Geniza Lab

Notes recording debts in Judaeo-Arabic. (Information from Goitein's index cards and CUDL)

Letter from Shela b. Mevasser to the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya. Shela mentions complaints and rumors spread about him. He asks the Nagid to act against two silk dyers who have been troubling his brothers, Shealtiel and Yosef. Written after the year 1094. (Information from Frenkel. See additional information in Cohen, Self-Government, 150, 250, 256 and 268. Cohen: Letter from Shela b. Mevasser (Alexandria) to Mevorakh b. Saadya reporting on local affairs. The local community was happy to hear that the Nagid and his son would be joining the Fustat elders on the upcoming holidays, and the writer led the community in prayer thanking God for this. The writer bemoans the fact that he has been maligned by someone. He reports about his two brothers, Shealtiel and Yosef, silk dyers, who for years have been favored by the authorities on account of the Nagid and who bear some communal responsibilities; for the past three years they have been vexed by two Shamiyyun.

Letter by Hibat Allah b. Khalaf al-Hamawi to Barakāt b. Khulayf, complaining that he couldn't sell the resin and mentioning a transport by the ship of al-Harbi, apparently a Christian from a Christian land. Dated May 1037. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, p. 118)

Letter to Efrayim b. Shemarya on behalf of the lepers of Tiberias, approximately 1050. People with skin ailments were drawn to the hot springs of Tiberias and those without means to support themselves were sent with letters appealing to the generosity of communities such as Fustat by describing their sufferings in graphic terms. (Information from CUDL)

Letter: poetic letter (probably a draft) to an important individual, addressed as נין הגאונים ותפארת הישיבות. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Petaḥya b. (abū al-?)Maḥāsin, a refugee from Palestine, to Avraham b. Shelomo, his relative in Fustat, shortly after the Crusader conquests at the beginning of the twelfth century. Ed. Goitein, also G. Weiss.

An epistle from the community of Alexandria to that of Mastuara (in Byzantium). The letter deals with the ransoming of Byzantine Jews taken captive, and was probably a letter of introduction to be carried by one of them, called Leo. Leo’s brother Eliyyahu is also mentioned.

Moshe b. 'Amram b. Ḥalfon ha-haver asks Za'im al-Mulk in Fustat to help him retrieve the inheritance of his grandfather in al-Ramla, which was taken away by Ma'mun al-Dawla after his own father's mother died. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter in which a Kohen, who is in financial difficulties and is the father of girls, asks the Nagid Mevorakh to allow him to beg throughout the Rif (countryside). He requests two letters of recommendation, one from the notable Abu'l-Mufaddal. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Enthusiastic letter by Yaʿaqov ha-Kohen b. Yeshaʿyahu, a leader of the Jews of Yemen, to Mevorakh, congratulating him on his appointment as Head of the Jews. (Information from Mediterranean Society, V, pp. 196, 197) The letter was sent from the Ṣulayḥid capital of Dhū Jibla to Fusṭāṭ around 1095 C.E. The letter emphasizes the close connection between the Yemenite Jewish communities and Mevorakh, revealing that Yemenite Jewry during this period was connected to Egypt and the Palestinian Rabbanite yeshiva, and not only to the Babylonian Yeshivot as had been believed (see on this Ashur and Outhwaite, “An Eleventh-Century Pledge of Allegiance to Egypt from the Jewish Community of Yemen” CmY 22 (Juil. 2016) 34). (Nathaniel Moses) Old IB number: 350. New IB number: VII, 64

