Geniza Lab

Letter of questions and demands that was sent by R. Elhanan b. Shemarya to R. Sherira and to R. Hai, ca. 1001 CE. Elḥanan seeks clarification on various Talmudic quotations and asks that they copy and send him a full commentary on the tractates ‘Vows’ and ‘Idolatry’, as he has lost his own copy. Elḥanan’s signature is surrounded by his motto. (Information from CUDL)

Letterbook of Alpalas y Costa, preserving mainly (or entirely?) letters addressed to Daniel Bonfil in Livorno. Dating: 5841 AM, which is 1721 CE. Mentions Ancona several times.

Letter from R. Azarya Zeevi of Jerusalem to R. Yizhaq Castro in Egypt, 1640. Should be read together with AIU VII.D.102—same writer and same addressee. This letter contains a lengthy and convoluted account of the exchanges and transfers of a certain sum of money and how Azarya bested their enemy who had other designs on the money. There is a great wealth of information here about market values of different curencies. People mentioned: הר"י אפמאדו (also mentioned in the other letter, identity unknown, appears to be the same "enemy" alluded to at the beginning); הר״מ זגאן; Yaʿaqov Yaʿish; the writer's father Yisrael Binyamin Zeevi (d. 1688 after an illustrious career in Alexandria and Jerusalem); Zerahya Gota (from Istanbul, a student of Yosef de Trani. In the 1630s he was known as one of the sages of Jerusalem and Hebron. Later he lived in Rashid and then Fustat/Cairo); Yizhaq Baso; Eliyya Ovadya; Shelomo Barukh; Yaʿaqov Levi; Mordekhai Kohen; Azarya b. Vilisad (? וילייסיד), also mentioned in the other letter by Zeevi to Castro, a sage who moved from Istanbul to Jerusalem in the first half of the 17th century. As for the writer and addressee: Azarya Zeevi died after 1652 CE. He is mentioned by David Conforte, who knew him personally, in Qore ha-Dorot. He was the son-in-law of Shemuel Ibn Sid (=Shemuel Sidi?). He was among those taken captive by the Bedouin Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Farukh in 1625/6 (see Horvot Yerushalayim, printed in Venice in 1636). ENA 1846.3–4 is a letter that Azarya Zeevi later received from Avraham Yachini (the Sabbatean?) from Istanbul. Evr. II A 1804, an anonymous letter sent to a certain Moshe, mentions a "R. Azarya." Yiṣḥaq Castro: The son of the better-known R. Yaʿaqov Castro. Conforte wrote about him too in Qore ha-Dorot. He is later mentioned in a legal document in the year 1650/1 CE in BL OR5561.b14. Denominations mentioned: sharifis (=ashrafis from the mid 15th century); arayot (=European coins used in the east, Löwenthaler in German); ibrahimis (=coins minted by Avraham Castro in the first half of the 16th century); gerushim (=sometimes identical with arayot, sometimes identical with reales, apparently); zecchinos (Venetian sequins); and reales (Iberian coins from the 14th century); muayyadis (Ottoman coin named after the Mamluk sultan al-Muayyad Shaykh, current in the 15th and 16th centuries). Information entirely from Avraham David's transcription and footnotes.

Calligraphic letter in Judaeo-Arabic, with wide space between the lines, probably a letter of recommendation for a certain [...]n b. Ṣedaqa who comes from an important lineage but who has been afflicted by the vicissitudes of fate. Several biblical verses and Talmudic dicta are cited. ASE.

Letter from Barhun b. Ishaq Tahirti (Mahdiyya) to Nahray b. Nissim (Fustat) June, 1047.

Letter from Yosef b. Musa al-Tahirti from Mahdiyya, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Around 1058. Mentions several goods including silk, copper, and seashells. Mentions family matters. The writer is concerned about family members and especially about girls that became orphans. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, vol. 3, pp. 215-224, #367). VMR

Recto: Letter in Arabic from Ibrahim b. Muhammad. Between the lines of recto, and verso: Treatise on the ‘people of the land’, with numerous biblical quotations on the wise, the fool, the ʿAm ha-Areṣ, and offerings, as well as quotations from the Talmud. Information from GRU catalog via FGP.

Letter from Yaʿaqov b. Ismail al-Andalusi to his partner Yoshua b. Natan in Fustat. Dated ca. 1050. (Information from Gil)

Detailed letter sent from Sicily (Gil) by Yaʿaqov b. Ismail al-Andalusi to Yosha b. Natan in Fustat, dealing with business matters and mentioning a Rabbinical responsa by Masliah b. Eliah. (Information from M. Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, p. 904 and from M. Ben-Sasson, Yehudei Sitzilya, p. 259)

Letter from the judge Yefet b. Shelomo to Meshullam b. Elʿazar ha-Kohen. Greetings to the addressee's sons Elʿazar and Shelomo. There are many lines of ornate introduction in Hebrew, followed by a few lines of good wishes for the holidays in Judaeo-Arabic. The rest of the fragment is torn away. (Information from CUDL and from Goitein's index card)

Letter of Abu Ali Yehezqel b. Netanel, Alexandria, to his brother Ḥalfon, 1140, written on a fragment of a Fatimid decree (see separate record). Egypt, probably Qalyūb; Adar II; February 21 - March 20, 1140

Letter from one community to another (possibly from Byzantium to Egypt), appealing for assistance on behalf of prisoners and the poor. Signed by Joseph b. ʿAm[..], Ḥayyim b. [...], Moses b. [...], and Nathan b. [...]. On verso there is a midrash on Esther, quoting Psalms 8:3 and 29:11. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yehoshuaʿ Ha-Kohen B. Yair, Tiberias, to the communities of Aleppo, approximately 1020.

