Geniza Lab

Letter from Sahlān b. Avraham to a Ḥaver. Dating: ca. 1035. Mentions Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn. (Information from Gil, Palestine, vol. 2 p. 622-623, #339). Goitein summarizes this as follows: "Fragment. According to the request of a Gaon, the scribe of a court deposition restates the contents of that deposition (probably lost), which was against the interest of a certain ḥaver. The letter is addressed to that ḥaver. Preserved is the name of Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllūn, who was granted a power of attorney." VMR

Letter from Abū l-Riḍā to his brother Shelomo. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script. Asking for urgent help with "ghathth al-bayt" (a problem of his wife? or actual house?). On verso he adds that he only wrote this letter while 'sick in the brain' (muta'allim al-dimāgh). Information in part from Goitein's notes.

Letter from a man to his prospective father-in-law. In Judaeo-Arabic. Expressing his enthusiasm about the future connection (ittiṣāl) with him and stating to have heard from the Ḥazzan Ṣadaqa Ibn Nufayʿ (the go-between) that the younger and not the elder daughter was to be the prospective bride. The letter appears to have been left unfinished. Information from Goitein's note card.

Letter from Abū l-Faraj and his son Abū l-Majd in Bilbays to Eliyyahu the Judge (who is the cousin, ibn khāl, of Abū l-Faraj). They have been in Bilbays only a brief time, since 17 Iyyar, seeking a living there because of difficult economic conditions in Alexandria. But this project has not worked out, and so they are planning to return to Alexandria. The main purpose of the letter is to ask Eliyyahu to rebuke another Abū l-Faraj, who owes the writer 18 dinars, and force him to pay. The writer had deposited the money (and other goods) with this Abū l-Faraj on the night before he traveled; this was witnessed by another cousin (ibn khāla) of Eliyyahu, Manṣūr b. Sahlān. The writer told Abū l-Faraj to draw up a contract for the deposit/loan, but he never did so. (Probably he is now denying that he owes anything.) "If I had known that the matter would turn out like this, {I} wouldn't have given him a penny. . . . My greatest need from you is to rebuke Abū l-Faraj, for he is a heretic [zindīq]. My only salvation from him will be through God and through you. I am shocked at how he treated my son. . . . I am now a piece of flesh: I lack money, sight, and a living." He mentions his weak vision earlier in the letter, too, when explaining the "delay of my raḥl (merchandise? travel?)." Also of interest in the letter is what Abū l-Faraj conveys about his hospitality for Eliyyahu's son, the physician Abū Zikrī, who returned from Jerusalem the previous year. Initially, Abū Zikrī stayed with Abū l-Faraj the son of the Parnas. But after Yom Kippur, the writer said, "He should stay with me instead of with strangers." And thus they lived together, "head to head"—apparently an expression of his great hospitality. When the writer and his son, along with Asad and Abū l-Munā, started preparing to travel (to Fustat?), they urged Abū Zikrī to come with them, citing the wishes of Eliyyahu, but he refused. Asad ended up advancing him 17 dirhams for the capitation tax. Abū Zikrī has no intention of coming, but rather is staying in the house of the writer, along with Sulaymān the Yemeni (perhaps the father of Avraham b. Shelomo the Yemeni, who lived with Abū Zikrī in Jerusalem, and who had family in Bilbays, see T-S 8J16.3 and T-S 13J21.5). Abū Zikrī's motivations seem in part financial—he says he will not come until his father sends him 10 dinars. The letter is full of idiosyncratic spellings, many probably reflecting colloquial pronunciation. ASE.

Letter of the cantor Yefet b. Shekhanya to Egypt. The transcribed portion of the letter describes how he came to Acre but did not take any donations from the community, for he learned that they already collected donations for Elhanan b. Shemarya, the rabbinic leader of Egyptian Jewry in early 11th century. MY (Finkel Jubilee Volume, p. 134)

Letter from Yefet b. David in Tyre to his father David b. Shekhanya (c. 1008-11 CE). A collection (pesiqa) for the young hazzan Husayn b. Dawud b. Sakan of Fustat in Acre (well-known under the name Yefet b. David b. Shekhanya). (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:221, 222, 569, and CUDL) EMS

Letter addressed to Netanel ha-Zaqen b. Aharon and his son Shelomo. The letter consists entirely of blessings for the holidays. Mainly in Hebrew. The passages in Arabic are written in Arabic script.

Letter of complaint. In Judaeo-Arabic, calligraphically written, with wide line-spacing. Against an adversary who denounced the sender to the government, gave false witness against him in qāḍī courts and told the Nagid Mevorakh that the sender alowed his cows to be grazed on Shabbat by Gentiles. Same scribe as T-S 13J34.5 (Alexandria, 1090 CE). (Information from Goitein's note card.) Same scribe likely also wrote T-S H10.171. Verso contains a seliḥa for the New Year (יי שמעה בקולי ראה), with alphabetic acrostic (information from CUDL).