Recto: A woman complaining to the Nagid Mevorakh about her inefficient brother-in-law who was unable to secure her children's estate from his partner, expresses the apprehension that the latter too might die, and getting something out of orphans for other orphans was next to impossible. (Information from Mediterranean Society, III, pp. 296, 302) Verso: List in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a letter written by a Samaritan carpenter, Joseph b. Ismaʿīl, asserting his devotion to the Law and seeking employment for the writer. It was probably written to a Rabbanite community. Bodl. MS heb. b 11/13 is a letter from the same individual, and reveals he is destitute and requests that the ‘head carpenter’ be instructed to accept him, because his co-religionists, the Samaritans, were too concerned with their own prosperity and not with poor people like him. The letter is written on the inside folios of a bifolium, with the writer’s name on f. 1r and blank on f. 2v. It appears to have been bound into a codex. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from a woman, in Jerusalem, to her brother, in Egypt. In Hebrew, with several Judaeo-Arabic terms mixed in. Dating: Probably late 15th or early 16th century (per A. David); the letter is undated but refers to peraḥim (ducats), and is headed by the abbreviation בה. The sender complains at great length about the addressee's wife, her sister-in-law. "I say to her, 'Why did you say you wanted to go to him, and now you don't want to go?'" She discusses trade in books as well as bread, wheat, barley, olives, and lemons. Mentions two inkwells (dawātayn), one of which was sent via Qaṭya (in the Sinai desert). Mentions letters from "the Nagid." She returns to complaining about the sister-in-law and her friendship with Jawhara and "those witch friends of hers" (אלו החברות הכשפניות שלה), apparently including Jawhara and Sara the broker (al-Dallāla), who curse [...]. A little further down: "And the woman who was selling hashish..." (or just herbs?). On verso there is a lot more about money matters—her difficult circumstances, which even led to time in prison—as well as more about women who are fighting with the sender. She asks her brother to save her from this 'evil woman' and also urges him to take a different wife ("If a widow, she should be young; a virgin is better"). The letter was written on her behalf by Yom Ṭov b. Yosef b. ʿImanuel and it is addressed to [...] Hārūn al-ʿŪdī. (Information in part from CUDL and mainly from Avraham David's edition.)

Recto: Letter from Shelomo b. Yehuda to Shelomo Ha-Rofe b. Eli, Tripoli (Lebanon), 1039. Shelomo b. Yehuda writes about Natan b. Avraham, a young challenger who had set himself up as a rival Gaon in Ramla and had written letters to Egypt soliciting support. Shelomo was livid and describes how he set off for Ramla and excommunicated Natan and his supporters. He warns Shelomo b. Eli that any letters arriving from Natan should be ignored as they are ‘iniquitous scribblings and mischievous missives’. Verso: Address and, in a different hand and ink (brown), a Hebrew piyyut referring to the story of Pharaoh and the exodus, concluding in two lines at the top of recto.

Letter from Moshe b. Labrāṭ, in al-Mahdiyya, to the Head of the Jews of Egypt (Moshe b. Mevorakh) asking him to assist the son of Yaʿaqov II b. Nissim I, who was murdered on his way from Dahlak to Yemen. The son is trying to retrieve his father’s belongings, as well as the goods carried by him for Muslims and Jews. Dating: ca. 1100 CE. (Information from CUDL.) See also Goitein notes linked below.

Letter sent from al-Mahdiyya by Yosef b. Musa Tahirti to his brother Barhun in Fustat, dealing with trade in the Maghreb and fiscal matters. Dated ca. 1057. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3 p. 198)

Letter sent from al-Mahdiyya by Yosef b. Musa Tahirti to his brother Barhun in Susa. The letter deals with marketing goods, especially pepper, and contains details about the trade with Qayrawan and Sicily, as well as details about ships and some family matters. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 191)

Letter to a sister, asking her to convince her brother to pay what he owes to the writer. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Fragment of a letter from Isma’il b. Barhun al-Tahirti probably from Mahdiyya, to Yosef b. Ya’aqov b. Awkal from Fustat. Probably August 3, 1011. The writer expected to receive a confirmation for receiving 150 dinars that he sent to Fustat to b. Awkal, but he did not get it. It seems from the letter that the security situation was not good, especially because of the dangerous of attacks in the sea by Byzantines. The last part of the letter mentions money to the Yeshivas. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 2, #122) VMR

Letter to a hazzan, Ben Sadoq, who is asked to intervene on behalf of the writer, Menashshe nin Shemaiah, before Sar Salom, head of the community of Alexandria. The writer says he’ll be in Alexandria at the New Year, God willing. Ca. 11th century. Menashshe signs his name at the end surrounded by a motto. Verso: small amount of illegible text in a different hand and ink. (Information from CUDL)