Copy of a long letter sent by Ḥananya b. Yosef ha-Kohen, Av Bet Din. Dating: ca. 1020 CE, according to Gil. Probably addressed to the community in Fustat. Mentions Tiberias and a ban of excommunication on the Mount of Olives. The writer excuses his delay in responding to the previous letter, as he was suffering a severe relapse of his illness at the time that he received it. Gil summarizes the contents of the letter as follows: "At the beginning of the eleventh century, Geniza letters definitely disclose that Tiberias is no longer the seat of the yeshiva. The av-bet-din of the yeshiva, Ḥananya ha-Kohen b. Yosef, mentions in his letter the serious differences within the Tiberias community and the yeshiva’s intervention. It appears that Ḥananya's brother served as judge in Tiberias, and when he died, the people of Tiberias asked the yeshiva to send them someone to take his place. Someone was indeed sent, after a group of Tiberian notables promised they would treat him well, but that person apparently tried to discard the authority ofJerusalem, and even took the liberty of proclaiming leap years(!), whereupon the Gaon and the yeshiva excommunicated him. Nevertheless, he continued to do as he saw fit and even organized a faction of supporters, and it seems that they also took for themselves the revenue from the ritual slaughtering that was intended for Jerusalem. [Two brothers in Fustat were apparently helping him.] It does appear, then, that there was some sort of rebellion in Tiberias which tried to re-establish the old order." On the biography of Ḥananya ha-Kohen Av Bet Din, see Gil, History of Palestine, section 854 (pp. 664–65). And see ENA 4009.4 (a letter addressed to him from Sicily) and Moss. Ia,9 (a document drawn up in his court, dated 1007 CE). (Information from Gil and CUDL.)

Recto: a rhyming letter (in ‫-‬יה), each verse ending marked with sof pasuq. It opens מגמת הכתב הזה אדוני. In black ink. Verso: Leviticus 23 in a crude hand, brown ink, unvocalised. The Bible text continues on recto, at the bottom of the leaf in six lines, upside-down in relation to the letter. (Information from CUDL)

Verso: Letter in which a merchant returning, it seems from overseas, and embarking on another prolonged journey, lists 27 assets totaling 460 dinars regarding which action had to be taken. He also mentions debts due him from both Jews and Muslims. The assets were rents of houses, stores and a workshop as well as loans, balances from commercial ventures and income from a partnership in a sugar mill. Dated 1165. (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, p. 263) Recto: Bill of release in Sunbat (Egypt) in 1149, under the jurisdiction of Samuel ha-Nagid. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Maṣliaḥ Gaon (autograph) to a communal leader or judge Avraham, in Malīj. In Judaeo-Arabic. Wide space between the lines. Dated: Shevaṭ 1442 Seleucid, which is 1131 CE. He has enclosed with this letter a debt contract (sheṭar ḥov). Yaʿaqov ha-Levi b. Shela owes money to Seʿadya b. Avraham; the latter has appointed Ṭāhir al-Ḍāmin b. Mufaḍḍal as his agent. Since the witnesses are in Malīj, the addressee is requested to settle the matter so that Seʿadya does not return again and complain to Maṣliaḥ (חתי לא יעוד מסתגית לשער הישיבה). (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter of appeal written by Menashshe, the Alexandrian school teacher, to Abu al-Barakat Yehudah ha-Kohen b. Elazar, Thiqat al-Mulk (Goitein translates 'Trusted Servant of the State'), a high ranking official in the Fatimid court. The letter was written in the seventies of the twelfth century, at the end of Fatimid rule in Egypt. The bulk of the letter is a poem of praise to Yehuda b. Elazar. The request for help is written on the occasion to the pilgrimage of Passover because the writer recently got married and suffers 'the burden of a house' (Information from Frenkel. See also Goitein, Med. Soc. 3:440).

Recto: Letter from the two congregations of Alexandria (No-Amon), led by the judge Yosef b. Shelomo ha-Kohen, to the Jerusalemite congregation in Fustāt, led by Efrayim b. Shemarya. Dating: ca. 1031 CE. Requesting urgent financial assistance for the ransoming of Byzantine Jews taken captive by pirates. The letter mentions the visit of the Gaʾon's son, Avraham b. Shelomo, and refers to Barqa (Cyrenaica, on the Libyan coast), the teacher Yehuda b. Yiṣḥaq, and Yehuda b. Ḥayyān. Verso contains the address, written in rhymed prose and closing with an 'alāma, ברית שלום. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter of appeal for charity from Ḥasday b. Mevorakh b. Mordekhay, written on behalf of a poor man named Yehuda. In Hebrew. Late. The writer quotes passages from the Talmud on the virtues of helping the poor. The word סוריא appears at the bottom after the sender's name. (Information from CUDL.)