Geniza Lab

Letter from Ṣadoq b. Yoshiyya, in a border town somewhere in the Levant, to the judge Yosef b. Avraham, in Fustat. Dating: probably the beginning of 1100 CE. In this document Ṣadoq, known from Megillat Evyatar and formerly the third of the yeshiva, describes his disgruntlement at having to be in this location, where he went to liberate captive children held by Crusaders in Antioch, including a little girl from his own family, who has now been released. He is still endeavoring to free his son-in-law (שרנו אדירנו חתננו שר בית ישראל), whom Goitein identifies with Abū Saʿd the son of the Tustarī woman (mentioned as a Crusader captive in T-S 10J5.6 + T-S 20.113). Ṣadoq has also sent a letter to the Nagid (Mevorakh b. Seʿadya) reporting on his efforts for the captives. Verso contains the address and, written inverted in relation to the text on recto, 8 lines of pen exercises in a different hand. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Madmun b. Ḥasan to Avraham Ibn Yiju (Aden, 1133-1140). There is a second copy of this letter: T-S 13J7.13 + T-S K25.252.

Letter from the teacher Bū l-Ḥusayn Yehuda (b. Aharon?) Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in Alexandria, to his third cousin and brother-in-law the physician Yeshuʿa b. Aharon Ibn al-ʿAmmānī, in the hospital in Cairo. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: 12 Elul [4800+]168 = 4968 AM, which is 1208 CE (although Goitein's index card says 1217 or 1228 CE, maybe because he was working from a photostat). First section (r5–34): Yehuda specifies the steps he has taken to ensure the addressee's success in the study of medicine in Fustat/Cairo in order to begin practicing in Alexandria. (The pronouns are somewhat confusing in this letter, and it is not out of the question that 'my brother' refers to someone other than the addressee.) Yehuda previously sent instructions with the boy Muhadhdhab b. Merayot al-Kohen. Yehuda advises the aspiring physician to present letters of recommendation to the wālī, to the qāḍī, to al-Muwaffaq, to Ibn Tammām the supervisor (al-mushārif), and to Ibn Ṣadaqa (Goitein says this is a well-known Samaritan physician). Whoever wishes to study with them must study in Fustat and gain his 'certificate of good conduct' (tazkiya) in Fustat. He should strive for nothing but the tazkiya and spare no expenses, because if he obtains the tazkiya, then he will have obtained everything, and he will quickly recover the money that he lost. Yehuda has also enclosed three additional letters with the bearer of the present letter, one of which is a letter from Ibn Alqāsh to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd the aspiring physician's professor (ustādh). Yehuda has also sent 5 letters with the gentile Manṣūr al-Ḥarīrī who is, a relative of the wife of Ibn al-Tinnīsī. 3 of these are from the faqīh Ibn ʿĪsā: the first is a response to the letter from the aspiring physician, the second is a letter of recommendation to a man called al-Sharaf in the hospital, and the third is a letter to the son of the faqīh Salāma Ibn al-Aʿmā (this one is unrelated to the aspiring physician). The other 2 of the 5 letters are from Yehuda himself, one addressed to the aspiring physician and one to the professor al-Sadīd. Yehuda wants to write a letter to al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq Ibn al-Dimyāṭī but doesn't know his Hebrew name (Goitein understood "fluency"), so he asks the aspiring physician to send a letter with that information. There are further instructions about Ibn al-Tinnīsī and obtaining a ruqʿa in the hand of the judge (al-dayyān) from the Qaraite al-Shaykh al-Thiqa. Second section (r35–48): Yehuda has sent several additional letters with ʿUmar the animal driver (al-mukārī) because he was worried about his brother. Yehuda is in distress from the capitation tax. Ibn Ruzayq told him that the addressee had guaranteed it for Yehuda. Yehuda argued with Ibn Ruzayq about this, and Yehuda secretly went to the Christian tax administrator (ʿāmil) and obtained an 10-day extension. It seems that the question is whether they ought to pay Yehuda's brother's capitation tax in Alexandria; Yehuda thinks the money would be wasted, since he can't believe that it hasn't already been paid in Fustat, a month in a half after the deadline. The Christian told him that he heard from someone that Yehuda's brother had already paid it to the treasury (bayt al-māl) and that the receipt (wuṣūl) should arrive soon. Yehuda is desperate to know soon, because they are already 'under threat' (taḥt al-tahdīd). Third section (r49–end): Yehuda describes a shameful matter in Alexandria, namely, how the government banished the scholar and merchant Yosef al-Baghdādī as a result of false accusations made by associates of the judge Anatoli. Yehuda had previously sent an update on this matter with ʿUmar al-Baghdādī. There was an initial denunciation to the Jewish judge somehow involving a convert and a claim that Yosef threw watermelon rinds and urine at someone (v3–4). Then there was a scene in the synagogue involving the tearing of clothes and Yosef either genuinely fainting or pretending to faint. Anatoli, Seʿadya al-Ḥasid, Hilāl (probably the brother of Meʾir b. Yakhin), and the allies of Anatoli were also there. Yosef was then denounced to the amir Ḥusām al-Dīn as someone who curses the Jewish law and who must be banished from the city. So the amir sent 'the black slave' and his attendant (farrāsh) to search for Yosef, calling out, 'Where is the foreigner who is cursing people and their ancestors?' Yehuda attempted to conceal Yosef from the search party by saying, 'This is a humble scholar and teacher who would never do such a thing.' But their informer Ṭāhir al-Dimashqī told on Yosef, and Yehuda received a reprimand for obstructing the government's justice. There follows a detailed description of the expulsion of Yosef. (Information in part from Frenkel, Goitein's index card, and Goitein, Med Soc II, 250.) ASE

