Geniza Lab

Letter addressed to Makhlūf al-Maghribi in Jerusalem, in the 'house of Natan,' about various commercial matters. Yehuda al-Ashkenazi and Abu Khalifa are also mentioned. EMS

Letter in Ladino from the merchant Avraham Mayo to his father, probably from Alexandria to Fustat/Cairo, dealing with numerous business transactions and the arrival of a Venetian ship. Avraham reports that he received his father's letter stating that he had selected the saffron and sold two out of three fardos (sacks) of גֿידארי (possibly an Indian textile known as "gudari"; possibly the Turkish headgear "çidari"; the diacritical mark over the ג indicates that it is not simply a hard "g"). Avraham and his partner Sulaymān will purchase as much גֿידארי as they can find and send it. "Here, he and I are like brothers. Just so, you and Khuḍayyir should be like brothers. Always help him." Avraham then mentions five sacks of raisins. He then lists the goods he has sent to his father: (1) fifteen panes of lead marked "Mayo Kavakado"; (2) five espuertas (baskets) of lead oxide (מרדסינך, probably from the Persian "murda-sang"; thanks to Professor Daniel Sheffield for this identification), which bear the seal of Sulaymān; (3) and 107 "kedives" (?) of fine Istanbul iron, which he has sent in the company of Khuḍayyir. The lead cost 3 ducats, amounting to 32 Venetian ducats and 33 muayyadis. The lead oxide cost 100 ducats, amounting to 845 [. . .], and the iron cost 182 ducats, amounting to [...]. Avraham paid 37 muayyadis for the גֿירמה (from context: the warehouse? See verso, l. 21). He then reports how much it cost him to transport each good to Rashid, whence they were presumably transported to Fustat/Cairo. Avraham paid 29.5 Venetian ducats for the five sacks of raisins—it seems this is equivalent to 60 muayyadis per qintal—and he is pleased to have gotten the best raisins from the ship at such a good price. He paid 100 Venetian ducats and 100 coronas for the "mersa" (? מירסה) and asks his father to write quickly [if he wants any], because mersa is in high demand. He also purchased some more raisins, and five qintals of cheese (? קיסה) for 1 corona per qintal. Avraham asks his father to send him some of the capital, because he needs to put it to use "between now and Sukkot" during the mercantile season, otherwise "large groups like those that come from Venice" [will outcompete us? the sentence seems incomplete], and it is better for his father to live on his earnings rather than on the business capital ("el cavdal"). Avraham further reports that the [...] of the city died yesterday after two days of suffering from the plague. 'The young son of the teacher (al-muʿallim) is wounded. The Muslims ("moros") are fighting once again ("de nuevo se hieren").' Avraham then gives instructions for what Bunyal should buy on his behalf ("not lentils, but rather a piece of רוודי מתלוק"). Avraham asks his father to inform Yaʿaqov b. Ḥabīb that Moshe b. Hīnī arrived and told Avraham that he had abandoned the gum (la goma) in Rashid, because he could not find cameldrivers and because it was too heavy to transport any other way. He left the gum there in trust ("encomendado"), with enough money for cameldrivers and other expenses for it to be transported onward. "When it arrives, we will be diligent to sell it, do not have any preoccupation." Avraham must have taken a break, because the next thing he writes is, "The gum has arrived." He concludes the letter with kisses for his mother and for Yizhaq and for Nissim. In a first postscript, he asks his father to go and examine Khuḍayyir's sacks of raisins and see if any bear the sign of the anchor and [...], and to write to Avraham with this information. In the second postscript, he asks his father to send good, big, "Qaitbey" [...]s (coins minted under Qaitbey?) with either Ibn Ḥabīb or with Bunyal, whoever comes, and that he is to leave them for Avraham in the גֿירמאס. But if neither of them plan to come, then the goods should be sent with Shemuel Kohen, "and write to him that they belong to Raḥamim." The last line of the letter mentions a cryptic good (linen? firewood? לינו די סאפאר) and says "do not write his response" (?), perhaps because it is a sensitive matter. Date: Plausibly written in 1513/14 CE, based on (1) a reference to Yaʿaqov b. Ḥabīb, who may be identical with the famous author of the ʿAyn Yaʿaqov who died in 1516 CE, and (2) a reference to a plague victim, and (3) a known recurrence of the bubonic plague in Egypt in 1513/14. On the other hand, there is at least one other Yaʿaqov b. Ḥabīb in Geniza documents from the early 18th century (see AIU VII.D.104 and AIU VII.E.30). Then again, Moss. VII,16.2 is a fragment of a Hebrew document from 1544/5 CE centered on an Avraham, a Raḥamim, and the raisin trade. Information largely from Grace Masback's edition and translation in her Junior Paper, "Avraham Mayo’s Egypt in the Age of Exploration." ASE.

