ʿŪlla ha-Levi b. Yosef, a.k.a. Abū l-ʿAlā' Ṣāʿid b. Munajjā, a parnas (social welfare official) and trustee of the court in Fustat, dated documents 1084–1117. In Judaeo-Arabic. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. Yaḥyā requests financial help, especially with paying off his debts. His dependents include his children and his old, blind mother. When he could not bear to see them suffering from hunger, he ran away. For some time he has been in hiding from his debtors, some of whom are Muslim. He has recently heard that his mother is dying. He fears that she will die "on his account" before he is able to return and obtain her forgiveness. Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 257, Goitein's index cards, CUDL, and Cohen. ASE.

Letter from a young wife, whose father-in-law was also her uncle and who had a brother living in the same town, asking her mother to visit her urgently. (Information from Goitein's index cards, and Mediterranean Society, III, p. 172)

Letter from Moshe b. Yaʿaqov al-Miṣrī, in Malīj, to Abū l-ʿAlā' Yūsuf b. Dāwud b. Shaʿya, in Fustat. The writer complains about the behavior of Malij's governor. He also mentions some commercial transactions and expresses worries about relatives in Damascus. (Information from Gil)

Letter from the wife of Maʿānī. Desperate letter of appeal to the 'courts' (judges) from a blind woman whose husband had fled to Alexandria and left her and her 3 year old girl. She is pleading to the community for relief. She calls herself 'a widow during the lifetime (of her husband). (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 218, 472 and from Cohen)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Avraham Ibn ʿEzra, in Spain, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel ha-Levi. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: after 1 Nisan 1139 CE. India Book 4 (Hebrew description below; full English to come)

Letter from a Jewish trader in India to his partner in Egypt. In Judaeo-Arabic. Among many other matters, he mentions donations to pilgrimage sites in Iraq: "for our lord Ezekiel, our Lord Ezra, and Rabbi Meir." See Goitein's attached notes for further information.

Letter from an army doctor, in Ashmūm Ṭannāḥ (present-day Ashmūn al-Rummān), to his son, in an unknown location. The purpose of the letter is to excuse himself for failing to attend his wife's confinement, for he has no choice but to obey the amir's orders. He urges his son to buy her anything she wishes. He relates that the amir first sent him to Salmūn where he stayed treating a Mamlūk until he recovered on Monday. The doctor was then sent to Damietta, and returned to Ashmūm on Tuesday after suffering terribly from the riding. His son's letter informing him of his wife's labor, and her anger at his absence, reached him on Wednesday with al-Kohen (the same day he is writing the present letter). The writer does not anticipate being able to leave before Monday, as the amir will want to take his medicine on Sunday. Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 380, 610. ASE.

Letter from a widow, Umm Abū l-Munā, in reply to a suggestion that she sell her old house, a solid structure in a declining neighborhood, and buy a new one about whose quality she had doubts. The widow apparently derived income from leasing apartments. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 23)

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Eliyyahu to his paternal aunt Umm Daʾūd, asking for her daughter Sitt al-Yumn in marriage and enquiring about the dowry. Dated Tammuz 1530 of the Seleucid Era (= 1219 CE). In the margins of verso and recto are drafts of a release form in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, concerning the claims between two sisters and Thanāʾ, the mother the late Manṣūr concerning the inheritance of the late Ibn Abū l-Majd the dyer Ibn al-Nāʾila. Abū l-Maḥāsin guarantees his mother ʿIbād’s release for her sister Ḥasab and Thanāʾ bt. Sayyid al-Ahl. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Aharon ha-Kohen b. Namir to ʿEli ha-Kohen b. Moshe. The writer informs the addressee that the item he expects is now on its way to him after a delay. (Information from Shaked, Tentative Bibliography, p. 128, and Goitein's index cards.)