Geniza Lab

Business letter to the writer's brother Shelomo. Two drafts of very late note. The man has difficulty expressing himself. He requests garments (jubab) for cover in one version and 10 qintar of raisins (zubab [sic]) in the other. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Yehi'el b. Elyaqim to Yefet the teacher, giving instructions as to the method of teaching his son. On verso a short postscipt, and different accounts/memos in vairous hands.

Letter to a notable from Abraham Kohen Sholel (שלאל). (Information from CUDL)

Calligraphic letter requesting help for a man who is out of work and has a large family which would be satisfied with getting a mere piece of bread. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Personal letter sent by the court clerk Mevorakh b. Natan, apologizing for his younger brother Abu al-Fakhr Yehosef, who had made fun of the son of the Jewish government official (katib), Yehuda ha-Kohen b. Elazar. The writer says that Yehosef had been absent minded at the time. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 243, 574, and from Goitein's index cards)

See PGPID 5530.

Letter from Moshe Yiju, [after leaving] Tyre, to his brother Perahya, in Fustat. Dating: 14 April 1155 CE. When Moshe sent his previous letters from Tyre, he was terribly ill, and people had despaired. On the 5th day, God acted for the sake of His name, and Moshe was cured. See 2 Kings 20:5 ("on the third day I will cure you"). India Book III, 46.

Business letter from Yosef b. Arah to Nethanel ha-Talmid b. 'Amram dealing with palm-fiber, books, pots, myrtle, silk, and other textiles. Dated early twelfth century. (Information from Goitein's index cards.) See also T-S 12.329 + T-S Ar.48.136, by the same writer, possibly to the same recipient.

Letter from a man on a journey in connection with his work, to his wife in Fustat.

Letter from Moshe b. Yefet to Tamīm b. Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen (apparently a merchant trading in the East). Dated: Monday, 8 Adar I 1421 Seleucid, which is 1110 CE. The hand is probably that of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe, who also sends his regards. The letter opens with a strong rebuke for failing to write and goes on to mention the arrival of merchandise/gifts, and greetings to and from various people.

Recto: Family letter in Arabic script, mentioning transactions and a Qāḍī. Verso: Late letter in Hebrew to R. Shelomo ha-Sofer from "your wife Dona Soro (=Sara?) and your daughters Reina and Raḥel and your son-in-law Moshe." They are dismayed at Shelomo's lack of response to their numerous letters urging him to return. They ask him to approach R. Shelomo ha-Rofe (David suggests this is the same Shelomo ha-Rofe who had access to the Nagid, mentioned in T-S G1.17, lines 15–16) and obtain an exemption from the tax. They have heard that the addressee plan to travel to Turkey, and they beg him not to do so. This would cause strife between his pregnant daughter Reina and her husband Moshe, it would cause bad luck to Rahel, who is grown and beautiful and good and modest, for the world will scorn the family and say, "look at this good, elderly, scribe who abandoned his wife and daughters after so many years. He must have gone mad, because he has traveled to a distant land," and you know what the verse says, "The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth" (Proverbs 17:24). So please beseech R. Shelomo ha-Rofe that he obtain for you an exemption ('ketav') from the tax, and (even?) if you cannot, return. See also analysis in Zinger, "Long Distance Marriages in the Cairo Geniza," p. 28. ASE

Complaint submitted to the Nagid, quite possibly Avraham b. Maimonides (1205-1237), regarding Siba al-Faqusi who had interrupted the synagogue service. The writer apologizes for troubling the Nagid with such affairs. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 490; Goitein index cards)

Fragmentary business letter sent from Fez in Morocco to Almeria in Spain. It mentions gold, silk, and mercury. Dated to the end of December, 1141. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 210, 486)

Fez, Morocco; End of Tevet; December 20-29, 1141; to Almeria, Spain At the head of this commercial letter is missing, the length of which is unknown, in which the names of the recipient and the addressee were written as usual on the other side of the letter in front of the head. However, the writer clearly mentioned (in line 25) that he was staying in Fez in Morocco, and according to the request to give a message to Rabbi Yiṣḥaq b. Barukh (in line 12), who was one of the people of Almeria, and to take an oath from him, it turns out that the addressee also lived there. Several other people were mentioned by name: Harūn b. al-Bargeloni (= the son of the man from Barcelona), Abu Zikri, Avraham and Avraham (who may be one), Daoud and Barukh. Some of them are probably from the people of Fez, but it is impossible to identify any of them from another source. The main concern of the letter is the news about various goods, including goods sent to Spain. These included alum, indigo, gold, copper, lacquer, scales and weights, ruby wood and paper. Apart from these, the writer ordered a silk robe by special order for the mentioned Abraham who wanted to wear it at his wedding. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter sent by a son to his father in a silk shop in Minyat al-Qa'id. He inquires about the eye disease of the addressee and advises him to not remain in the premises occupied by the family. He mentions an ill-famed young carpenter living nearby and asks for a robe (thawb) and an underwear (ghilalah). He tells the recipient to ask the writer's brother Abu l-Ḥasan about the news of the grape pressing. A blue robe was sent with the bearer of the letter. (Information from Goitein index cards)

