Geniza Lab

Late letter from Jacob Bagilyer to his brother Aharon. Dealing with financial matters (amounts in peraḥim/ducats). (Information from CUDL)

Letter from David b. Avraham Maimonides to R. Isaac regarding some community issues in Ashmum. Connected with T-S 13J27.1. Information from CUDL and Goitein's note card.

Letter sent from Alexandria by Yefet b. Shela to Yosef ha-Kohen, who had returned from Eastern countries to Fustat on his way back to Sicily or some other place in the west. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Two copies of a letter from Mahruz to Sulayman b. Abu Zikri Kohen before sailing back to India. Aden, ca. 1137-1147.

Letter from Yeshua ha-Kohen b. Yosef in Alexandria to the community of Fustat. The handwriting is Yeshua's and the letter is written in rhymed prose. (Information from Frenkel. See additional information in Goitein, Med. Soc. 5:367-8 and Bareket, Shafrir Miṣrayim, 18 (notice there is a mistake in Frenkel's 'mentioned' list: Goitein deals with this letter in volume 5 of Med. Soc. and not in volume 4. The page in volume 5 is 368 and not 68. She also does not mention Bareket's edition). While Bareket claims that the letter was sent from Jerusalem, Goitein claims that it was sent from Alexandria. Goitein claims that the letter was sent by Shelomo b. Yehuda to the Karaites and Rabbanites in Egypt and it was written down by Yeshua ha-Kohen b. Yosef ha-dayyan.

Commercial letter in Ladino, 1733 CE (Tishrei 5594), in Egypt. It concerns the dispatch of goods from Fusṭāṭ and mentions the ships Enrico e Maria and Francesca. A Magen David is drawn in the margin on verso. At the foot of verso is a list in three columns. Information partially from CUDL (where the century is off).

Recto: letter of recommendation from Jerusalem to all cities on behalf of Shabbetay Karira b. Raphael (שבתי כרירא בן רפאל), dated Adar 5596 (= ca. 1836 CE). Signed at the foot of the page with 6 elaborate signatures. Verso: an addition to the letter, with one elaborate signature, dated 1837 CE. Information from CUDL.

Letter from Jalāl al-Dawla, in Fustat, to Shelomo ha-Nasi b. Yishay, in Bilbays. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 1240 CE. The writer describes the difficult economic state of his group staying in Egypt and says that they intend to go back to Mosul. As part of a litany of complaints, he mentions that he has been sick many times and nearly died (v25–26). His sicknesses also feature in T-S 12.654 and T-S NS 321.93. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, II, pp. 264f.) ASE

Very damaged and faded Hebrew letter, with many Biblical verses, seems to contain some moral instructions? Addressed to 'our brothers'. T-S 16.368 seems to be a join, but it is even more damaged. AA

Letter to a certain Shemuʾel, in a Spanish hand. (Information from CUDL)

Letter, dated at bottom: Iyyar 293 (= 1293 Sel. = 982 CE). Although the leaf is quite large, it is so badly mutilated and rubbed that only the closing blessings (thus indicating it is a letter) are preserved. (Information from CUDL)

Letter fragment from the brothers Yosef and Nissim the sons of Berekhya, Qayrawan, to Yosef b. 'Awkal, Fustat (sent in 1007-1013). (pp)

Letter written by [Joseph b.] Elʿazar in Palestine, mentioning various individuals including Abū l-Faraji, Elʿazar the doctor, Joseph the doctor, ʿAbd al-Karam, Sulayman b. ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, and David the Spaniard. The letter also refers to the house of Shemuʾel the prophet. Dated using the phrase ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם, of which the last word is dotted. This equates to 140, i.e. 5140 (= 1380 CE). Assaf (1944:190), however, suggests לי should also be dotted, giving a date 1420 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Letter describing a sea voyage from Tripoli to Sicily (CUDL). “Of another Jew we read in a Hebrew letter that in a large ship, in which thirty-six or -seven Jews and about three hundred Muslims traveled, he was 'the treasurer and commander' (probably fixing the fares and deciding where the goods of the merchants should be stowed). Like Makhlūf, this 'treasurer' was a scholarly person and used the time before the departure of the boat to study with the writer of that Hebrew letter, a rabbi from Christian Europe.” (Goitein, Med. Soc. x, B, 2, 139.) Bibliography: Assaf, Texts, 133.

Court record with several signatures, dated 1622, mentioning an appeal by several poor men who are imprisoned in iron chains. Signatures include those of Shemuʾel di Medina and Raphael b. [...] ha-Kohen. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Arabic script from the nineties of the eleventh century. Avraham b. Sahlan, the grandson of the person with the same name known to have been the head of the Babylonian congregation until the year 1030, wrote the letter to a friend in Alexandria, urging him to send him a poem (qasida) the latter composed. Avraham, a cantor and a poetry fan, attaches a comical poem composed by him, written in praise of Hiba ben Nahum. (Information from Frenkel)

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Nissim of Qayrawan to the Tunisian port of Qabis, c. 1000. The letter concerns legal questions asked by the addressee from Sherira and Hayya Gaon. Verso: Address and an unrelated literary work in Judaeo-Arabic, badly faded. (Information from CUDL)

Letter. Appointment of a general administrator of the qodesh, ca. 1150. Copy of a decision taken in the court presided over by Nagid Shemuel b. Hananya by which Yesha'yahu ha-Levi is appointed general administrator of the properties belonging to the qodesh. After an enumeration of different kinds of property, the decision stresses the full prerogratives and the immunity of the appointee from any interference with his activities by the court. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp. 259 #49)

Letter. The writer explains how a certificate written some hundreds of years earlier was found again after it had been missing for a long time. This certificate was a description of the state of the qodesh and its properties at the time. A section of it, referring to the appointment of Yeshayahu ha-Levi as general administrator of the qodesh, is copied by the writer of this letter; it was printed above Document #49 (T-S 16.63 verso, section a). Besides, the document contains valuable evidence about the second appointment of David Maimondes' grandson, as Nagid. (Information from Gil, Documents, pp.479 #145).

Letter from Yosef and Nissim, the sons of Berekhya, in Qayrawan, to the merchant, Yosef b. 'Awkal, in Fustat (was written after Avraham b. 'Ata' accepted the position of 'Nagid', in the year of 1015, and before Yisrael b.Shemuel b. Hofni became to be a Gaon, 1017 (Mosseri L-162 accompanied this letter with all the enclosure) (pp)