Geniza Lab

Letter of condolence from from al-Mubārak, Hiba, Faḍl, and Isḥāq, the sons of Yeshuʿa b. Samḥūn, to the ḥaver Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAllun b. Meʾir upon the death of Abū Yūsuf. In Judaeo-Arabic with the address in Arabic script on verso. Also wishing blessings upon the community of the Jerusalemites. The rest of the verso is taken up with a collection of piyyuṭim for mourning, in different hands. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Yiṣḥaq b. Benveniste (possibly from Narbonne, France), Dimyāṭ (Damietta), to Yehoshuaʿ b. Dosa asking for letters of recommendation to the government in order to be able to continue traveling. Mentions the Fatimid vizier al-Malik al-Afḍal (r. 1094–1121), Tripoli, Jabla, and the lands of Ishmael and Edom (possibly Byzantium), to which Yiṣḥaq was hoping to travel. Address in Judaeo-Arabic on verso. (Information from CUDL)

Family letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Addressed to numerous family members: ʿAbd al-Ghaffār, Shuqra, the physician Ṣafiyy(?); Qamr; the sender's sister ʿAzīza and her husband Sulaymān, and others. Mentions Istanbul (v15) and the currency ashrafī (r20) which was first coined in 1425 CE. Many greetings to relatives. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and CUDL.) Needs examination.

Petition addressed to Yaḥyā ha-Sar. In Judaeo-Arabic with some Hebrew. The handwriting may be known from other documents. Dating: Possibly ca. 1100 CE, based on the similarity to CUL Or.1080 J40 and the mention of Ṣārim al-Dawla in l. 8 (a relatively unusual title which was held by a Fatimid ruler in Ashqelon under Badr al-Jamālī and his son al-Afḍal ca. 1090s and 1100s CE). Same addressee as CUL Or.1080 J40 (also a Yaḥyā ha-Sar with some of the same titles: שר בית ישראל זקן התפארה הוד השררה). According to CUDL the sender of this petition is a woman, maybe because of the ברת in the address—but this might be a different word, since the words around this appear to yield the name "Shela b. Mevasser." This appears to be a letter of recommendation for charity/assistance on behalf of a druggist/perfumer from Sammanūd named Hiba (ll. 4–5). May refer to accusations of witchcraft: אלכשוף(?) קד(?) אתהם בהא (l. 5). Mentions Ṣārim al-Dawla and something which the governor of the town said (...fa-qāla wālī al-balad...). Someone is under intimidation (...taḥta takhwīf...).The addressee is asked to obtain a document from the deputy (nāʾib) of al-Muʾayyad addressed to Asad al-Dawla, the son of al-Muaʾayyad. The issue involves a sum of 3 dinars and a period of 5 months. The main text of the letter ends with the motto עתרת שלום ואמת. May mention someone who is 'stricken' (hādha al-maʾūf) in the postscript. Needs further examination, ideally with multispectral imaging. ASE

Letter from Ḥayyim b. Amar Madini, from Palermo, probably to Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti. Around 1055. The letter contains details about damage to goods (flax and indigo) that were sent from Egypt to the island. The merchants are facing problems of taxes and bribes. The judge Masliah b. Eliyahu is active in the trading matters. In addition, mentions details about goods that are being sent from the island: silk, leather, oil, and lead. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #651) VMR

Letter. Possibly from Naṣr or Nuṣayr (v19) to some dignitary (sayyidnā, Mordekhai ha-Zeman). In Judaeo-Arabic. Fragment. Dating: Late 12th century, based on the mention of Abū Zikrī b. ʿAṭiyya who also appears in 1182 CE in JRL Series B 3858. The subject of the letter is hard to discern since so much is missing. However, it is mostly about legal thickets involving an orphan girl, an untrustworthy Muslim named ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, a dead person, his niece, and several ambiguous other people, how the writer is seen as meddlesome and knows more than he's supposed to know, and how he wants the addressee to intervene, including by making sure the case is brought to court in Alexandria. ASE.