T-S 13J22.6 was published By Gil, Palestine, #404. It is the left hand side of the letter. T-S 13J7.6 is the right hand side of the same letter, published by Gil (transcription of the whole document) in his 1991 article of corrections and additions to his 3-volume Palestine. This is a letter of complaint to Avraham ha-Kohen b. Yiṣḥaq b. Furat (mid 11th century). The writers complains about the Christian governor Ibn Gorgas who built a church next to a mosque, a controversy arose, and now the Jews are in danger.

Opening of a letter to the communities of Egypt from the community of Ramla.

Letter from Nissim b. Yishaq al-Tahirti. Around 1057. The letter was probably from Susa to Fustat and it contains the account of Musa b. Barhun al-Tahirti after his death. The writer calls Musa “al-Marhum” – the one who has God’s mercy, a phrase that is taken from the Muslim culture. Mentions the year ד'תתט"ו but the letter is later than that. Mentions big changes in the Dinar rate vs. the dirham. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #391) VMR

Introduction to a letter to the Nagid Yehuda b. Saadya. (May be also a complete letter expressing a declaration of fellowship). (Information from Goitein's index cards) VMR Arabic text on verso, rather large lines.

Letter from the rabbinical court of Fustat to Madmun b. Ḥasan regarding the estate of Ibn Jumayhir. Fustat, 1146.

Letter from Nahray b. Nissīm, Fusṭāṭ, to Barhūn b. Ṣāliḥ al-Tāhartī, probably in Egypt, ca. 1045, concerning business between the two. Mentions a shipment of pearls. Nahray sends his blessing to Khalfa, from the Tāhartī family, for his marriage to a woman from the Uqba family. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 2, pp. 711-714, #242). VMR. Nahray anxiously mentions to Barhūn that he has already paid the Amīr's emissary Abū Ishāq 150 dīnārs in Fusṭāṭ and it concerns him that the Amīr is still demanding the same from him in Alexandria. "If, God forbid, he continues to demand payment from you after he knows that it was already collected from me, then you will certainly remind him of his own letter to his emissary Abū Isḥāq, so that he will return to us what he has taken from us." YU.

Hayfa, daughter of Sulayman Ibn al-Ariq, writes to the Ḥaver Eli b. Amram, the spiritual head of Jerusalem congregation of Fustat, during the third quarter of the eleventh century. She asks him to write to Damascus (from Egypt) to her husband Said b. Muamar, the silk weaver, after he had deserted her twice. She was forsaken by her family as well. She had a boy from Said and she wants his compassion or that he will set her free. (S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society; and Goitein's index cards) VMR

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Reused for business accounts on verso, which are in the hand of ʿArūs b. Yosef (according to Goitein's notes). The letter is written in a very difficult hand. The addressee is asked to meet with Abū [...], Abū l-Barakāt, and the latter's mother and to convey the sender's greetings and the message that he only cut off his correspondence with them because they cut it off first. It seems that the sender's father (al-marḥūm abī), who was intimately associated with the addressees, has died. (Goitein read "abī" as "ṣabiyy" and a previous PGP transcription interpreted this as his son—but presumably that would have been written "al-ṣabiyy." Another possibility is "akhī"/brother, since the scribe does not carefully distinguish between כ and ב.) The death has led to various financial/business complications. The addressees are to send him all the things they are supposed to send, "just as you would to your father." The sender did not want to write a power of attorney as he has done with others. Apparently he wants to try resolving the dispute without resorting to legal instruments. He closes by asking them to do what is right, then a threat to escalate the situation if they don't. (All of this is tentative, because the letter has still not been adequately transcribed.) EMS. ASE.

Letter from Abū l-Barakat b. Abū l-Ḥasan to Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. The sender is evidently a family member of Shelomo's wife Sitt Ghazāl bt. Abū l-Faraj. Abū l-Barakat reminds Shelomo that Sitt Ghazāl’s relatives had only reluctantly agreed to let her depart for Alexandria in the first place, and that they had made this concession in good faith, believing that he would treat her well. The writer goes on to defend Shelomo’s charges against Sitt Ghazāl’s slothfulness, lambast him for his boorishness and lack of empathy for his young wife, and attempts to socially shame the husband into proper behavior. (Eve Krakowski, “Female adolescence in the Cairo Geniza documents,” PhD diss., The University of Chicago, 2012, 68, 236, 238–39, 278–79.) EMS. Likely a join with T-S 6J3.15 (identified by Oded Zinger).