An eloquent appeal by a learned merchant from Damascus who had lost all his riches. May be connected with verso, List of donors. (Information from Mediterranean Society, II, pp. 474-475, App. C 8)

Letter from the sons of Berekhya concerning the matters of the yeshivot of Baghdad when Dosa b. Saadya Gaon was the head of the yeshiva of Sura, and concerning the strengthening of the status of Avraham b. Natan ('Ata), the amir's doctor in Adis, August 1015.

Letter from Abū l-Majd, in Fustat, to Barakāt b. Hārūn Ibn al-Kūzī, in Alexandria, sent via the shop of Maḥāsin al-Ḥarīrī. Dated: Ramaḍān, 620 AH, which is October 1223 CE. Abū l-Majd complains of the difficult times and his illness, and the problems of selling a sick female slave who actively resists being sold (recto, margin). Part of his haste to sell her is that he was denounced to the government (ghamazū ʿalayyā l-dīwān) and lost 52 dirhams, evidently taxes related to the slave. (Cf. ENA NS 77.254, an outline for a deed of sale of a slave, where "if someone tattles to the government" is a specific eventuality that is addressed.) Abū l-Majd asks Barakāt to come to Fustat and try to sell her. If it weren't for the bitter cold, Meir himself would come with her to Alexandria. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Recto: Unidentified text in Arabic script. Perhaps a business letter? "... al-Andalusī wa-akhūhā (l. 4)"; pepper may be mentioned several times. Vecto: Halakhic text, possibly part of a responsum, written by Efrayim b. Shemarya, dealing with excommunication (11th century). Information from CUDL.

Alexandria (?); 15 of Iyar; April 17, 1139 Saʿdān b. Thābit Levi al-Baghdādī, a resident of Alexandria who is known to us from two letters he wrote to Ḥalfon (document ח85, ח88) and is also mentioned in document ח89, writes to Avraham b. Muʿṭī, a man from Tlemcen. Even though the addressee's father's name is missing, there is no doubt about his identity, because the writer addresses not only him, but his friend Abū Yaʿqūb Yosef, Yosef b. Ezra. The main part of the letter deals with the writer's great disappointment that the two mentioned merchants did not arrive in Alexandria on the ship in which Ḥalfon was traveling, and especially that they did not send with Ḥalfon the goods that Saʿdān ordered from them, and did not even send him a letter (as Ḥalfon thought they did). The letter was written in the middle of the month of Iyar, and it is possible to learn from this the time of Ḥalfon’s return from Spain. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV)

Letter from Ramla, from Shelomo b. Yehuda to his son Avraham in Fustat, May 1029, describing in great detail the economic and other calamities which haunted the country. Includes the line, "The nation (al-umma) must be treated gently, as a sick man is treated gently" (v23).

Letter from ʿEli b. Yehezqel ha-Kohen, Jerusalem, to Eli b. Hayyim ha-Kohen, Fustat, concerning Eli b. Yehezqel's travels to Acre and Tyre, return to Ramla, and his serious illness there. "I was attacked by vomiting; I exploded from above and below, over 300 times (lit. "sittings"); everybody in the house gave me up. The doctors came on Saturday night and saw that I was finished and that there was nothing to be done any more. I made my will... [then improved]... but I still have terrible weakness." Also mentions the rent from the heqdesh (pious foundation) to the poor people in Jerusalem and other private and public affairs. 1060 (Gil's estimation). (Information from Gil, Palestine; and Goitein's index cards, including index card #27100.) VMR; ASE.

Letter (tadhkira) from Hasun b. Yitzhak al-Khavlani, probably to Musa b. Yahya al-Majani, probably from Alexandria. Around 1030. The writer lists a list of merchandises and products including a stone that he sent for selling in the Maghreb. The addressee is probably in Mahdiyya and Hasun includes a list of things he asks Musa to do for him when he arrives in Qayrawan. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #219) VMR

Letter from Peraḥya b. Yosef. VMR Very faded.

Letter from Yosef b. Peraḥya Yijū, in Mazara, writing to an important merchant, also in Sicily., ca. 1154. Yosef states that his sins are the source of his misfortunes. These misfortunes include a swelling (waram) in the finger of his eldest son Peraḥya who assisted him as schoolteacher. They have been looking for an effective medicine for some time without success. ASE.

Letter written by a poor physician who had not bought “one thread” of a new suit for two years and his children were going hungry. The writer further notes that “By chance I befriended a man from Damascus who introduced me to the family of Sayf al-Islam. I entered their house and treated them, whereupon they fixed for me a payment of one dinar every month.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:256, 579, 580) EMS

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. The addressee is asked to intervene in a divorce case where the woman is being treated unfairly by her husband, who is trying to bilk her out of her dowry (qumāsh) and delayed marriage payment (muʾakhkhar). Likely a draft, based on the format and numerous corrections. (Information in part from CUDL.)