Letter from Isma’il b. Ya’aqov al-andalusi, probably from Mahdiyya, to Yoshe’a b. Natan al-andalusi, Fustat. Around 1050. Regarding goods that are being sent to the Maghreb, especially linen. Mentions severe events in the Maghreb (in the Mahadiy’s area) that happened in the winter before this letter. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #573) VMR

Letter sent from al-Mahdiyya (Gil)/ Sicily (Ben-Sasson) by Ismail b. Yaʿaqov al-Andalusi to his nephew, Yeshua b. Natan in Fustat, dealing with goods sent to the Maghreb and other business matters. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 891 and from M. Ben-Sasson, Yehudei Sitzilya, p. 245)

Letter to Shelomo ha-Nasi concerning destruction of houses and oppression of his mother's brother in Mosul (May 16, 1237). Context is likely the Mongol invasion. Cf. Bodl. MS Heb. a 3/24 (PGPID 502).

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju. Aden, 1133.

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: ca. 13th century. Addressed to a certain Yeshuʿa. From a man who had ordered for a young boy (likely his son) a handsome copy of the Pentateuch for 45 dirhams, but who has returned it to Abū l-Waḥsh, as it is too small and the letters too minute for the boy to read. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter sent from Alexandria, in which the writer, Avraham b. Elazar the doctor, reports about the arrival of a ship from Marseilles, containing queries from a distant country to Maimonides, and complains about a new imposition by the Sultan and the general poverty of the local community. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 301 and from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from Abū l-Faraj, in Alexandria, to his son-in-law Shelomo b. Eliyyahu. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Early 13th century. Abū l-Faraj admonishes Shelomo to treat his wife Sitt Ghazāl well, and informs him that Shelomo's aunt (who is also his mother-in-law) is not coming to check that her daughter is well but rather coming to arrange a marriage between her son and Shelomo's niece, because she is the owner of 9/24ths of a house belonging to the family. He opens the letter with his preoccupation for Shelomo's illness and his happiness upon learning of Shelomo's recovery (r6–10). He also wishes a speedy recovery to Shelomo's mother (Sitt Rayḥān). (Information in part from CUDL.)

Recto: Family letter in the hand of Shelomo b. Eliyyahu, asking for news of female captives which had been expected to arrive with ships from Acre. Verso: Another letter in a different hand, from a husband to his wife. He encourages her to send their two sons to school in the morning and in the evening, and sends along with the letter payment for their teacher. He warns that the boys’ noble descent will not help them - only their studies. (Information from CUDL)

Letter in Hebrew. Dating: Late—Mamluk or early Ottoman era. From [...] b. Moshe to Yeshuʿa b. Nathan and his father, concerning a number of events including monies owed (in ducats/peraḥim) to various parties as well as reporting the deaths of a large number of Jews. The postscript on verso deals with events that have occurred since the recto was written. Mentions several individuals: Sulaymān b. Zikrī, Abū Makhlūf, Moses Tūnisī (תונסי), Yosef Ḥotani (חותני), Avraham, Yiṣḥaq the doctor, the wife of Yosef the Proselyte, and the cities of Gaza and Hebron. (Information from CUDL and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from Shemarya b. Elhanan (966–1011 CE) about a woman abandoned by her husband ('Agunah) for seven years. The letter is apparently written to the maternal uncle (a communal official) of the deserting husband. This official is encouraged to sort this matter out, so that his family sets a good example. Letter is undated. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Baruch b. Yiṣḥaq to Yosef b. Shemuel, at Fustat, Misr. Baruch asks about events in Egypt and supplies information about his own community and activities, describing his devotion to the study of the Torah. 1094 A.D.