Letter in the hand of Abū Zikrī, physician to the sultan al-Malik al-ʿAzīz (Saladin's son and successor), sent to his father Eliyyahu the Judge. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 1193–98 CE, if all the identifications are correct (this document would then be several years earlier than any other document relating to Abū Zikrī or his father Eliyyahu). This is the second page of what was originally a longer letter. Abū Zikrī describes his overwhelming grief upon hearing the news that his younger brother had died. Members of the court came to express their condolences, including the sultan himself, who said that he considers the deceased as equal to his own younger brother, al-Malik al-Amjad. (Information in part from S. D. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:346-47, 5:175–77.) EMS. ASE.

Letter from Maymūn ha-Kohen b. Adonim b. Yoshiyya, on board the Sultan's ship which was to leave Alexandria for Spain, to Seʿadya b. Elʿazar. In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Dated: middle third of Adar 4876 AM, which is May 1116 CE. In the margin, he promises to find a spouse for a friend (al-Rayyis) in Spain and advises that he should not look for one in al-Mahdiyya. Regards to Abū Manṣūr the physician. He has enclosed two further leters, one for Abū l-Riḍā and the other for 'the noble Rav.' (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Letter containing the testimony of Makhlūf, a respectable merchant, who had to flee from Alexandria before an oppressive government official, 'the plundering monk,' Abu Najah, and to hide in the western desert for years. He had arrived in Alexandria in the spring following Abu Najah's death, traveled to Ifrīqiya in the summer of the year 1130, and wrote the letter the following summer, that is, 1131. The writer was appointed as an overseer of the Sultan's ships. It is also an extraordinary document of estrangement between father and son. The son loved music, Italian wine and bad company, and, of course, was always in debt. All attempts of the father to correct him: presenting him to the qadi of Alexandria, taking him on a trip to Ifrīqiya, sending him to the countryside on administrative work, suggesting to him travels to Yemen and to Syria were of no avail. The young man of twenty-two was not a mere good-for-nothing. He was allergic to his father: 'as long as you are alive, I have bad luck. As soon as you are dead, I shall be successful.' (Information from Mediterranean Society, I, 46, 119, 268, 277, 280, 316, 320, 482; II, 588, 359; III, 246, 243, 249.) There is also the beginning of a draft of a letter in Arabic script on verso.

Letter in the hand of Berakhot b. Shemuel. In Judaeo-Arabic (with some Hebrew). After 49 lines of praises, he thankfully acknowledges the receipt of a robe (thawb). However, he is not sure whether it was a loan or a gift. If it is a gift, he cannot accept it, as he made an oath to that effect in a previous letter. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.) On verso there is also a poem of Shelomo ha-Qaṭan (=Shelomo Ibn Gabirol), in the same hand. (Information from CUDL.)

