Geniza Lab

Beginning of a letter to Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen b. Aharon ha-Kohen. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter sent from Alexandria in which a cheese-maker asks his son to send him the receipt for his capitation tax and writes that he hopes to travel home as soon as the Khalij canal of Fustat has enough water. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter sent from Fustat by Shelomo b. Eliyyahu ha-Dayyan to Sitt Rayhan, expressing concern about her health (r3–11, v20, address), dealing with a house of which one quarter belongs to her, and asking her to travel to Fustat. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Note to R. David to summon a Maghribi named Abu Dawud Khayyat, whose grown-up son had died and whose wife is critically ill with dysentery and fears that she will not see her husband again. On verso are accounts and several versions of the signature of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, placing the date in the early 13th century. ASE.

Letter of request, addressed apparently to Madmun b. Yefet, by a person in inland Yemen, for help against Ibn Yiju, involving a shipment of five bahars (of what is not said).

Letter addressed to 'our lord,' dealing with a dispute between friends. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 295, 588)

Part of a letter, c. mid-16th century, from Abraham Sagis, in Jerusalem, to Joseph Qorqos, who is normally resident in Jerusalem but is currently visiting Egypt, regarding the distribution of funds sent to Jerusalem by various Egyptian donors, including the dignitary Shelomo Alashqar, from which support was also given to the Ashkenazi yeshiva and the recipient’s own yeshiva, both in Jerusalem. Mentions David Zulati, Jacob Galican, Jacob Hami, Judah, Abraham, and Mordechai. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from a woman named Najma, in Fustat/Cairo (l. 4), to her father Moshe Perdonel. Dating: ca. 16th century. There is a detailed summary in Goitein, Med Soc V, p. 222 note 17. See also Esther-Miriam Wagner, “Goitein and girlish prose: T-S 13J 24.22," Fragment of the Month, Cambridge University Library, March 2012, for revisions/refutations of many of Goitein's beliefs about this letter.

Sentimental letter sent by a man to his maternal uncle reporting that he and his wife are well and healthy, but perishing from longing for the recipient and the family, and giving regards to about 25 persons. Possibly dated to the 14th century. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 25, 26, 432)

Letter to Moshe b. Hini ‘the lesser’, mentioning business affairs and people including Abraham Leon (c. 17th century). (Information from CUDL)

Letter to Mattia Ashkenazi and his brother Shelomo, from their father. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: possible letter dealing with preparations for marriage, quoting BT Ketubbot. Verso: pen trials including various doodles. (Information from CUDL)

Letter to Shemuʾel al-Jibālī from his cousin (15th-16th century). (Information from CUDL)

Letter, c. 16th century, written on behalf of and signed by Joseph Karo, in the land of Israel, to Jacob Villarreal, in Egypt. Joseph requests repayment of a loan, and that payment should be made through Shelomo Sirilio and Isaac Alashqar. (Information from CUDL)

Letter, from Shemuʾel ha-Kohen, in Jerusalem, to various community leaders in Fusṭāṭ, in which the writer asks whether he can use a sermon to discuss his financial needs. Mentions Abraham Ashkenazi, and Isaac Ezmeralda. (Information from CUDL)

Left side of a letter sent by Ḥalfon b. Menashshe to his brother in law, in which the sender writes that Eli had served the Tala'i', and asking the recipient to send him a mantle for his shoulders. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, 47, 518, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the office of the Nagid Yehoshua Maimonides (d. 1355), to the Jewish community in Cairo. He is ordering them to pay back to the public collection for the money (150 dirhams) that was taken from it to the capitation tax, for the poor that could not pay. This amount of money was taken from the "food for the poor" section in the collection. Mid 14th century (Ashtor estimation). VMR

Letter to the judge Eliyyahu b. Zecharia from Mansur, regarding the dispatch of some books. (Information from CUDL)

Calligraphic letter sent by Eliyyahu b. Khalaf to a man, evidently the head of the Jews in Fustat or Cairo, emphasizing that the community in his town enjoyed security and peace. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 349, 350, and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Abū l-ʿAlāʾ, in Alexandria, to Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Fustat. Dating: 1141 CE. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ reports on quarrels and intrigues within the Alexandrian community regarding the visit of Yehuda ha-Levi and also includes information about the compilation of Yehuda ha-Levi's new poems in a dīwān. He adds a clandestine postscript in Arabic script, "Burn after reading." (Information from Frenkel.)