Geniza Lab

Letter regarding aid to a Maghribi who tried to settle in Jerusalem, before 1035

Letter probably sent from Malīj to Nahray b. Nissim.

Letter from a male family member, probably in Damīra, to a physician, probably in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating unknown. The letter is convoluted and repetitive, giving the impression of having been dictated. The purpose of writing is to urge the addressee to stop trying to obtain a government salary (jāmakiyya) and to apply only for a license (dustūr), for he if persists in seeking the salary, they will refuse him even the license. The writer and those with him have been on tenterhooks regarding the addressee's news, in a state of anxiety (hamm) and fasting (ṣiyām). He writes that it would be better to treat patients for free than to have the government salary, even if it were 100 dinars. It seems that the government salary would also require the physician to return to Damīra and practice there, an outcome the writer is desperate to avoid. "If you return to Damīra, it will be our destruction (dimārnā)." The writer (humorously) insists that here in Damīra there has been no season (faṣl, of illness), and disease (maraḍ) and ophthalmia (ramad) are nowhere to be found; there is no demand for the addressee's services, for everyone is healthy. (Whether intentionally or not, this passage echoes the first chapter of Ibn Buṭlān's Daʿwat al-Aṭṭibā', in which a shifty physician in Mayyāfāriqīn tries to convince a newcomer and potential competitor that all the diseases have disappeared.) The family is not from Damīra originally (the writer calls it bilād al-ghurba); the writer wants to return to their hometown where they own property and do not have to pay 10 dirhams a month for rent. Meanwhile, the family is perishing from the cold, and the children are 'naked.' The writer himself is ill: in a postscript, he writes, "Do not even ask about me: the illness has gotten seriously worse (zāda bī jiddan). Now, pieces of bloody phlegm (qiṭaʿ balgham dam) are coming up, together with the intense pain (al-alam al-shadīd). How often this flares up in me (yathūr bī)!" He does not ask for a prescription or medical advice, but perhaps the request is implied. The letter also contains quite a lot of discussion of wheat. ASE.

Letter to a Nagid mentioning Jewish communities in various towns and villages of Galilee. The first five lines are very faded.

Written to the judge Hananel b. Shemuel, this letter mentions the son of the Nagid (Avraham Maimonides, his son-in-law) and a certain R. Menahem. The judge, accompanied by the young son of the Nagid, had visited a village and summoned complainants to Fustat. The writer (probably a stranger) discusses the maneuvers of 'those people' who had formed a mob and threatened to beat the complainants if they should come to Fustat. (Information from Goitein index cards)

Hebrew letter to a judge in Jerusalem from his servant Shemuel. Probably of late date. (Information from Goitein index cards)

Letter sent to the Nasi Shelomo b. Yishay in Fustat by his assistant in Bilbays, describing his journey from Syria to Egypt and saying that the people of Bilbays have not paid him yet for the pesiqa mentioned in a previous letter. Also reports about the plunder of the bazaars of the wool makers and clothiers, about a tribute levied for the wali (musadara) of 500 silver dirhams. (nuqra) and 200 others shohad li'l-na'ib (a bribe to the local appointed leader), and the capture of a large caravan near al-Arish and of the people of Gaza, so that no travel to Syria was possible. (Information from Gil)

Recto: Letter from Yehuda b. Aharon b. al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to Abū l-Majd Meir b. Yakhin, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated 23 Shevat, 1208 CE. Yehuda copied for Meir dirges (qinnot) and liturgical poetry (piyyutim). The whole letter deals with the exchange of professional news and information between the two cantors. In particular, R. ʿOvadya the cantor from Damascus was meant to deliver certain piyyutim, but he departed suddenly without warning, which is why Yehuda is sending them with the present letter (r6-12). Yehuda rebukes Meir for sending him vague requests without specifying the opening lines of the piyyutim, which cools Yehuda's ardor for fulfilling his requests (r12-17). He also asks Meir to send back the note about the reading of Deut. 1:44, which Yehuda had seen in the Tāj (the Aleppo Codex) (r17-19). He also wants Meir to send him the fatwa that relates to Yehuda's court case against a judge (r20-22). He asks if ʿOvadya is planning to travel again (r23-24) and concludes with greetings. See Goitein, Med. Soc. II, 548 n. 59, for an explanation of the date in this letter and in T-S 16.287. Yehuda writes 168, with 4800 implied, so the year is 4968. On verso is a draft of a legal query in a different hand. Information in part from Frenkel and from Goitein's note card. ASE.