Letter from Ḥushiel b. Elḥanan, in Qayrawān, to Shemarya b. Elḥanan, in Fusṭāṭ. In which Ḥushiel praises both the addressee and his son Elḥanan, and describes how he came from Italy to settle in Qayrawān. Mentions Yehuda Resh [Sidra], Yosef b. Berakhya, Nissim, and Avraham b. Natan. Dating: ca. beginning of the 11th century. (Information from CUDL.) This was among the first Geniza documents to be published; see Schechter, "Geniza Specimens: A Letter of Chushiel," JQR Old Series Vol. 11, No. 4 (1899), 643–50.

Letter from Madmun b. David: Murder of the 'Caliph' and return of Jewish life to normalcy. Aden, 1202.

Mostly a piyyut, but it seems like a poetical letter in Hebrew in praise of a leader, probably a Gaon. It is not complete so the actual nature can מםא be determined. AA

Letter from Josiah Gaʾon (c. 1024 CE) describing the imposition by the Muslim authorities of a special, heavy tax on the Jews of Jerusalem. Mentions Abū Naṣr b. ʿAbdūn (who spoke on his behalf to the governor); Ibn Garmān (possibly a Christian); Joseph the Av; Joseph’s son-in-law Ibn al-ʿAkkī; Abū Naṣr Furqān; and the Karaite elders, the brother of Abū Isḥaq and Abū Faḍl Sahl b. […]. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Jalila b. Avraham b. Khalfa b. al-Rashidi, whose inheritance from her late husband was unjustly taken by the local judge and her late husband's creditors. In the letter, the widow appeals to the Nagid, Mevorakh b. Saadya asking for his help. According to the date and the name of the son of the local judge, Nissim, the local Judge was Shela b. Mevasser. (Information from Frenkel; Goitein mentions that the partners bribed a Muslim qadi to rule in their favor. The widow mentions this and adds that she also made an appeal to the same Muslim qadi. See Goitein, Med. Soc. 3:257-8).

Letter from Ḥalfon and Bundār b. Maḍmūn, in Aden, to Sulaymān b. Abū Zikrī Kohen, in Fustat. Dating: ca. 1150 CE. Maḍmūn's two sons write from Aden to express their sympathy on the death of Abū Zikrī Kohen to his son Sulaymān, Fustat ([A] 27 lines). They discuss unfinished business of the dead merchant ([B] 30 lines) and report briefly about the grave illness of their own father ("Do not ask how he (my father) is suffering from the strain of illnesses and constant pain," v1) and the well-being of the widow of Sulaymān's maternal unde, the shipowner Maḥrūz b. Yaʿaqov, and his children [C]. Information from India Traders (attached).

India Book I, 14: Letter from Yosef Lebdi to Ḥasan b. Bundar, 'the representative of the merchants' in Aden, written in the hand of Hillel b. Eli. There are several indications that the letter was composed in an early stage of the court case between Yosef Lebdi, the India trader, and Yequtiʾel b. Moshe, 'the representative of merchants' in Fustat. An important piece of information in the letter is that on his way back from India, Yosef Lebdi stopped at Mirbat, on the southern coast of Arabia, and from there continued straight to Dahlak, on the western shore of the Red Sea, thereby by-passing Aden (and Ḥasan b. Bundar) completely. Lebdi made arrangements with Bundar that he would forward the money that Lebdi and Yequtiʾel were owed. The fact that Lebdi did not settle his affairs in Aden contributed much to his current conflict with Yequtiʾel. At the time of writing of this letter, the fact that the large shipment of pepper, bought by Lebdi in India, had sunk on the way was unknown to Lebdi and Yequtiʾel in Fustat.

Recto: copy of a letter from Sharira Gaon to Fustat, around 970. The writer asks to renew the community’s support for the Yeshiva. The letter was written soon after Sharira became the Gaon. Verso: an answer for a question about the rules when traveling in a ship during Passover and Shabbat. (Information from Gil, Kingdom. Vol. 2, #24) VMR

Verso: Formularies of Judaeo-Arabic letters, including several letters of condolence (one possibly for the death of a female slave) and a letter of friendship (ikhwāniyya), containing many common expressions of affection found in Geniza letters. and Goitein's index card.)

Letter from a certain Elishaʿ probably to Moshe Maimonides (here titled Av Bet Din). In Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic. Maimonides' letter arrived concerning the Sicilian scholar Avraham b. Yosef. The matter somehow involves the Nagid, a group of people from Damascus, and a promise of a sum of money. The sender reports that none of the promised money has been received. He mentions a power of attorney and begs Maimonides to "exert [himself] to liberate the money of these poor people." The last few lines of the letter are mostly torn away. (Information in part from Goitein's index card and CUDL.)