Letter concering the apperance of a prophet, and inauguration of the messianic age in 1226 with the appearance of Elijah, of the messiah in 1233, and of the kingdom of God in 1240 (5000 of the creation). Original letter was sent from Marseilles to Qabes; this copy went to Alexandria. The letter mentions that Elazar of Worms believed in this prophet. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Verso: Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. A scholar is asked for the hand of his daughter in a complete letter (written calligraphically by a scribe) asking the prospective father-in-law to exercise utmost secrecy.

Letter in which the writer sends greetings to R. Hananel, “al-dayyan al-jalil” (the illustrious judge) and to the judge Yehiel b. Eliakim (of Aleppo). The note, mostly in Judeo-Arabic, begins with the Hebrew expression, “In the name of the Merciful, (a letter) to the honorable, great, holy, precious, crowned, glorious […] judge Eliyyahu the wise.” (S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:515; Esther-Miriam Wagner, “The Weakening of the Bourgeoisi,” in From a Sacred Source: Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif,” ed. Ben Outhwaite and Siam Bhayro, Brill:2010, 347) EMS

Letter from Yosef Ha-Kohen b. Shelomo Gaon, Jerusalem, to Efrayim b. Shemarya, approximately 1050.

Letter from an unknown writer, in Alexandria, to Maṣliaḥ Gaon, in Fustat. Dating: 1127–38 CE. In Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew. The purpose of the letter is to beseech Maṣliaḥ to investigate the matter of the death of a family member of the writer, a case with which Maṣliaḥ was clearly somewhat familiar already. It seems that the legal proceedings in Alexandria had not gone in the writer's favor, and he blames a group of evildoers not only for this but also for the death of the family member in the first place. The writer opens with the rabbinic dictum (Bava Meṣiʿa 58b) that verbal oppression is graver than monetary oppression, because the latter can be restituted but the former cannot. This is all the more true, he adds, when frauds or conspiracies (ghabā'in) have been perpetrated on somebody. He continues by saying that a physician who has personal experience of illness and treatment is all the more effective in treating others; that Maṣliaḥ himself has been the victim of conspiracy of rank (? ḥāl) and money (māl), but God in his mercy restored to each person what they deserved; thus, Maṣliaḥ will be the most suitable person to take up the case the writer is about to present, which is one of conspiracy of rank and money and family and connections (? wasā'iṭ) and witnesses. Indeed, there is a group of well-known evildoers in Alexandria who seek to pervert justice and corrupt the judges, and make it appear as if their victims are the ones at fault. As for the dead man (l. 20f), and how he lost his mind and perished after drinking the medicine—what truly killed him, according to the writer, was the fact that he had been slandered by others who complained about him to Maṣliaḥ, when in fact the dead man was the one who was wronged and ought to have been the one complaining. The writer's only desire is for Maṣliaḥ to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. The writer prefers this to the entire inheritance, for which he has no need. He then cites a (sadly faded) saying of certain physicians about the delirium (hadhayān) that certain illnesses produce; all the more so for someone (the dead man) who suffered multiple illnesses, of mind, of body, and a conspiracy (ghabīna) against him. He concludes with formulaic praises and pleas, and finally writes, cryptically, "Ben Zoma is still outside" (Ḥagiga 15a). ASE.

Letter from Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti, from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1059. Mentions trading with Byzantium and Sicily. Writes about beads, especially from one type (“Hab Ruman” – “pomegranate seeds”). (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #368) VMR

Letter to Abu Sahl b. Ibrahim from his brother Yeshu‘a b. Sa‘id detailing how thieves (wusus) entered into Yeshua’s shop and vegetable garden (mabqala) at night, stealing from him money and silk. He requests Abu Sahl to quiet the heart of Abu Yaqub b. Yeshu‘a and ask him to be patient, further remarking that he is ready to sell his soul to Abu Yaqub (fa lau ṣīrtu an abya‘a nafsī). Verso: directions and list of bible verses. EMS

Letter from Yehizkiyahu, the Head of the Gola, b. David to an unknown person. July 1036. The writer asks the addressee to keep their letter correspondence on a regular basis. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #67) VMR

Letter and a responsum, on either side of the same sheet of paper, detailing the story of a man in distress, particularly because of debt. The letter likely concerns an earlier stage of the case, discussed in yet another responsum. The handwriting looks like Berakhot b. Shemuel. (Mark Cohen, The Voice of the Poor in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, 2005, 80-2) EMS