Letter sent from Alexandria by Yiṣḥaq Simha to Abu al-'Ala al-Dimashqi of Cairo, instructing him how to provide for the family of Abu al-Faraj during the latter's journey to the Maghreb. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter dated 3 Tevet 1214 from Abu l-Najm Hilal, in Alexandria, to his brother Abu l-Majd (Meir b. Yakhin), in Fustat, describing the horrors of his Nile voyage. He excuses himself for being momentarily unable to send the present promised to the little girl personally, but encloses six combs and six spindles, two of each for Abu l-Majd's elder daughter, and the others presumably for Rivkah and Sitt Mas'ud who are mentioned in the last line. (Information from Goitein's note card and from Mediterranean Society, I, pp. 297, 298; V, pp. 37, 515.) See also ENA NS 22.9, a letter dated 8 Tevet (albeit possibly a different year) in which Abu l-Majd regrets not being able to find Hilal at the dock and rebukes him for leaving in such great haste. ASE.

Letter sent from Alexandria by Shemuel b. Aharon to Abu Ishaq Avraham b. Moshe in Fustat, explaining why he could not send the silk which he had dyed with gold, and sending greetings, though without mentioning his own name, probably because his handwriting was known to the recipient. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 241, 573)

Letter to the teacher Ibn Yosef, informing the writer's mother about an agreement with his future wife and listing several persons on the verso, among them two Jewish men called Qarqashandi, one of them being a school teacher and the other a Levi. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, p. 359, and from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: Letter from the teacher Abū Yaʿqūb to an unknown recipient. Written in a good hand and pleasant style. This letter implores the addressee to help the writer buy medicine (?) and 2 ounces of sugar for his ill infant child, assuring him that he and his wife didn't have enough money even for a pound of bread. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, 188; Goitein index cards.) Specifically, the writer requests the price of a qirṭās (probably meaning a bag) of nuqūʿ (which can mean infusion, as of a medicine, but also dried apricots, which would more easily go in a bag). The writer's son has a terrible cold (nazla ʿaẓīma). Verso: The beginnings of seven lines of a letter or petition in Arabic script, with wide space between the lines. In between the lines and at 180 degrees, there are a few more lines in small Arabic script, possibly the address of the letter on recto. The name Abū l-Ṭāhir can be read. ASE.

Letter from Abū l-Barakāt b. Abū l-Ḥasan, in Alexandria, to Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. The letter informs Shelomo about the passing away of the local judge, R. Shemuel. Shelomo's father, Eliyyahu the judge, is asked to come and serve as judge in Alexandria. Gives many names of important community members in Alexandria. (Information from Frenkel.)

Letter sent to Moshe Qassas from Jerusalem, saying there was no point in remaining any longer in the Holy City since it was impossible to earn a living there, in particular because the addressee had two sons who should be married off. Possibly from the 14th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, p. 474)

Letter mentioning goods like saffron and rhubarb and complaining about the taxes and the tarsim (house detention for delinquent debtors or capitation tax payers). (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Recto: fragment of a recommendation letter from Daniel b. Azarya to Eli ha-Ḥaver b. Amram, Fustat. The name of the person who is recommended is unknown but it seems he belonged to one of the Palestinian Gaon families. (Gil, Palestine, vol. 2, 688-689, Doc. #372) . VMR

Letter sent by Abu al-Barakat to Abu Nasr, asking him for 3 dirhams to hire a riding beast and asking another 3 dirhams from the recipient's friends for provisions, so he could try his luck in one of the congregations of the Rif. (Information from Mediterranean Society, IV, pp. 265, 448)

Letter from a Jerusalem pilgrim writing from Alexandria, admonishing his relatives, who were staying in his house in Fustat, to exercise utmost consideration towards “the lady of the house” (his wife). She had always been an excellent companion to them. Ca. 1160. (Information from Goitein’s index cards) EMS

Poetic letter addressed to Abu Ishaq Ibrahim. (Information from Goitein index cards)