Letter from Abū l-Bayān either to his father or to a distinguished elder. In Judaeo-Arabic, with the address in Arabic script. The father is titled "rayyis" (in the address). The rayyis Abū l-Bayān is mentioned in ll.6-7 and may be identical with the sender, which would mean that a scribe is writing on his behalf. The letter is very long and mentions numerous family and business matters. Sitt Ihtimām is still in the same state as when the addressee departed: one week sick, the next week healthy. Another woman ('sittnā') had a brief case of colic (qawlanj). Abū l-Riḍā is still "in the same state" (presumably sick). A woman called ṣāḥibat al-dār sent him 30 dirhams for 2 weeks, and some olive oil, then paid for another 2 weeks (this sentence is not clear). Abū l-Mufaḍḍal is doing something (mutaṣarrif fī nafsih) in the same way that he used to do. The people of Damietta and Tinnīs were apparently clamoring for the addressee's presence—the sender tries to dissuade him by asking if it is right for him to exhaust himself on the nights of holidays and sabbaths just to satisfy others and sicken himself. But Abū l-Mʿālī Ibn al-Qasqās came and reported that the addressee's arrival in Tinnīs and Damietta was a great success. There are repeated references to the addressee's factotum and slave (ʿabd, khādim) Abū l-Ḥusayn. When the addressee's letter arrived about obtaining a (tax?) receipt (wuṣūl), Abū l-Ḥusayn went to the son of the Ṣāḥib al-Dīwān, gave him the ruqʿa, and obtained the receipt, "and later, we will give it to the ḍāmin of the quarter." The sender paid 8 2/3 dinars to Abū Naṣr al-Kohen on that day. There follow detailed and lengthy reports on business transactions. People mentioned: Abū l-Riḍā, al-Ḥayawānī, Ismāʿīl, Kātib Ibn al-Saqīl(?), the sister of Abū Manṣūr, Abū l-Mufaḍḍal, Abū l-Munā, the brother of the craftsman (al-ṣāniʿ), Masʿūd, the wife of Saʿd al-Rakkābī(?), Abū Saʿd al-Ṣāʾigh, Ibn Futūḥ, Benaya, Dhakhīrat al-Mulk, and Sharaf al-Dawla. Some of the commodities (there are also many more which are difficult to read): household furnishings, sugar, clothing, honey, raisins, something which was locked up with an iron lock, something that needs to be weighed properly, maybe hemp, sheep (khirāf), and a packsaddle (bardhaʿa). Then he conveys regards from various people ("in both households"), Abū Isḥāq b. Pinḥas, Abū Ṭāhir, and the slave Abū l-Ḥusayn. There follows a report involving Dhakhīrat al-Mulk and Sharaf al-Dawla, at least in part about a Jewish baker from Jerusalem and his son, working in the market of Ḥabs Bunān in Fustat, who were cheating their customers with bad weights (arṭāl), and who were discovered and arrested. It seems that Abū l-Ḥusayn the addressee's slave interceded with Sharaf al-Dawla and used the addressee's influence to have them freed—but now the Jews are worried that this will tarnish their reputation among the gentiles. The sender reports that Abū l-Bayān has not ridden the mules; that he has purchased a new saddle for his donkey; and refers to the arrival of 'al-Shams.' There are three more postscripts in the upper margin, discussing further business matters, mentioning Cairo and Ibn al-Qāḍī, and saying that the khādim Abū l-Ḥasan has gone to Tinnīs with a power of attorney. ASE.

An epistle from Avraham b. Sabbatai, the Ḥaver of Minyat Zifta, to Moshe Nagid b. Mevorakh, congratulating the recipient for his success in dealing with the Jew hater Shippeṣ, with a metaphorical reference to Haman and Mordechai. Regards are sent to the recipient’s sons, Mevoraḵ and Yehuda, and also to his mother, on behalf of the writer’s son. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: poem in honour of a new leader. Verso: pen trials and a draft of a letter in Arabic script. (Information from CUDL.) The letter draft is addressed to "Bū l-Majd" and "my dear brother." Underneath there is the name Meir b. Yakhin and also Meir b. ʿAmram. The Hebrew pen trials are rebukes for sluggards (עצל הלא תבוש ותכלם...).