Geniza Lab

Fragment from a letter in a 12th-century hand, which continues into the right-hand margin and closes with greetings for the high holiday. (Information from CUDL; see also Goitein's index card.)

Barely legible. Recto: fragment from a letter. Verso: possibly a list of contributors. (Information from CUDL)

Recto: commercial letter. Verso: letter from Abraham b. David b. Suḡmār, ca. 1055 CE. (Information from CUDL)

Short letter from Yahya b. Musa al-Majani to his uncle, Ishaq b. Eli al-Majani, probably from Mahdiyya. Around 1038. Regarding money matters. (Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 4, #627) VMR

Letter by a Karaite woman to three different family members. The language is opaque in many places. (1) To her mother, she opens with her sadness at her mother's departure. "Your love did not overcome [your desire to leave]." She then lists all the people who have died (mātū yā ummī māt. . .): the elderly Dāwudiyya (female descendant of David); the wife of al-Kāzarūnī who was the paternal aunt of the wife of Yehuda; the son of Ibrahim the Deaf—no one has been able to bury him for two days, "they say he is ḥashrī," probably meaning "without heirs" rather than "verminous" (see Lecker, "Customs Dues at the Time of Muhammad," al-Qantara, XXII, 2001, p. 33). (Unless the concentration of deaths means it was plague time, and some corpses were regarded as hazardous?) As for the writer's own news, she swears by the Sabbath day that she has had financial trouble with her landlord, who seems to have given her a loan and to have come on Friday to demand a payment. She had to pawn her daughter's ring. "Do not ask what trouble I had with Maʿānī yesterday. Tell him (the landlord?), 'He (Maʿānī?) is not hiding. It is just that he has had ophthalmia (ramad) for 20 days. Be patient. He will soon work and repay you in installments just like he took (the loan) in installments.'" The bottom of the letter may be missing. On verso, she addresses (2) Abū Manṣūr, and exhorts him, "Be diligent in your work, and everything will turn out well for you (yajīk kull shay' mustawī)." She makes some cryptic statements, which may mean, "As for what Umm Yehuda said, pay no mind. I have told you that the Rabbanite should pay the debt of the Samaritan on your behalf. This would be good luck and an end to the setbacks." (It is from this line that Goitein deduced that the writer was a Karaite.) She says she is working as hard as she can for the sake of "the dowry" (? al-mahr) and has already paid ʿUbayd a qadaḥ and a half of flour and some honey and two pieces of firewood and a qadaḥ of vetch (julubbān) and lye (? ghāsūl). She mentions an underfilled (? muṭaffafa) clay vessel (burniyya) and asks the addressees to send it back to her properly filled (lā tuṭaffūhā). Finally, she addresses (3) her brother Abū Thābit. "I have no counsel for you except that they are your guests. Do not be heartsick on your brother's account. Do not spurn (? tufqir) my advice, and you will overcome much misfortune (?). Do good deeds. He who digs the hole (al-zūbīya) falls in it. Do not lay a hand on him. . . You will regret it very much and say, 'That old woman (al-qaḥba) my sister was right.'" ASE.

Recto: letter, with rhymed opening, but no names preserved. The same hand continues on verso, though there are also small additional texts in Hebrew and Arabic script (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Yūsuf b. Mūsā to a certain Abū Sulaymān. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: Probably 11th century. The addressee has a paternal cousin (ibn ʿamm) named Labrāṭ b. Daʾūd (maybe the Ibn Sughmār by the same name). There are several Geniza letters from Yūsuf b. Mūsā al-Tahertī, but the handwriting doesn't match, so the sender of this letter is probably a different person. In the opening greetings, the sender mentions his father Abū Yūsuf, Abū Zikrī, and Abū ʿUmar. He then reports on the price of wheat and the conditions of the country. The next section is about various business matters: mentions Yiṣḥaq Ibn Qayyūma, the cousin Labrāṭ, Almeria, yarn, and Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Regards to Abū Yaʿqūb Ibn Bazzāz, whose son is well and with his maternal uncle. (Information in part from CUDL.) ASE

Hebrew phrases to be addressed to a judge or Nagid. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Letter fragment in Judaeo-Arabic. Refers multiple times to Sayyidnā al-Muftī. Also deals with business matters and asks if a purchase should be made in New Cairo or Fustat. Mentions the customs (maks). Mentions Abū l-Faḍl. (Information in part from Goitein's index card.)

Long letter in Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th or 12th century, perhaps 11th based on the format. The sender compares his being honored by the addressee to a peasant being honored by a noble aristocrat, the head of an estate. Needs further examination.

India Book 4 A letter from Ibn al-Fakhar to Halfon b. Nethanel Halevi, asking for assistance and sending regards to R. Yosef Ibn Migash and relatives. Probably Granada summer 1138-spring 1139. AA

Letter from Ḥalfon b. Netanel, in Alexandria, to his brother Yeḥezqel b. Netanel, probably in Qalyūb. Dating: Prior to 21 February 1140 CE. (Information from Goitein and Friedman, India Book IV; Hebrew description below.)

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic with many biblical quotations. Asks the addressee to 'kiss the head of Rabbenu.'

Letter of appeal for charity. From Jerusalem. Written in monumental calligraphy. (Information from Goitein's index card.)

Fragment of a Maghribī business letter. In Judaeo-Arabic. Dating: 11th-century. The handwriting looks like that of Barhūn b. Mūsā al-Tahertī. Mentions obtaining 'ḥashīsha' from the warehouse. Needs further examination. (Information in part from CUDL)

Letter from Isma’il b. Farah from Alexandria, to Nahray b. Nissim, Fustat. Probably September 25, 1056. The letter contains details about shipments of goods, probably linen. )Information from Gil, Kingdom, Vol. 3, #492) VMR

Fragment of a letter from Nathan ha-Kohen b. Shemuʾel to Mubḥar b. Yefet. (Information from CUDL)

Part of a letter, mentioning debts. It probably addresses a community, since the plural address is used. (Information from CUDL)

Letter from Makhlūf b. Mūsā. Dealing with the India trade. Dating: Mid-12th century. Mentions names such as Zikrī b. Sar Shalom; Maḥrūz; Ben Yiju; Ibn al-Nafūsī; Yiṣḥaq; the Jews who were living in India; the son of Khalaf b. Yiṣḥaq. (Information from Goitein notes linked below.)

Letter from Bū l-Khayr to the teacher Sulaymān b. Yehuda, in Minyat Zifta. In Judaeo-Arabic. He has sent the raḥamim with Mūsā Ibn Sabra and apologizes for the delay, it is just that he rarely can find someone who is traveling to Minyat Zifta. He reports that the old woman who was in the house of Bū Isḥāq died and that she was buried on Wednesday the 15th of Av.