Description from T-S 20.145: Letter/petition from ʿAmram b. Aharon ha-Kohen "the seventh" (the son-in-law of the head of the Palestinian Yeshiva, Evyatar b. Shelomo ha-Kohen) to dignitaries in Fustat, including the Nagid Mevorakh b. Saadya. Dating: 1108–09 CE. The sender wants the addressee to exercise his influence to have the Fatimid navy rescue Evyatar and his family from Tripoli in the period between the summer of 1108 CE (when the populace of Tripoli overthrew Ibn ʿAmmār) and 12 July 1109 CE, when the Franks sacked Tripoli. (Information from Brendan Goldman's edition.) Description from T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177 (old PGPID 17817): Letter. Mainly in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1108 CE, as it refers to the flight of Fakhr al-Mulk Ibn ʿAmmār from Tripoli and how he left it in the hands of his cousin Abū l-Manāqib. The layout is like a formal report, with a narrow width and wide space between the lines. The sender says that he has previously sent a letter concerning "the same matter" to "our cousin," a great dignitary and a kohen. "They took it and traveled with it... toward the beginning of Shabbat Vayoshaʿ (=Beshalaḥ?), the day that Ibn ʿAmmār traveled for Beirut—let him return no more to his house, and let not his place know him any more (Job 7:10)—and then traveled for Tiberias (? טברי) to fortify himself there, and the city is now in the hand of his cousin (ibn ʿamm) Abū l-Manāqib." (Information in part from CUDL.) Joins by CUDL (for T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177) and Alan Elbaum (for T-S 20.145 + {T-S AS 153.176 + T-S AS 153.177}). For an example of the Fatimid state document format which this is emulating, see another report concerning this period in Tripoli (unpublished): T-S AS 129.149 + T-S AS 116.11 + T-S NS 137.20 + T-S NS 207.44 + AIU I.C.73 + T-S NS 238.99 + T-S NS 244.84 (+ T-S NS 125.135). ASE

Enormous letter from Yoel ha-Melammed to Avraham the pious and to his brother Yosef, containing a request for help. (Information from Goitein's index cards)

Letter from the Egyptian physician ʿAfīf b. Ezra, in Gaza (detained there en route from Cairo to Safed), to Shemuel b. Yequtiel al-Amshāṭī, in Fustat. In Judaeo-Arabic with a Hebrew opening. Dating: The beginning of the 16th century. The letter is a plea for help. ʿAfīf reports that Shemuel's letter arrived and was read aloud to the congregation of Gaza, which prayed for him (r19–22). He continues with an account of the illnesses afflicting his family members (r23–v1), all of which he has described in previous letters but has not received any response. "The family had been in the Mediterranean port for two months at the time of the writing of the letter, kept there by illness. The son was gravely ill {with bārida (chills) and sukūna (stupor?) and a nearly unstoppable nosebleed (ruʿāf mufraṭ)}. ʿAfīf says that he had sold everything, including his clothing, for the boy's treatment. The wife was confined to bed (marmiyya), unable to see, hear, or speak {"like a stone thrown on the ground"}. Seven times ʿAfīf cries out "Oh my lord Samuel," imploring him to answer this letter, which was preceded by others that had gone unanswered. Now he promises that this would be the last one, asking the addressee at the same time not to force him to send still another one, for writing such a letter was an ordeal, and finding a carrier for it almost impossible. {"Send me a response before I no longer have a response or need a further letter. O God, o God, o God, I have melted like a candle. 'My heart is become like wax; it is melted in mine inmost parts' (Psalms 22:15). . . . I cannot write a letter and send it but that my heart melts. . . . Every letter that I write is with great distress. I can barely find with whom to send it but that my heart gives out (yanqaṭīʿ) from walking."} ʿAfīf rejects with indignation the charge that he had brought this disaster upon himself (ʿamila bi-rūḥihi) by his own fault (probably by disregarding the warning that the family would be unable to make the journey). Practicing as a physician in Safed (which at that time began to assume its role as a major holy city) was done "for Heaven's sake." No doubt his inability to gain a livelihood in Cairo was another reason." (Goitein, Med Soc, V, p. 86, notes 196–203.) ʿAfīf additionally reports that the righteous R. Pereẓ died on the same journey. Apart from the implied request for direct financial aid, ʿAfīf asks Shemuel to stand security for his sister in Fustat, who is to sell off ʿAfīf's share in a family property that brings in two half-dirhems (muayyadis) per month. ʿAfīf wishes to return to Cairo, but does not have money for hiring a donkey. ʿAfīf b. Ezra (also known as Yosef the Egyptian), along with his traveling companion R. Pereẓ, also appears in F 1908.44XX, lines 70–94. Information from Goitein (note card and Med Soc V). ASE.