Letter from a son to a father. Same writer and recipient as T-S 10J7.3 and T-S 13J21.13 (addressed to Minyat al-Qa'id) and Stras. 4110/90 (see tag). The writer congratulates his father on his recovery, perhaps from the ophthalmia mentioned in T-S 13J21.13. The father had received a robe of honor and had embarked upon a trip, spending one night in Qalyub. "Rumor had it that a robe of honor was bestowed on your Excellency, of whom I am the servant, on Wednesday night.... May God let this be true and may He ordain through you for you and for us everything good" (Med Soc, II, 604). In the margin, the writer complains about his wife and his mother-in-law (his paternal aunt), who have a bad influence on his children but against whom he is powerless (Med Soc, III, 30).

Letter, draft, from Shelomo to Avraham ha-Sar, Ner ha-Maʿaravi, in childish script. He is unable to come because his father is ill. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Abū Zikrī b. Abū l-Riḍā to Yeshuʿa b. Zekharya (same addressee as T-S AS 161.172). He expresses sorrow that he had neglected his service to the recipient. Note that this scribe frequently writes אל when he means א. (Information in part from Goitein index cards)

Letter from a physician in Silifke (Seleucia) to his sister's husband, presumably in Fustat. Dated 21 July 1137. "The Emperor John II Comnenus was on his way to Antioch—held at that time by Raymond of Poitiers—and a part of his powerful army passed through the town in which this letter was written. The Byzantines arrived before the gates of Antioch on August 29. Our letter, however, reports a rumor that the city had already fallen forty days earlier. The writer, a physician, even expresses the expectation that the Emperor might take Aleppo and Damascus as well and already placed an order for medical books which would be looted there from the homes of his colleagues." The writer had emigrated from Fatimid Egypt to Byzantium. Goitein suggests that he traveled initially with the Fatimid navy, as he lists letters he sent in previous years from the army camp at Jaffa, from Rhodes, and from the island of Chios, which were occupied by the Venetian navy in 1224. The physician also stayed in Constantinople before settling in Seleucia and marring a woman with a Greek name (Korasi). He repeatedly describes how wealthy he is despite having arrived penniless, and urges his in-laws to follow his example and join him, no matter how much they have to leave behind. [Recto 1-8:] He opens with a discussion of the fertility of his sister; she has already borne two girls to the recipient, who is now presumably hoping for a son. She has not been able to become pregnant "due to her emaciated state"; the writer believes he would be able to give her medications to allow her to conceive "even after the emaciation." (Goitein's reads shurb instead of shaḥb, and zawāl instead of huzāl, yielding, "My sister did not become pregnant despite the many medicines. If you were here, I would fix her pregnancy, by my life, even after she had ceased to bear children.") The writer's own wife never conceived except with medication. [Recto 8-9:] The writer was unable to cure Avraham, "the little beggar from Akko," who died and left his son an orphan. [Recto 10-17:] The writer provides a detailed list of the dowry that he gave his son-in-law Shemuel b. Moshe b. Shemuel the Longobardian merchant, worth altogether 200 dinars. [Recto 17-21:] The writer explains that his own letters may have never arrived because he used to send valuable materia medica with them, including mulberry concentrate (rubb tūt), ribes (rībās), barberries (barbārīs), Gentiana (ghāfit) leaves and extract, and absinthe (afsintīn). [Recto 21-27:] He lists the five letters he has sent in past years in exchange for only one from the recipients, including Abū Zikrī Yaḥyā and Abū Naṣr b. Isḥāq. [Recto 27-31:] He offers messianic wishes, citing Daniel 12:11 and a piyyut for Havdala written by the recipient's father. [Recto 31-38:] He writes of his great happiness and wealth, including a house worth 200 dinars and 400 barrels of wine. [Verso 1-4:] If the recipient really does join him, he should bring the medical books that the writer left behind. Regardless, he is hoping to obtain some medical books from the loot of Aleppo and Damascus. [Verso 4-22:] He conveys news of family and friends. [Verso 22-24:] He requests a quarter dirhem of seeds of mallow (mulūkhiyah), mandrake (yabrūḥ), and althaea (khiṭmiyyah), as these are unavailable in his location. Information from Goitein's attached summary and translation. EMS. ASE.

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Menashshe's daughter to her maternal uncle ʿEli b. Hillel, the deputy overseer (nā'ib al-nāẓir) of Bahnasa. In the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1100–38 CE. The writer urges her uncle to visit herself and her mother. She is in the sixth month of her pregnancy (r5). She asks the addressee to buy for her a black girl about 5 or 6 years of age from the jālib (slave trader), because she has heard that there are many available in Bahnasa (r15–17). The writer is sad to be separated from her daughter (r26–27). She reports in the margin on the sad condition of Sitt Ikhtiyār, who has been bedbound (rāqida lāzima) for three months with hectic illness (ʿillat al-diqq). "There is nothing left in her but that we say, 'right away, right away'"—does this mean they wait on her hand and foot? or that they expect her to die soon? In any event, her condition is a terrible blow to the writer. ASE.